photo credit: johnmarkos
Back in 2004 the government’s worst case scenarios had oil reaching $26 per barrel by 2025. This afternoon oil reached $125.98, the fifth day this week we had a record high price for oil. And we are not even halfway through 2008 yet.
Goldman Sachs recently pronounced that oil may soon reach $200 per barrel. I hope they are right. In fact the sooner the better, to my mind!
Why do I say that?
We need to get off our dependence on carbon as an energy source. The CO2 given off by burning oil for energy is poisoning the planet and wiping out animal and plant species at a hitherto unprecedented rate.
We have known this for quite some time now. Scientists were discussing Global Warming and climate change up to 40 years ago. The reason we have done very little to move off oil is that the alternatives were always too expensive. This also meant that raising money for research into renewable power sources was difficult and so alternative energy sources remained high cost.
However, now with oil at $126 per barrel and rising, renewables are starting to look very attractive. Suddenly money is pouring into companies who are trying to research and commercialize Green energy. This is a good thing! This will only continue as long as it is perceived to be profitable. In other words, as long as oil is expensive.
The worst thing that could happen right now for the future of the planet is if oil prices dropped. Roll on $200 per barrel, I say.
Good points. The two keys to oil’s dominance as the prime energy source of the 20th Century were:
1. Its marvelous physical qualitities as a fuel; AND
2. Its cheapness.
Petroleum will always enjoy advantage #1 — it really is a wonder-substance for generating a lot of energy from a limited quantity of fuel. And when that was combined with #2, oil drove a lot of incredible transformations — some good, some bad.
But as advantage #2 goes away, oil’s suitability becomes strained in many settings. It will be more than merely interesting to see how the oil industry and other industries touched by it react to this new cost landscape.
Well said, it’s ridiculous that Big Media can spout green ethics whilst whining on about the cost of oil. My father is nearer 80 than 70 and his social circle are a fairly conservative bunch. However, even they are looking at dumping their luxury gas guzzlers for hybrids. Why? To save the planet? Nope. To save money at the pumps and on the congestion charge. Financial realities bite.
Recall this was written 9/07: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2007/170907_middle_class.h tm
$200 Dollar a Barrel Oil Is Bilderberg Plan To Destroy Middle Class Elitists use peak oil scam, market turmoil, threat of Iran war to hike profits, torpedo middle class Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Monday, September 17, 2007
The global elite are conspiring to send oil prices crashing through the $200 dollar a barrel mark as part of an organized agenda to hike profits, bring about a global economic crash and torpedo the middle class, and they’re not afraid to attack Iran as a means of achieving their goal.
Crude oil prices returned to near record high prices today after having surged past the $80 a barrel benchmark on Thursday.
Now there is serious debate about oil crashing not just the $100 dollar, but the $200 dollar a barrel level in the next two years.
The 24/7 Wall Street blog, which is affiliated with both Dow Jones’ MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal, carried an article over the weekend that entertained the possibility of oil tipping the $200 mark, citing experts in the industry who expect the $95 a barrel level to be surpassed by the end of the year if the recent stock market turmoil continues.
The ultra-secretive Bilderberg Group, a consortium of power brokers from banking, business, politics, academia and oil, met in Munich Germany in May 2005 when crude oil prices were around the $40 a barrel mark.
During the conference, Henry Kissinger told his fellow attendees that the elite had resolved to ensure that oil prices would double over the course of the next 12-24 months, which is exactly what has happened.
During their 2006 meeting in Ottawa Canada, Bilderberg agreed to push for $105 a barrel before the end of 2008. This information was gleaned from sources inside Bilderberg who have proven reliable in the past.
So I take it you grow your own food? Or you can easily afford higher prices and so long as you can the rest of the world can get stuffed? Then you don’t have to worry about the costs of $200/barrel oil on the costs of farmers for fertilizers, or trucks to ship food to grocery stores, etc. I don’t understand why so-called environmentalists care about ‘future generations’ but seem to not give even the slightest crap about other people who are actually alive right now.
Either that, or you’re just that stupid?
@chris – I am not an ‘Environmentalist’, whatever that means. I am an industry analyst. I do not grow my own food. And as the father of two young boys (2 and 5) I give a major crap about people who are alive right now.
I live in Europe where we are currently paying currently around $7.75 per gallon (€1.30 per litre) for petrol (what you call gas) and while this is painful, it is still not enough.
We need to penalise more polluting forms energy creation and incentivise clean forms. The US has been doing the exact opposite for decades with their continuing tax breaks for oil companies. The legacy of this for the planet will be felt for a long time to come.
Higher oil prices are finally focussing people’s attention on energy efficiency (and by happy coincidence, cleaner forms of energy creation). The higher the price, the better!
Ok well I do understand your logic with regards to more efficiency in the energy market, it makes sense to have more eco friendly fuels which will help the effects of our planet, but, in order to do that we need massive amounts of research done and plans put into place in order to get the eco friendly fuels ‘Project’ on the go, which I do believe is quite expensive (research and development). Now I’m from South Africa, a 21 year old white male who is constantly hearing about what could/would happen if the price of oil hits $200 a barrel, but if people are predicting that this will cause the start of more eco friendly fuels/energy, why are we waiting for this crisis to happen??
For instance, the barrel gets to $200, less fuel is around and price’s are to high for consumers to travel to work & back, ppl loose their jobs and companies close as they are short staffed (and with our cost of living, it will happen), consumables become less and less, countries go into havoc with deaths and poverty, causing the middle class to become extinct…what would happen in between crude oil not being used and more fuel efficient fuels being used???
Research, development, money money money….the evils of money!!!!!! What’s going to happen if it will take 10 years to research properly, take another 20 years to develop and then only be distributed??? Shall I find a job (somehow) that I can work so I can get to work and back each day? Eat a home grown carrot with my 50ml of water (if I’m lucky)? Work to GET TO WORK????
Shit has hit the fan!!! When ppl start dying because of this, then it would lead back to the US….but do you think they give a shit??? As long as their tummies are over packed with pork, and they can spend thousands on holidays and crap, then they couldn’t give a damn!!! Monopoly of the world = US!!!!
Warren,
ignore the purveyors of doom.
Oil was at $30 a barrel in 2005. It is now hovering around $140. That is an increase of 400%. We have survived that. I think a further 70% increase from $140 to $200 won’t destroy civilisation as we know it.
We will simply be more careful in our use of oil and more resourceful in our search for alternatives. Things we should have been doing a long time ago.
You need to keep in mind inflation. A lot of the increase in oil price is simply the inflation of the US dollar, making it worth less, and thus, increasing the amount of dollars needed to pay for oil. So,…when the US governemten issues billions of dollars to save cooperations and banks and so on, it drives up oil prices by inflation the dollar…