HSBC Bank: Oil will be gone in 50 years

Perhaps the most sobering outcome of a non-OPEC plateau might be reminding everyone that even planet-scale resources have their limits. And that when you are consuming them at close to 1000 gallons a second, the limits can catch you unaware. The next 5 years, assuming oil prices remain on the high side, should show who the realists are.

That’s from the 3/25 issue of Science magazine, which has long been warning of peak oil (see “Science/IEA: World oil crunch looming? Not if we can find six Saudi Arabias!“).  None of this is a surprise to CP readers (see “Peak oil production coming sooner than expected“).

More and more serious analysts are warning that conventional oil is at or near peak production levels (see “WikiLeaks bombshell: Saudi reserves overstated by 40%, global production plateau immiment” and “German military study warns of peak oil crisis” and World’s top energy economist warns: “We have to leave oil before oil leaves us”).

Now the British bank HSBC, the world’s second largest in assets, joins those who warn we’ve run out of time, as CNBC reported (with video):

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So Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) proposed changing the title of the GOP’s anti-EPA bill to the “Koch Brothers Appreciation Act,” as TP reported.  Then Sen. James Inhofe (R-OIL) responded by telling House Dems this afternoon to “Get a life” — a standard refrain for the pro-pollution Oklahoman.

Since the health impacts of unrestricted carbon pollution have been widely documented, Ed Markey (D-MA) took the opportunity to tweak and tweet Inhofe back,

Get a life? More like “save a life.” http://politi.co/gA5wet That’s why defeating the Upton-Inhofe #DirtyAirAct is job one.

Snap!

Here’s more from TP on the “Koch Brothers Appreciation Act”:

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While members of Congress vie to kill action on global warming pollution, our superheated climate is wreaking daily havoc on the lives and livelihoods of Americans. A “squall line stretching 900 miles from Louisiana to Ohio” chewed up the country on Monday to deadly effect, killing six and knocking out power to over 500,000 households with about one million people:

“At least six people have been killed in the South as fast-moving spring storms packing high winds, hail and lightning blew through the region, uprooting trees and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands.” [AP]

“An auto plant in Christian, KY, took a direct hit from a tornado that shattered the aluminum structure and injured seven workers,” [WBIR]

The storms knocked out electricity to about 50,000 customers in Memphis, over 58,000 customers in Nashville, over 170,000 customers in Georgia, and 260,000 customers in the Carolinas. [AP; WXIA; WSOC]

Our polluted climate system isn’t just bringing freakishly dangerous storms that overwhelm our aging infrastructure. The Wall Street Journal reports that “U.S. corn futures settled at a new high as concerns that federal forecasters would slash the outlook for supplies provided fresh fuel to a 10-month rally in prices.” Since last summer, “corn futures have more than doubled,” fueled by an unfriendly climate.

While oil CEOs enjoy record pay packages, the Washington DC metro area baked under record high temperatures, reaching 86 degrees at BWI, 85 F at National, and 84 F at Dulles around 5 PM. Petersburg, VA reached a sizzling 90 F. Corpus Christi, TX, hit 96 degrees, 7 degrees higher than the previous April 4th record.

The GOP is launching yet another massive assault on future generations today, proposing deep cuts in the clean energy solutions that are central to averting catastrophic climate change.  Many of the ideas in the GOP’s ‘austerity budget for the poor and middle class’ are typically considered political suicide — like gutting Medicare.  And they may yet prove to be suicidal if President Obama and progressives take them all on boldly.

I know — that’s a big IF.  I’ll discuss the cuts later, but what is fascinating is that this deficit debate is now front and center at all in the midst of economic tough times.

This post was spurred by a recent post from the iconoclastic conservative (?) blogger Andrew Sullivan (who supported both Kerry and Obama).  A few weeks ago, at the right-hand side of his page under his heading, “Sully’s recent keepers,” appeared a post  that is definitely not worth keeping:

• Obama To The Next Generation: Screw You, Suckers

To all those under 30 who worked so hard to get this man elected, know this: he just screwed you over. He thinks you’re fools. Either the US will go into default because of Obama’s cowardice, or you will be paying far far more for far far less because this president has no courage when it counts. He let you down. On the critical issue of America’s fiscal crisis, he represents no hope and no change. Just the same old Washington politics he once promised to end.

