Those of us who were around in the 1970’s remember gas shortages, soaring energy prices, and rising inflation. Several industry experts pronounced that we had entered the era of “peak oil production” and OPEC was firmly in control of the supply demand balance allowing it to raise oil prices from $3.50 per barrel in 1973 to $39.50 by the middle of 1980. The situation seemed utterly hopeless. Well, take a look at the following graph which illustrates U.S. oil production.
In addition to significantly increasing our oil production, we have also reduced our energy consumption per unit of GDP by more than 60%. The net effect is that we now produce almost 10% more oil than we consume. Finally, renewables and nuclear energy have increased from 6.4% to 16% of total consumption since the mid 1970’s.
Perhaps we should be more optimistic about conquering some of our other seemingly insoluble problems!