The Livable Blog

Graph: Petrobas Projection Showing the predicted gap between supply and demand - the end of the age of cheap oil.

Photo: This is what expensive oil looks like.

Charlie Smith at the Georgia Straight has scooped up this little tar ball off the beach; BC's Minister of Energy Blair Lekstrom is aware that oil production may have peaked or plateaued.

"There are people that think we have plateaued or peaked, and there are others that don't," he said, according to Hansard. "So it's an ongoing debate."

And Lekstrom is willing to share his power point presentation on the situation. Great, progress of a sort.

During the same debate, NDP energy critic John Horgan asked Lekstrom if the Oil and Gas Commission had done any work in connection with peak oil.

Peak oil is the point when global oil production will start going down because of diminishing global supplies.

Lekstrom replied that staff are following the peak oil debate.

"There are people that think we have plateaued or peaked, and there are others that don't," he said, according to Hansard. "So it's an ongoing debate, and our staff do follow that."

It's the first time the B.C. government has publicly acknowledged the possibility of global oil production peaking.

Horgan then asked Lekstrom if he's prepared to table any documents or briefing materials produced by his ministry on peak oil for the public to review.

"I will point out that we do have a PowerPoint that we will ensure that we get to the member," Lekstrom said. "As well, I would offer, if the member would want, a briefing to the member on the issue of peak oil, through our ministry."
http://www.straight.com/article-325467/vancouver/energy-minister-blair-lekstrom-acknowledges-peak-oil-and-downplays-offshore-drilling

The problem is that reports such as the US Government's Hirsh Report say we need about 20 years of all-out effort to prepare for peak oil. So, lets get this straight, our government is aware that the event that will require changing everything may have already happened. But their response it to continue their freeway building binge?

A bit of context may be helpful here. At one point the US was the world's largest oil exporter. That was the short-lived era of cheap oil, they didn't know what to do with it all and they certainly didn't have to drill in water over a Km deep to get it. After World War II it seemed to make sense to stimulate demand for oil and other consumer products, so the US government spent huge sums and built freeways right into their urban areas to stimulate automobile dependent sprawl and make gasoline into a necessity. The automobile and oil companies colluded to destroy public transit. These two actions together, along with supporting actions to foster sprawl, created a guaranteed market for oil.

This plan to stimulate demand for oil and other consumer products was so successful that in 1970 the extraction of oil peaked in the US. The easy oil is now mostly gone globally, and the peak of oil extraction is either past or just over the horizon.

Even if peak oil was 20 years away and global warming was not an issue, it would be insane to build urban freeways. We don’t have twenty years, we need to slam the brakes on freeway expansion now and use all our ingenuity to find quick ways to kick our oil dependency and stop global warming from spiraling out of control.

It is obvious that the governing Liberals have their heads in the oil-soaked sand. But what about John Horgan and the NDP? Are they prepared to discuss the needed changes? (Or is their plan to let the Liberals out-flank them on peak oil just like they did with global warming?)

What about our larger environmental and social justice groups, are they prepared to educate their supporters and push politicians on these crucial issues?

Something to discuss in person at the Garden Party, Monday at 1pm