Oil Production Has Surpassed the Tip of the Bell Curve

Saudi Arabia at one point represented 25% of the world's oil production.  They still claim to have mass amounts of untapped oil reserves and to have that 25% margin, which keeps them at the forefront of OPEC.  However, other actions in the region have proven otherwise, causing skeptics like me to uncover the real truth of where we stand as a global community in the face of unsustainable oil production, using Saudi Arabia as an example.

The oil scare of the 1970s gave us a small glimpse of what we are going to be faced with as oil scarcity increases.  When OPEC members retaliated in the most effective way possible in the 1970s, by pulling back oil sales to the U.S., utter chaos broke out all over the country.  Oil was so scarce that there were lines for miles at gas stations that had little gas to begin with, and they charged a fortune for it just to break even.  Not only did the price of gas increase, most everything went up significantly as we all know that most products are made from oil.  Again, it was utter chaos.  Eventually we began to cope with the chaos at least at the gas stations, assigning specific days and times for gas eligibility via license plate numbers.  Sounds like one aspect of a civil solution for a temporarily chaotic situation, but what if the situation is no longer temporary?

One of the most blatantly obvious signs that oil has been tapped to its capacity in a region is when that oil producing country starts drilling offshore.  Offshore drilling is significantly more expensive than onshore drilling and requires an astonishing amount of energy to drill and transport.  Going back to Saudi Arabia, they may be the leading oil producer at present, but a significant amount of that energy goes straight back into their oil production because they have begun to drill offshore.  There comes a point when drilling is completely useless, when the costs surpass the profits.  That time has nearly arrived and now it is not a question of profitability, it is now a question of sustaining a global oil-dependent economy.  Our addiction to oil has faced us with the realization that it's time to kick the habit because we can no longer afford it.

As offshore drilling further proves the case that oil production is on the decline, solutions should be brought forth in order to better handle the issue we similarly faced in the 1970s.  However, hardly any alternative energy production projects have taken place that can compensate for the loss in oil.  The U.S. alone has so much land mass that the alternative energy production possibilities are endless.  The most promising alternative energy sources are distinctively wind and solar.  Other propositions like clean coal, tidal, and geothermal are not sustainable nor can they produce an amount of energy to overcompensate for the amount of emissions and costs to distribute the energy to an entire population.  Clean coal is insufficient because its function is to filter the emissions of coal to remove CO2 from being released into the air.  However, these filters are disposed by burying them into the earth only to have that CO2 displaced and available to emit at a later date as it surfaces. Not to mention the danger of coal mining and mistreatment of workers, coal all around is a very lousy solution.  Tidal is not sufficient because there are only so many cities along the coastline, it's expensive to build, and it's expensive and difficult to transport the energy to the inland cities.  Lastly, geothermal on paper is a fantastic alternative and is what some Northern California cities actually currently use, however building and implementing a facility to produce geothermal energy is extremely expensive and timely to the point where a cheaper and more efficient solution would have to come into play.

What very few people understand is that when energy is produced from a natural source, most of the energy is only available right away at the location it was produced.  For example, an argument I have heard for years is that a nine square mile solar panel development in the Mojave Desert would provide enough energy to fuel the entire nation.  This technically is true but is unfeasible because of the costs and amount of energy lost when attempting to distribute that energy to far away cities, therefore California would be getting most of the energy produced from the source at the cheapest price.

For the U.S., energy production power needs to be withheld by each state.  Each state must weigh the options of wind and solar energy and develop a proper proportion of the two energy production strategies that would produce the most cost-effective results to accommodate their state.  It seems so simple, yet implementation of this is at a snails pace. Lobbyists anyone?  If any of my readers have the opportunity to invest any time soon, I highly recommend alternative energy!  It will contribute significantly to the well being of America's energy dependence and the return on investment is sure to be great as alternative energy will be in high demand as oil prices rise.