‘Peak oil’ demands new way of thinking

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Now that gasoline costs more than $4 a gallon, politicians are engaged in the blame game.

The Democrats say the Republicans are beholden to big oil and have no comprehensive energy police.

The Republicans claim that Democrats have caused the problem by not allowing domestic exploration.

There is no recognition of the real issue — namely world “peak oil.” That happens when demand exceeds the available supply. Some claim that this has already happened, others say it is at most a decade away. After peak oil, the supply is estimated to drop from 2 percent to 6 percent every year, driving up oil prices.

Hence the goal of an energy policy must be to reduce the demand for oil and support the development of new energy sources.

This is not easy, and it will take long time. We must act now.

Drilling for more oil domestically will eventually be necessary, but it is not available to feed our addiction in the short term.

Why not treat it as a strategic reserve that will become ever more valuable? We should not let this distraction delay the hard decisions we have to make to deal with the peak oil reality.

Rudy Schaad
Bellingham

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