George W. Bush says America "addicted to oil"

In his 2006 State of the Union address, George W. Bush stated "Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world." My first thought was "that's quite an admission, where is he going with this?"

Here's what he said: "The best way to break this addiction is through technology. ...To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants; revolutionary solar and wind technologies; and clean, safe nuclear energy."

I'm confused - does Bush view this addiction as a problem or an opportunity? To put it another way, is he a healer or a dealer? Every addiction treatment program I've heard of works on weaning the addict from the substance, not substituting one drug for another. It's like a drug dealer telling his customers "we're having trouble getting cocaine, so we're opening some labs to make crystal meth for you."

If President Bush is truly serious about reducing the addition to oil, he should be supporting programs to reduce oil use.

Randy Park

Vanishing Kuwaiti reserves - significant?

You may have heard that industry newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) recently reported seeing Kuwaiti documents stating that Kuwait reserves are 48 billion barrels of oil, not 99 billion as had previously been reported.

First, for what it is worth, Kuwait officials are now denying this report, so who knows?

Second, more importantly, if you divide the "vanished reserves" of 51 billion barrels by current world consumption of 84 million barrels per day you get 20 months. So if the report is true, the world has lost 20 months of supply. Now I don't know about you, but 20 months in my life seems to go like a shot. And 20 months in the context of developing solutions to the Energy Predicament is a blink of an eye. I come from R&D and I know how long it takes to develop new solutions. We need to look decades into the future, not get stuck arguing about a year here and there.

Randy Park

CIBC World Markets declares Peak Oil

In their January 9, 2006 Monthly Indicator report, CIBC economists have declared that we have reached Peak Oil.

"Net of depletion, conventional oil supply will continue to decline this year, just as it did last year. 2004, in hindsight, will prove to be a Hubbert curve peak, at least insofar as low-cost conventional crude is concerned. In any event, all of the increase in net global crude supply this year, as well as for the rest of the decade, will come from nonconventional sources like deep-water and oil sands."

I am afraid this is both good news and bad news. The good news is that having an announcement like this - especially from respected economists - adds to the urgency of the case for dealing with the Energy Predicament.

The bad news is that I had hoped we were not this far down the curve.

Randy Park