Welcome to Peak Oil

In the last year I have recieved a number of e-mails concering gas prices, these range form petitions to the president to lower the gas price to boycotting "American Oil Companies" that import Middle East oil.

In my opinion some of these ideas are just plain silly at best and delusional at worst. So I would like to share my thoughts as to why I feel this way and some of the information I have gathered that has made me come to this point of view.

• Petition the president to bring down the price of gas.
  You have got to be kidding, GW is not nor will ever be inclined to cap potentional profits of any of his oil contributors. If you want the price of gas to come down, STOP BUYING THE STUFF!!
  Especially if you want to keep the trucks running that bring the food to your local grocery store. FYI, Even the health food stores and farmers markets have to use trucks to get their goods, maybe smaller ones, but they still run on some kind of fuel.
  
  
• Boycott US Oil Companies that import Middle East Oil.
  The US companies import oil because the Americian public demands it. If we didn't import oil from the Middle East we would have less than half of the oil we use daily. That works out to be about $12 per gallon gas.

• Petition the government to release oil from the Stratigic Reserve so that gas prices will be lower at the pump.
  Well I guess that would work, if you don't mind paying higher prices in the form of taxes to replace it, so our first responders have fuel when we have a real gas crisis.
  
  

• Why GW's release of reserves in response to Katrina was doublly dumb!!--
  
• 1.) The reason prices went up so high right after the hurricane was that our REFINING CAPASITY was impacted. On a good day our refineries are runing at maximun capasity, when the storm hit that capasity was REDUCED hence the PRICE went UP. What GW released to help bring prices down was CRUDE!!! It still needed to be REFINED!!!
  
  2.) The largest stratigic reserve tank farm in the US is near New Orleans! So, where was all this crude we were suppose to get come from exactly??? That is a question I keep asking and looking for an answer. The reason this is important is: if the oil that was to be released was to come from the LA depot, then in effect, NO OIL COULD HAVE BEEN RELEASED because the pipeline from the tank farm to the refineries was damaged!!

• Welcome to PEAK OIL, and this is just the beginning. If you don't know about PEAK OIL I have included a few links. There are tons more on the internet, these are just some of my favorites. You should just get use to the high prices and start weaning yourself off the stuff now, before you are forced to.

Websites:
Life After the Oil Crash
Peak Oil ORG
Peak Oil NET
Peak Oil COM
Hubbert Peak
Surviving Peak Oil
From the Wilderness; Comprehensive overview of Politics>Oil>The American Empire.

Web Articles:

The Olduvai Theory
The Long Emergency (From Rolling Stone)
The Long Emergency (From Common Dreams ORG)
International Oil Production by Nation

Books:

The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight : Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation, By Thom Hartman (low key, not too frightening)

The Party's Over : Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, by Richard Heinberg

The End of Oil : On the Edge of a Perilous New World, by Paul Roberts

Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, by Mike Rupert (this is a hard read, will keep you awake at night)

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century, by James Howard Kunstler (makes you question everything you think you know about "The American Dream".)