Arlington, VA: Steven,

There is no normal, there is only reality. The reality is that we have spent the last 60 years and a considerable amount of resources building a society of the like that has never been seen in all of human history. It is a society based around the consumption of large ratios of a resource that was 'discovered' about 150 years ago (Colonel Drake drilled the first well in the US in 1859). For most people, there is no choice but to consume large amounts of fossil fuel based energy in order to survive. This has allowed us to obtain a standard of living in terms of material goods never before seen. This is due to petroleum being such an enormously valuable find (the result of millions of years of concentrated sun energy). Our depletion rate (use) of this has grown (doubled in most cases) every decade as population grows and we fling more and more of our settlement patterns further away from destinations and houses get bigger etc. Well, we are now faced with the time when supplies will likely no longer be able to increase (google peak oil). Whether this is now or 5 or 10 years from now doesn't really matter. Can an economist grasp the consequences of this ? Do some actual research and discover for yourself. Good luck to you.

Steven Pearlstein: What is it with you peak oil people. Its like scientology. Its a wonderful theory that the world is about to run out of oil, and it may be true. But the certainty with which you state your opinion, when it is so obvious that you are talking about a subject about which NOBODY can be so certain, raises lots of question about your credibility.

Columbus OH: Instead of blaming Exxon for making money selling oil, a fast-depleting non-renewable resource, why aren't you talking about the real problem: global oil production is at it's peak and will go into decline in the next decade. Where is the public discussion about our future in a post-carbon world? We have nothing after oil! Hydrogen is not an energy source, it's a way to store energy, where do we get the energy?

I think it's very damaging to the public to play a blame game instead of discussing this issue! It's hurting America to feed the public this kind of pin-the-blame-on-the-someone-else. I get so disheartened at politics and media pundits whenever I see this kind of disinformation and blame tactics.

We ought to be holding a serious discussion of how we can manage our transition away from oil, this isn't going to happen with 99 cent gasoline.

So I guess my question is: why are politicians and the media so brain dead on this issue? Wake up!

Thanks for taking the time to address my deep concern.

Steven Pearlstein: Gee, our Outlook section two weeks ago had a big front-page splashy display for an essay by the founder of Greenpace about how nuclear energy ought to be high on the options list again. The President is talking about biomass and ethanol. Liberals have been talking about wind and solar for as long as I can remember. And on the facts, you are simply wrong: there is plenty of oil and gas out there to be tapped that can keep us going for decades, even as we begin shifting over to other energy sources as the price of the GRADUALLY depleting resource rises.

Arlington, VA: "NOBODY can be so certain, raises lots of question about your credibility."

Steven,

Do you believe that the US Oil production peaked in 1972 ? Do you believe that 38 of the 50 top Oil producing nations have also peaked ? It's not at all about running out. This shows that you haven't bothered to even look into this topic. Check out the DOE, US Army Corps, DoD reports on the subject before misleading people so.

Steven Pearlstein: Your analysis does not include the supply effects of a sustained price at $70 a barrel. This is NOT a static situation.

Oil Touches $100 a Barrel on Supply Concern, Increased Demand

By Mark Shenk and Nesa Subrahmaniyan

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to $100 a barrel for the first time in New York as record global fuel consumption threatens to outpace production.

Higher prices have been cast as vindication for a theory that the world has reached the maximum rate of oil production as explorers fail to discover major new fields to replace aging deposits being tapped in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran.

While Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and Exxon Mobil Corp. President Rex Tillerson have said oil supplies will last for decades, energy traders are increasingly debating the amount of available crude.

Investors who back the peak-oil theory, such as Boone Pickens, a Dallas hedge fund manager and former oil executive, have led the price rally of the past two years. Pickens, chairman of BP Capital LLC, correctly predicted in 2004 that oil prices would top $60 a barrel in 2005 and in early 2006 said oil could reach $90 to $100 a barrel within two years.

Last Updated: January 2, 2008 16:02 EST

Simmons says: $100 oil remarkedly cheap

Bloomberg Video

It isn't a coincidence that the the timing of an economic collapse and PO are happening at the same time. There is no way to grow a fiat based monetary system without growing your energy source.

There is no way to grow a fiat based monetary system without growing your energy source. It's amazing how people do not understand this correlation.