Friday, June 10, 2011

On Energy... and Societal Dislocations

Zerohedge has a very interesting article about the Saudi electric company warning that Saudi Arabia will run out of (accessible) oil by 2030
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/electric-company-saudi-arabia-warns-country-may-run-out-oil-2030

Saudi Arabia is under considerable domestic pressure to up sales (to provide services to its population) and under external pressure from the US to bolster production to keep gas prices beneath $4 a gallon in the U.S.

The Saudis were unable to persuade the bulk of OPEC to up production.

Look for new/more saber rattling by the US against Iran and Venezuela for their reluctance to increase production. I don't know how the US will manage Iraq's reluctance to boost production.

Clearly oil is driving US policy domestically and abroad. Why the expanded wars in the Middle East? This expanded warfare in Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc has nothing to do with democracy building and everything to do with controlling resources.

That also explains why Exxon was given a new lease to drill for deep-water oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico has a dead zone that expands every year (this year the flooding is going to make it much worse). Eventually life in the gulf will dwindle away. Apparently that is a trade off our government is only too happy to make to keep the oil flowing. Oil is an addiction.

Declining supplies of oil also explain the mad fracking frenzy in the US for natural gas that is wrecking water tables everywhere.

Declining supplies of oil also explain Obama's insane support for expanding nuclear power.

We are living in an era of declining resources and severe environmental damage. Energy politics now appear to be behind almost every significant foreign and most domestic policy initiatives.

Sadly the two phenomena above--declining resources and environmental damage--are now closely linked so that the two appear to be increasing in a direct relationship.

How much time do we have before one phenomenon or the other causes severe and unmistakable social disruptions?

It looks as if that time has arrived. Fukushima signals its arrival. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year signals its arrival. The unmistakable fact of severe weather signals its arrival. The contamination of entire water tables in the US east coast regions signals it.

I had hoped to miss it...

Links
on Libya's water
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/03/libyas_water_supply
http://simbarusseau.com/libya-water-emerges-as-a-hidden-weapon/

On Exxon's gulf oil venture
http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/08/news/companies/oil_exxon/?section=money_latest

On Obama and nuclear power
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703363904576200973216100488.html

the links for fracking are too numerous to even try and summarize. Propublica has had some good reports on the subject.

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