Exhausting resources

When the first oil boom hit the world, it was easy to dig a hole to get to this rich fuel, and we found many wonderful things that the oil could do.

In 1956, geologist M. King Hubbert, who was working for Shell Oil, predicted that oil production in the contiguous U. S. would peak around 1970. His estimate proved surprisingly accurate. There was only a finite amount of oil that could easily be produced. That’s when the price of oil skyrocketed because the demand kept increasing while the supply decreased.

We are into the next phase of the depletion of this finite, natural resource. Hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling is now allowing oil companies to reach and extract oil and gas that used to be out of reach and too expensive to drill. Now the world is temporarily awash in cheap oil as the supply has increased and the demand decreased due to more efficient cars.

Does this mean that there will be cheap oil and gasoline forever? Can we continue to burn fossil fuels as quickly as we can as if there is no tomorrow? No and no. This next phase will also peak and then decline as has happened in the past.

The oil companies look at oil in the ground as a “stranded asset,” meaning that they can’t make money if it stays in the ground. Rather than this definition, it would make more sense if we would define the oil remaining in the ground as our “capital wealth.” We can’t make more oil from scratch; when it’s gone, it’s gone. If we consume and burn it as fast as we can, there will be less available for our future needs. Exhausting a finite resource does not make us any stronger— quite the opposite. EVAN BROWN Little Rock