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I'm on the Peak Oil beat again

Kevin Drum has a Q&A on rising gas prices, and then follows it up with a chart from a Washington Post poll asking people who they blame for rising oil prices.

First, from the Q&A:

In the long run, the answer is just supply and demand. Oil production has plateaued over the past few years because everyone in the world is pumping full out, and there's very little spare production capacity left. Meanwhile, because the global economy is recovering, demand has increased. Americans may be using less oil these days, but that doesn't make up for rising consumption in Asia, particularly China and India. So the basic reason for climbing oil prices is Econ 101: When global supply is stagnant and global demand goes up, prices increase.
...
New shale oil finds in North Dakota might increase global supplies a bit, but probably not enough to make up for increasing demand from China and other emerging economies. Basically, prices are going to stay high for the foreseeable future; even small supply disruptions are likely to cause big price gyrations; and big supply disruptions are likely to cause full-blown recessions. Like it or not, this is our future. I recommend you buy a motorcycle.


Then from the analysis of the poll:

On the bright side, only 1% of Americans blame environmental restrictions on domestic drilling, despite a full-bore Republican campaign to convince them otherwise, so that's nice. On the other hand, I'd sure like to see a lot more people blaming supply and demand. Maybe 10% isn't bad, all things considered, but I was ve-r-r-r-r-y generous about what I put in that bucket. The vast majority of Americans still have no clue what's driving all this.

I blog a lot about this, but other than read and watch a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction, i don't really do anything about it. Who wants to go in with us on a solar-powered survivalist bunker near a fresh water source?

By fnord12 | March 2, 2012, 3:37 PM | Liberal Outrage