To learn more about Peak Oil, I strongly recommend reading the work of Robert Hirsch. Here is a brief biography. These articles are clear, insightful, and well-supported.
- “The Energy Plateau“, Public Utilities Reports (1 May 1996)
- Electric Power from Renewable Energy: Practical Realities for Policy-Makers (a slide presentation based on his December 2002 article in the Journal of Fusion Energy (the article an be purchased online here)
- Six Major Factors in Energy Planning (March 1, 2004)
- Peaking of World Production: What are We Willing to Risk (June 14, 2004)
- Peaking of World Production: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management (aka “Mitigations“, commissioned by the Dept of Energy, this is the most important work so far on how to prepare for Peak Oil. Co-authors are the economists Roger Bezdek and Robert Wendling) (February 2005)
- Economic Impacts of Liquid Fuel Mitigation Options (same 3 co-authors as Mitigations) (February 2006)
- Peaking of World Production: an Overview (October 23, 2006)
- Peaking of World Production: Problem, Complexity, Mitigation, and Risks (November 30, 2006)
- World Oil Shortage: Scenarios for Mitigation Planning (October 2007)
There are many good books about Peak Energy. These are the ones I recommend for an introduction to the issue.
- Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage, by Kenneth S. Deffeyes (2001)
- Beyond Oil: the View from Hubbert’s Peak, by Kenneth S. Deffeyes (2005)
- Twilight in the Desert: The coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy, by Matthew R. Simmons (2005)
What sites, articles, and books have you found interesting and useful about Peak Oil?
Please share your comments by posting below (brief and relevant, please), or email me at fabmaximus at hotmail dot com (note the spam-protected spelling).
For more information about Peak Oil
- When will global oil production peak? Here is the answer! (1 November 2008)
- Links to articles and presentations of some A-team energy experts (11 November 2007)
- The most dangerous form of Peak Oil (8 April 2008)
- The world changed last week, with no headlines to mark the news (25 April 2008)
- Peak Oil Doomsters debunked, end of civilization called off (8 May 2008)
Here is the full archive of articles about Peak Oil.
I’m a fan of The Oil Drum – http://theoildrum.com/.
Me too. It’s on the blogroll, right hand column.
Also an interesting brief on the links between peak oil and agriculture:
http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/89d058cc4dbeb16d80256a73005a2866/cccdcd1cb99f29c8802571960051175e!OpenDocument
Global agriculture is another interesting subject. Water shortages could have interesting effects over the next decade or two. And rising energy costs will add another layer of costs. Not yet much good analysis on either of these issues, but they’ve been identified and I suspect we’ll see much discussion in the next year or two. Will read this link with interest!
Also Matt Simmons (I’m currently doing a project on peak oil – talk about great timing!):
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/research.aspx?Type=msspeeches
Simmons was a star until he published his book. It was perhaps the intellecutal peak of the peak oil community. Too bad he did not bring in some professional geologists and engineers as consultants, to cosign the book. It might have had more impact. Since then he has pretty much repeated the same old stuff. Few signs of much research, intermixed with some dubious theories (oil production limited by aging of US petro-experts, which I will discuss soon) and major howlers (average age of US refinery equipment is 85 years).
The quality of analytical work of the Peak Oil community has imho deteriorated, as its ranks have filled with assorted doomsters. Note the ODAC newsletter (formerly a grade-A resource), which should be renamed the assorted list of today’s unrelated bad news stories. With good reason US decision-makers ignore their work. This is unfortunate but deserved. Part of the problem, or part of the solution?
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB119543677899797558.html
Oil Officials See Limit Looming on Production
By RUSSELL GOLD and ANN DAVIS
November 19, 2007; Page A1
Wall Street Journal
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