No one is going to come to the rescue on the supply side -- and, of course, we remain stuck with an administration that doesn't believe in demand-reduction strategies.
As the Wall Street Journal (subs. req'd) reported in "OPEC's Lever Loses Its Pull on Oil":
This figure shows how little spare capacity OPEC has -- essentially none outside of Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis have no inclination to initiate a major price drop, especially since these prices do not appear to be destroying demand.Oil prices are hovering near historic highs, but consuming nations shouldn't expect quick relief from OPEC, the world's only source for big, quick supplies.
For several reasons, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has neither the clear leverage nor the inclination to open the spigots and drive down the price of crude, which jumped past $90 a barrel in intraday trading in New York last week for the first time.
Moreover, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned back in July that it saw "OPEC spare capacity declining to minimal levels by 2012."
And the WSJ notes no one outside of OPEC will be coming to the rescue either:
We cannot be far from $100+ oil.Saudi Arabia has little to fear from the world's other major producers, such as Russia, which in decades past have ramped up supplies in an effort to capture a greater market share. But at the moment, the world's major producers for the most part are already pumping flat-out.
"They have little competition from non-OPEC suppliers and few worries about losing market share," says Jeffrey Currie, senior energy economist at Goldman Sachs in London.
Crossposted from climateprogress.org
because the Big Boys aren't about to give up
a penny of the profits they're making. But,
science to the rescue, there's other things
that'll burn besides gasoline, and cleaner,
too, and best of all, they don't have to be
imported. You got your electric, you got
your biodiesel, you got your ethanol, you got
your natural gas, you got your hydrogen,
but the 'competition' for all of that has
tens of billions invested, spends millions
on focus groups to study consumption habits,
and now, thanks to datamining, has a good
idea of when you'll be pulling up to the pump
next. 3 bucks a gallon, hey, they can charge 5,
and you'll pay it, because they OWN all that.
May as well own the roads, too, and if this
administration has their way about it, that
just might end up happening...
By not addressing this problem, our government is playing with fire.
But then, that's what they have done ever since Bush took power, eh?
THE COLLINBRANDT
The supply of oil is running out. The ability to fully replace diminishing supply is nonexistent. Depletion will out run new supply from here on out.
The Oil Drum on "Peak Oil"
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2693#more
Today in the Nation on line : "Beyond the Age of Petroleum" by Michael T. Klare
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071112/klare
Cheap energy is over. We are faced with an ever declining supply of oil at the same time as demand is going through the roof. Food and fuel will place ever increasing demands on consumer spending starving all other areas of the economy of demand. Layofffs will follow this demand destruction undermining the financial system in a relentless trend downward.
This damage can be miitigated with political action on fuel economy and plug in vehicles , but the trend will never reverse. There may be pauses due to recessions or depressions but that will just postpone the slide of oil availablity.
The villain in the piece are things not under the control of individuals, such as CAFE standards and federal supports and/or mandates for fuel efficiency and research into alternative energy sources. Now that's stupid.