Peak oil is here

Burn that $2.57 gas while you can. The Houston Chronicle writes that the U.S. Department of Energy just released a report by Robert Hirsch predicting that peak oil production is most likely only 5 years out—and that the fall will definitely come before 2020. Hirsch recommends that the world start investing $1 trillion per year ...

Burn that $2.57 gas while you can. The Houston Chronicle writes that the U.S. Department of Energy just released a report by Robert Hirsch predicting that peak oil production is most likely only 5 years out—and that the fall will definitely come before 2020. Hirsch recommends that the world start investing $1 trillion per year in oil alternatives, like tar sands, oil shale, and gas liquefaction.

Burn that $2.57 gas while you can. The Houston Chronicle writes that the U.S. Department of Energy just released a report by Robert Hirsch predicting that peak oil production is most likely only 5 years out—and that the fall will definitely come before 2020. Hirsch recommends that the world start investing $1 trillion per year in oil alternatives, like tar sands, oil shale, and gas liquefaction.

Hirsch, a consultant and former government official overseeing research into solar and other renewable energy forms, said the conversion from oil could be compared to the race for the moon or the mobilization for World War II. Consumers, he said, could not rely on oil companies to get the huge job done.

If those historical analogies aren't scary enough, the Vancouver Sun reports that peak oil could bring an "economic and social meltdown on a scale last experienced in the Great Depression—or perhaps when the Black Death swept across Europe in 1347."

Hat tip: Energy Bulletin

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