Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

[Mega]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-...-new-price-oil
In a nutshell, what are they trying to say????
Mike

[mooncliff]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

Volume has not gone up in 6 years or so. Can you imagine what the price would be if we weren't having a depression?

[Mega]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

Are you say Mega can expect MEGA oil prices?

[davidstvz]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

Volume has not gone up in 6 years or so. Can you imagine what the price would be if we weren't having a depression?

Kind of a catch 22 because how can you not have a depression when oil production suddenly fails to keep up with the required rate of growth!

[mooncliff]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

Hmm, could be. North Sea oil is on its last legs, although there could be a bump in production from new, more expensive, more desperate drilling techniques.

For the last seven years, I have assumed that energy was going to become a LOT more expensive, so have been investing in everything to get energy use down in every way. Have cut my electricity use in Japan in half (150 kWh per month when not using the air conditioner) with no change in standard of living for a very modest investment of 1,000 dollars. My lights even go on automatically when I enter and go off when I leave.

I insulted my apartment door and windows. I insulated the pipes, which were mostly insulated, but strangely had exposed sections.

I used the National Geographic energy estimator, and it seems I use 1/10th the energy of the average Japanese, and 1/20th the energy of an American, and I am not sitting in the dark. The TV, aquarium, three air cleaners, etc., are going all the time. I also moved to the perfect place to take advantage of rail, and in Japan, fortunately, the company pays for your train pass, so maybe I pay 10 bucks once a month or so for a cab.

Sigh, I know how hard it is to do many of these things in the US, etc. Still, I replaced my mom's refrigerator with the most energy efficiency one we could find (and it is shockingly bad compared to the ones in Japan... it had incandescent bulbs in it... was speechless... replaced them with LEDs) and replaced all the lights in the house with LEDs, and her energy use is about 1/6th the neighborhood average. It is really great to have the whole house lit up for 71 watts total. 85% of the electricity in Hawaii is from oil fired plants, so the oil price is a huge problem. In the Pacific, Tapis crude is around 140 dollars a barrel, so this is really eating up a lot. Hell, the electric rate is higher than it is in Japan. And yet, the last time I went home, I was surprised to see how much better everything has become. We have too much sun, and it used to be a curse, but it is now becoming a blessing. Free solar hot water for 30 years for an investment of a few thousand dollars has been a great investment. Photovoltaic installation probably going in this summer. So, I am always interested in problems like this because then I can try to evade them.

[mooncliff]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

Yep, no 20 dollar oil anymore. I think this means no growth for a decade or worse, and if that is the case, all those pensions and other things that assume 8% return per year are going to be mightily disappointed and will crash to zero in less than a decade.

For a possible preview, see Children of Men, which is ostensibly about our world in the near future when no babies are born, but in the movie version, clearly what is being shown is the rich world with say a tenth of the oil it has now.

[davidstvz]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

I read Chris Martenson's book a month or two ago. He's the author of the pay-website that Gregor MacDonald wrote this post for. Martenson's much more of an alarmist than EJ I think. He seems to be in the permanent decline camp like Richard Heinberg ("The End of Growth"). They see flat-lined oil production as a precursor to a decline we won't be able to handle at all that will eventually include decline in many other resources. I'm sure these guy's read each other's books and they probably read books like America's Bubble Economy, Aftershock and EJ's Post Catastrophe Economy as well. They're all aware of resource constrains and financial problems. The differences are nuanced and hard for me to pin down. All things considered, EJ's book and work stands head and shoulders above the rest.

[mooncliff]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

As my aunt used to say: Everyone is surprised when they die, because, well, they never died before.
Similarly, everyone will be surprised when the cheap fossil fuels run out, because, well, they have never run out before. The greatest gift humankind has ever been given, the Spice which prolongs life and folds space and time. It must be used as efficiently as possible to make it last as long as possible.

[globaleconomicollaps]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

As my aunt used to say: Everyone is surprised when they die, because, well, they never died before.
Similarly, everyone will be surprised when the cheap fossil fuels run out, because, well, they have never run out before. The greatest gift humankind has ever been given, the Spice which prolongs life and folds space and time. It must be used as efficiently as possible to make it last as long as possible.

or... we become giant sand worms?

[photon555]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

Zune, dessert planet, a thousand ice cream bars but no entrees whatsoever.

[Kcim67]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

In Starving Steve's absence, we never planted those flags in Antartica for nothing!

[touchring]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

As my aunt used to say: Everyone is surprised when they die, because, well, they never died before.
Similarly, everyone will be surprised when the cheap fossil fuels run out, because, well, they have never run out before. The greatest gift humankind has ever been given, the Spice which prolongs life and folds space and time. It must be used as efficiently as possible to make it last as long as possible.

From my reads, America has 100 years of natural gas.

We all know whose century is the 21st century.

[photon555]

Re: Zerohedge goes all "EJ" on oil

The cheapest gas I ever saw was in the winter of 1971. There were four or five of us who regularly drove together from Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO to the Chicago area to visit family and girl-friends. In my case it was my future wife. It was a 500 mile trip and we always gassed up a least once on the way(1967 Chevy Impala got about 12 mpg). This time we came to a dark exit on the interstate where there were two gas stations in a gas war, one on each side. In a forerunner to the Fed's current predicament, they has reduced rates, er prices as low as they both could go, and were apparently stuck there, each reluctant to be the first to raise prices. We bought gas at the one on our side simply because it was a little more convenient, and wished we had a much bigger tank. The gas was 12.9 cents per gallon. I remember it well because in just a couple of years the embargo began and gas not only jumped in price but was sometimes impossible to get.