Skip to main content

Drilling for the Truth about Oil

If anyone knows of a particularly good website that specializes in energy, please let me know. So far, the ones that I've read have too much ideological baggage. You know the drill (ahem): Peak Oil, instead of being based on petroleum engineering or economics, gets used as an apocalyptic prophecy of divine retribution visited upon mankind for living in Sin with SUVs and big pickups.

It was astonishing to read that Saudi Arabia's oil reserves might be 40% lower than they have claimed in the past. It took Wikileaks to uncover this? And he is being hounded as a criminal? What the heck was the mainstream corporate media doing the last few decades if they never got around to revealing this (if it's true).

I have seen graphs of oil production from Mexico; it is falling so fast that they might not even be oil exporters in seven years. Since oil revenues used to fund a large part of the Mexican government, just imagine the millions of desperate Mexican refugees at the American border by the end of this decade.

Another problem with energy websites is that they over-sell green energy, which is mostly just Buddhist physics, central planning, crony capitalism, and hippie-dippie sentimentalism. I am more interested in the opinions of people with real engineering backgrounds.

Recently I was reading the entertaining (environmentalist) rants at kunstler.com. I even agree with him sometimes. Once he encouraged the reader to imagine all the wealth, houses, roads, automobile culture, etc., in America that have no future, since the cheap oil era is ending. Have no future -- those words really struck me. Perhaps you have to be a truck driver or a full time RVer to be so affected, since they can think back to all the highways they've covered, all the ranchettes 20 miles from the job, and all the strip malls.

From time to time I do find informative articles on various websites about energy. The link is one of the best, although I have mixed feelings about the blog. (Too emotional and political.)

My goodness, we've been kicking the energy "can" down the road since 1973. We've made no progress. Will the current problems in the Middle East finally force us to get sane and serious?

Comments

Unknown said…
Although affiliated with the US Gov't (http://www.eia.doe.gov/), I've found it to be a good source for all things energy related.
"Although affiliated with the US Government..."

Aaargh! I hope their statistics at this site are more truthful than government statistics about the CPI inflation rate or unemployment or ... ad infinitum.
Anonymous said…
Boonie, here's a link to a recent article on this subject which appeared in the Economist.

http://www.economist.com/node/18285768?story_id=18285768

Tom in Orlando
Tom, I liked graph #1 in that article.
Anonymous said…
My oversimplified view can be summarized by the fact that the Chinese now buy more Buicks than Americans. More filling stations all over the world and more cars filling up can't translate into anything good for us.

Do you feel like a pioneer, with your focus on Independence?


Tom in Orlando
Kelly said…
Like the new look of your blog !

Have you read The Automatic Earth blog?

Kelly
heyduke50 said…
i started out an environmentalist and over time became more of a realist but i am not positive that there is a real energy crisis only one produced by man to enrich the powerful...
1 More Mile! said…
Blame it on the extremists that have hijacked the environmental movement. Much like how al Qeada has hijacked the Muslim faith.

The thing is, al Qeada could learn leagues from the environmentalists on destroying western civilization for the eco-whacks are the master at that out of control train.
Tom, your second comment would take a whole essay to respond to!

Kelly, glad you like the new look. I looked at the blog you recommended. It resembles Zero Hedge somewhat.

1 More Mile, that's an interesting analogy between the Greens and Al-Qaeda. The Greens have "only" hurt the manufacturing and resource sectors. If you work in the public sector, services, or finance, they haven't hurt you.
Anonymous said…
Check out online version of magazine "Energy News Magazine" at www.energydigital.com/.

Has energy news, exploration & production, global operations, manufacturing, renewables & green business, company reports, etc.

G & R in JAX, FL
G & R, I checked them out. Don't know what to think yet. Thanks.