glen stark wrote:
On Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:18:45 -0600, Kurt Lochner wrote:

Jesus guys, can we elevate the discussion a little bit? If you guys would
swagger a little less, and put a little more effort into your research,
I'd find the discussion interesting (although off topic, what does this
have to do with home repair?).

Oil companies are thoroughly selfish entities, with a long standing record
of disregard for the law, not to mention human rights, the environment
(and the children who inherent the ****ed up planet their constructing),
etc. I completely agree.


Oil companies are no more (or less) selfish as an organization than
any other corporate or private entity that must compete to exist. The
environmental record of the oil companies is also a factor of the
competition and the very nature of the product. Worldwide though, the
worst environmental record for the oil producers can more often be
traced to the government operated oil producers that to the commercial
producers.

On the other hand, if you make a claim, you should be able to back it up.
If you can't, you have to qualify your claims by saying that your sources
are unreliable (your personal human memory and judgement, like mine, are
unreliable). If you admit what parts of your argument are verifiable
fact, and what parts are conjecture, analysis, and conclusion, you improve
your own credibility, while at the same time you force yourself to look at
how sound your opinions and conclusions really are.

Is todays oil shortage manufactured? Well, it could be. I certainly
wouldn't put it past the oil companies. On the other hand I have yet to
see any convincing evidence to support the claim.


There is still a tremendous amount of oil in the world, probably more
than enough to last a couple of hundred years IF all of it could be
recovered. The problem is not how much oil is left in the world, the
problem is recovering and using that oil. The cheap, easily
recoverable oil has been found and is being exploited already. Whats
left, and there is a lot of it, is not economically recoverable or
will require technology not yet developed to recover it. The cost of
recovery will not be cheap. There are dozens of finds in the Gulf of
Mexico alone that have been drilled, tested and capped because the
proven reserves available were not enough to justify the millions or
billions of dollars that would be required to produce from the find.
As the price of crude oil climbs those fields may yet find
justification for pruduction but only if the oil companies can expect
the price to remain stable.