Krugman: The Oil Crunch

[Sliverofhope]

Before the start of the Iraq war his media empire did so much to promote, Rupert Murdoch explained the payoff: "The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil." Crude oil prices in New York rose to almost $40 a barrel yesterday, a 13-year high.

Those who expected big economic benefits from the war were, of course, utterly wrong about how things would go in Iraq. But the disastrous occupation is only part of the reason that oil is getting more expensive; the other, which will last even if we somehow find a way out of the quagmire, is the intensifying competition for a limited world oil supply.

<snip>

Even if things had gone well, however, Iraq couldn't have given us cheap oil for more than a couple of years at most, because the United States and other advanced countries are now competing for oil with the surging economies of Asia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/opinion/07KRUG.html

[JanMichael]

1. The last sentance is a gem.

"So what should we be doing? Here's a hint: We can neither drill nor conquer our way out of the problem. Whatever we do, oil prices are going up. What we have to do is adapt."

BTW: This is a GD thread in my somewhat inebriated opinion. It's brass tacks.

[pleiku52cab]

2. common sense - but I BETCHA

the price of premium in October is no more than $1.75 -- the assholes strike again

[FighttheFuture]

3. It's worse than you think... go to http://www.dieoff.org/

http://www.dieoff.org/

Petroleum geologists have known for 50 years that global oil production would "peak" and begin its inevitable decline within a decade of the year 2000. Moreover, no renewable energy systems have the potential to generate more than a fraction of the power now being generated by fossil fuels.

In short, the transition to declining energy availability signals a transition in civilization as we know it.