Letters to the Editor
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Strip Mine
You can stip-mine the West, North Dakota and north of Edmonton, and even Venezuela, or drill miles down off Brazil in the ocean, and it still will not bring the price down, as it is expensive to do this. Not to mention devastating to land, animal and water use.
Peak oil is already here, according to Richard Heinberg's "The Party's Over." And part of the theory of peak oil is that the 'easy' stuff is gotten. So the back half of the bell curve is not the same as the front half. It is not like draining a glass with a straw, and when you get to 'half' you are at 'peak.' It is more like digging a hole, and the first 6 feet are soft dirt, and the last 6 feet are rock. Literally.
Almost every major oil field in the world is past peak except a few. The Saudi's et al. lie about what is under their sand, as their 'reserves' haven't gone down in years. They will not allow independent observers to look at the figures.
Most of the people yelling about the high price of gas do not understand what is going on ... yet. But they will, and when that happens, look out.