Denial is like a glacier. At first sight, and to everyone standing on it, it looks rock solid. Then cracks start to develop, and before you know it, a huge chunk breaks off and drifts away — never to be seen again. This is what’s happening to peak oil right in front of our eyes: the denial that it cannot possibly come about has started to develop cracks of its own. Yes, peak oil — supposedly “debunked” by the shale revolution — is slowly getting normalized. OK, not in the mainstream media — still chuck full of lunacy and World War III propaganda — but at least in some of the news sites aimed at energy professionals. Some industry journalists have started to slowly realize that it is a very real thing — not a mere theory — and that it won’t be fun to say the least… But let’s just not get ahead ourselves yet.
Inmy start of the year essay I predicted how peak oil will be announced in 2023 — only to be buried under a pile of BS. Well, here you go, and it’s only March. Paraphrasing Captain Benjamin L. Willard from the movie Apocalypse Now we could say:
“Oh man… the bullshit piled up so fast [in the energy business], you needed wings to stay above it.”
Before we start flapping our wings, first let’s hear the admission that peak oil is not a crackpot theory. As Mr Kern, the Educated Realist from Oilprice.com — “the no.1 source for oil and energy news” — explained with his own words (my emphasis added in bold):
Peak oil is the point in time when worldwide petroleum production reaches its maximum point and begins to decline. It occurs when reserves of easily accessible oil are depleted, and it becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to extract remaining reserves.
…click on the above link to read the rest…