Oil and Gas - The Next Meltdown?

Peak Moment 130: Drawing parallels with the current financial meltdown, Matthew Simmons expresses his alarm about gasoline stocks being the lowest in several decades and refinery production down following recent hurricanes. He warns that if there were a run on the "energy bank" by everyone topping off their gasoline tanks, the U.S. would be out of fuel in three days, and grocery shelves largely emptied in a week. In an interview plus excerpts from his presentation at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO-USA) conference on September 22, 2008, Matt highlights the risks and vulnerabilities in the finished oil products system, and answers questions from the audience.
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com http://www.aspo-usa.com

DVDs of the entire conference can be ordered through ASPO-USA at http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=662327

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• peak
• oil
• energy
• natural
• gas
• economy
• investment
• matt
• matthew
• simmons

[KrunchyJD]

Why dont peak oil people talk more about bicycles. Sure, there are other uses for oil, but transport is the biggest. In Europe they have embraced the use of bicycles, in some Dutch cities almost as many people ride a bike to work as drive. Riding a bike is not torture, it is quite enjoyable, particularly if the infrastructure is there.

[peakmoment]

@KrunchyJD, bicycles make a lot of sense, as you say, "if the infrastructure is there." That may be true in many US cities and towns, although auto drivers are not as accustomed to watching out for bicyclists. It may be more challenging for peopee to use in suburban sprawl. I think bicycle use has increased during the economic downturn. We've done one show on electric bikes (for rural areas) and plan to do one on cargo bikes.

[bencactusrite]

Growing food locally is not always a good idea. it takes less carbon fuels to raise a lamb in new zealand and kill it there and send it to the US to eat it here. thats because sheep in new zealand are pastured in their natural meadows whereas here we feed them grain. It really just depends on what food you want to grow locally and how many carbon fuels go into it.

[peakmoment]

@bencactusrite, NZ lamb shipped here may be cheaper (use less oil) while oil prices are low if you compare that with industrial agricultural production in the US (corn fed).

What we need to do is what they're doing in NZ: raise the animals locally on pasture. Our local producers raise their animals on soils not good enough for agriculture, but sufficient for animal forage. The transportation is within 10-50 miles, not thousands of miles. The feedstock is local.

[jpd1235]

The electric economy is a fantasy. Its not going to happen. The natural resources to replace the automobile fleet does not exist. The natural resources to create enough batteries for us to keep on 'happy motoring' dose not exist. The natural resources to generate the electricity to charge the batteries dose not exist. Solar, wind? Gimmie a break! They will never contribute more than a drop in the bucket compared to oil energy.

[nickschor1]

Very interesting. But this was in 2008 and he was predicting a crash within 2 weeks. I still am intrigued by the big picture, especially the flimsy nature of our consumption knowledge. Like Y2K, there could be some extreme scenarios here, but planning won't hurt. Thank you.

[nickschor1]

Very interesting. But this was in 2008 and he was predicting a crash within 2 weeks. I still am intrigued by the big picture, especially the flimsy nature of our consumption knowledge. Lie Y2K, there could be some extreme scenarios here, but planning won't hurt. Thank you.

[loganenator]

Rest in Peace Mr. Simmons. You brought awareness to many!

[Knossos22]

I miss Matt :(

[carlesls]

@jpd1235 what about extraterrestrial energy?

[Tribute2the80s]

Thank you for making this available Janaia!

[MrEnergyCzar]

God bless Matt......The U.S. lifestyle can only be sustained with cheap liquid transport fuels not the off-shore, deep, and hard to get at expensive stuff....

[MrTAKESINBJS247]

Human greed won't stop! We are starting 2011, welcome to the start of the resource wars. The poor people who do live a simple sustainable lifestyle will again find themselves brutally overrun by the greedy "gimme" lifestylers. That is now most of the world. I live in the USA. Are we as a nation taking the lead to conserve and stop our wasteful life styles? Hell, our own leaders won't even tell us about peak oil.

[persevere67]

work at home, ride a bike or take the bus. I have not driven a car in 14 years and I do not miss it one bit