Fossil Fuel Depletion

The peak oil debate is just part of a greater concern about fossil fuel depletion. Fossil fuel depletion is the scary theory that we are burning through most of our fuels pretty quickly.

Fossil Fuel

Fossil fuels are the devil’s work, right? All we hear is how terrible they are. They pollute the world. They are dirty. They cause climate change. They assassinated JFK. Okay, that last one is nonsense but you get the idea. You would swear that fossil fuels are the worst thing that ever happened to us based on everything you hear and read.

Nothing could be more wrong.

The truth of the matter is fossil fuels provide us with our modern way of life. Without oil, coal and natural gas, you and I would not be driving around in our modern vehicles. We wouldn’t be on our computers now. In truth, the statistical breakdown suggests that neither you nor I would even exist as there are over six billion people on a planet that can realistically support perhaps 1.5 billion if food was grown and transported without fossil fuels. Fossil fuels should be celebrated, not knocked. The only problem is we are now facing a fossil fuel depletion scenario that could rock our way of life and not in a good way.

Peak Oil

This site is devoted to the issue of peak oil. What is clear is we have a huge amount of oil left in the world. The problem is one of finding and producing it. The days of easy oil are over. We must now go into the deep sea or bust up shale formations to find new oil sources. This creates a production problem. While there is plenty of oil left, we can’t figure out a way to produce enough a day to meet our demands. For instance, it is estimated we will lose 40 million barrels of production a day in the next decade as the big oil fields around the world begin to dry up. Alternative oil sources, such as the Canadian tar sands, can only produce a small fraction of this. For instance, Canada can only produce about three million barrels a day, a fraction of what we need. It is a huge problem and one that we are already feeling with high oil prices.

Peak Coal

The world has tons of coal, right? Yes, absolutely. There is no debating this. The problem is a lot of the coal that is easy to get at has been mined. If you want to make a bundle on a stock, start buying coal producers. The new finds are going to be hard to mine and that means higher prices. We aren’t running out of coal, but the cost of your electricity and heating your home is about to go through the roof in the next decade.

Peak Natural Gas?

When it comes to fossil fuel depletion, there is one area of good news – natural gas. The truth of the matter is the world is drowning in it. There is a ton of natural gas spread throughout the world and most of it can be harvested at reasonable costs. The problem is our economy is not set up to use it, but that should soon change.

Fossil Fuel Depletion Solution

The solution to our fossil fuel depletion problem is obvious. We need to start the painfully expensive transition to natural gas as our primary energy source. We can convert vehicles to natural gas and power our electrical grid with it as well. All it takes is a major investment. Sadly, the government is not particularly forward looking and, as you may have heard, it is broke as well. This would appear to mean we will be looking at a very rocky transition as prices eventually drive up our energy costs for coal and oil to the point where there simply is no choice but to act.

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