Re: Oil and gas running out much faster than expected, says study

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Colorado School of Mines Petroleum Engineering Institute estimates possible
> quantities from sands, shale, and heavy oil from Venezuela exceeding current
> known reserves by a factor of ten-- with the problem being the immense
> technical and cost problems of extracting the oil-- including the vast
> quantities of natural gas used in the extraction process.
>
> dms

If the reserves cost too much to extract, then they are not real reserves.
I think the gist of these reports is not that the world is running out of
oil, but *cheap* oil. Doesn't this amount to the same thing? In any case,
the best-case scenario seems to be 2050 for running on empty. If this is
the case, socialists have a responsibility to call attention to the waste
represented by private automobiles and urban life in general which requires
vast amounts of energy resources for air conditioning, etc. If the
worst-case scenario is true, then we are certainly headed for Mark
Jones-style Armageddon, bless his soul.


Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.