Zzzzzz.

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China Buries Obama’s ‘Sputnik’ Goal for Clean-Energy Use

China is beating the U.S. in the race to supply clean-energy technologies to the world, helped by a government bank whose advisers include Henry Kissinger.

China Development Bank Corp., which listed the former U.S. secretary of state as an advisory board member in a 2010 bond prospectus, agreed last year to lend 232 billion yuan ($35.4 billion) to Chinese wind and solar power companies. The U.S. gave about $4 billion to their American competitors in grants and offered about $16 billion of loan guarantees. Adding in private investment, China also led.

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House Republicans continue to push for legislation that strips EPA of its ability to protect public health from carbon dioxide pollution.  While this would lead to more smog-related illnesses and other ailments, it would also save big oil companies billions of dollars in cleanup costs. Fortunately, more and more legislators and others are speaking up in opposition.  CAP’s Lee Hamill has the story.

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Bjorn Lomborg’s effort at mass miscommunication, Cool It, will indeed go down as one of the great box office bombs.

According to Box Office Mojo, after grossing a whopping $58,179 in its debut month of December, it grossed $4, 534 from 12/1 to 12/24 before it was pulled from theaters.  That would be $189 per day, or roughly $24 per theater.

Ouch!  You don’t have to be a statistician like the Danish delayer himself to figure out that nobody watched and somebody has lost a bundle of money.  We’re talking Heaven’s Gate, The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Gigli territory.  Still, it managed to be the 401st highest grossing documentary of all time, edging out such classics as “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” (409) and “Orgasm Inc” (460).

Now it’s out in DVD and I can’t imagine why anyone would want to rent or own it.

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By Tom Kenworthy, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Another week, another hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee to perpetuate the myth that the only thing standing between us and energy security are the policies erected by the Obama administration that are supposedly thwarting domestic drilling on public lands. According to a recent statement by committee chairman Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), the “greatest factors” for new drilling are federal regulations and laws:

Federal regulations and laws, especially those imposed by the Obama Administration, are the greatest factors affecting the pace of developing leases. The Administration has imposed regulation after regulation, roadblock after roadblock, and now wants to turn around and say production is not moving fast enough.

In reality, reasonable federal oversight is no match for the fundamental laws of supply and demand. It is the laws of the market that largely determine the pace of exploration and drilling on federal lands, just as they do on private lands. In response to the recession (caused in large part by deregulation of Wall Street) and large new supplies of natural gas from shale gas formations from Texas to New York (a glut encouraged by underenforcement of environmental rules), natural gas prices fell sharply in 2008 and have yet to recover. The collapse in prices drove down new drilling.

“The industry ramps up activity when prices rise and reduces activity when prices fall,” natural gas giant Devon Energy wrote bluntly in its 2008 annual report. “Devon’s sharp reduction in exploration and production capital spending in 2009 reflects our response to the current low-price environment and concern about the global economy.”

Even Kathleen Sgamma, a leader of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States (now the Western Energy Alliance) who agrees with Hastings about Obama administration policies, admitted the truth last year:

Drilling is down because of the economy. I don’t think anyone denies that.

Maybe the committee’s leaders need a graphical representation of the facts. The graph below shows the correlation between the wellhead price for natural gas (80 percent of the fossil energy developed on public lands is gas) and the number of producing oil and gas acres on public lands, with the number of oil and gas wells spud, or begun, on public lands:

Sources: Energy Information Administration; Bureau of Land Management. Click to enlarge.

When the price of natural gas goes down, the industry produces and drills less. In other words, it’s the market. So simple, even the Grand Oil Party should be able to understand it.

Though they don’t want you to know about it, the billionaire Koch brothers are bankrolling a massive campaign to roll back progressive achievements, and today, labor, civil rights, and climate activists turned out at dozens of rallies across the country to demonstrate against the Koch’s secretive influence in American politics and to stand up for labor and civil rights.  Think Progress has the story in this repost.

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The Tea Party tries to portray itself as a legitimate grassroots movement.  But in fact it is backed by Big Oil and the corporate polluters (like the Kochs).

If it is real movement, then it’s one that is easily duped and manipulated by their corporate sponsors.  That’s clear from this Think Progress repost, “VIDEO: Tea Party Activists Oppose Billions In Taxpayer Subsidies To Big Oil.”

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