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GAO asks Congress to prepare for Peak Oil

By in Energy on .

GAO asks Congress to prepare for Peak Oil

[The Department of Energy (DOE) asked Robert Hirsch to come up with a peak oil risk management and mitigation plan which was published in 2005.  Nothing happened, so in 2007 the Government Accountability Office asked Congress to prepare for Peak oil because of the many risks that could suddenly force a sudden and steep decline of oil in addition to geological depletion. The GAO states that “according to DOE, there is no formal strategy for coordinating and prioritizing federal efforts dealing with peak oil issues, either within DOE or between DOE and other key agencies. While the consequences of a peak would be felt globally, the U.S., as the largest consumer of oil and one of the nations most heavily dependent on oil for transportation, may be particularly vulnerable. Therefore, to better prepare the United States for a peak and decline in oil production, we are recommending that the Secretary of Energy take the lead, in coordination with other relevant federal agencies, to establish a peak oil strategy. ”  

[It is easy to forget with the low oil prices we have today that Peak Oil hasn’t gone away. Low prices are actually alarming, it means that drilling and future exploration are stopping, setting us up for an even more dramatic oil shock in the future. Peak oil forces a shrinkage in economies, yet our system is predicated on endless growth of credit and debt paid back in an ever growing economy.  Shrinkage is highly deflationary. Credit disappears, oil companies can’t borrow to drill, and customers are so poor that oil at any price is too expensive, and demand drops.  The underlying biophysical reality is that the energy returned on invested is too low to run civilization. 

Alice Friedemann at www.energyskeptic.com]

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