Three Years?

Today, in the San Jose Mercury News, was an article concerning Governor Brown's excitement to approve fracking to mine the "Monterrey Shale". Part of the article concerned the Governor of Colorado, who has imposed strict regulations on fracking in his state; even drinking fracking water that adheres to the regulations to prove it is safe. I heard his hair turned green!

We all hope Governor Brown adds those regulations in California, and then it will be alright to purge the ground of its black gold right?

We will then be able to fuel our cars for hundreds of years, leaving our automobile culture intact forever; right?

WRONG. The article explained that the Monterey Shale deposits, which are the largest in the United States, will provide the nation with three (3) years of gas!

Three. That is two less than five. That is 97 years less that 100.

And, the potential fracking area sits right on top of several earthquake zones, that have the potential to flatten huge population areas.

Three years! What!

A couple years ago we visited the Science Museum in Chicago. The Petroleum Institute, had a display, touting the wonders of oil and gas (and none of the damage). A sign caught my eye. It said, "We have 40 Years Left of Oil". And then, under the sign, were listed the wonders a plentiful energy supply was bringing the world.

Forty years (40). That is 60 less of 100!

So, lets see...assuming the oil shale deposits back east and in Canada are viable, and assuming Monterey's is viable, adding them together gets us to what 9 or 10 years?

Nine or ten years! Wait a minute, where is the bonanza? Where is the discrediting of peak oil?

YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT WE WILL FRACK THE HELL OUT OF THOUSANDS OF MILES OF EARTH, SETTING OFF EARTHQUAKES, RUINING WATER SUPPLIES, AND IT WILL YIELD A DOZEN OR SO YEARS OF SUPPLY!

What!

Ok, here it is again. We have hit Peak Oil in the early part of this century. Sweet crude oil is almost a thing of the past. The world demand is exploding, exactly as the supply declines, and will accelerate in its decline. Once the easy to get sweet crude is gone, all we will have left is the shale, and it is much harder to get, much more expensive, dirtier, and there is not much of it.

Think of this. If the oil shale was so easy, profitable and plentiful, why didn't the petroleum companies mine it and save more of the sweet crude for later?

They didn't because the shale is much more expensive to get, and dangerous to mine, and there is not much of it compared to world demand.

Americans are once again being lured into a false sense of security by the oil industry, that brought us the Valdez Oil Disaster, countless spills, global warming, and finally the Gulf of Mexico. Through all this, they incredibly have maintained a strict silence about the overall supply, and in fact have attacked clean energy supplies like solar and wind.

In short, profit has trumped common decency and certainly common sense.

The world sits on the precipice of the worst energy crisis in history. We are building huge urban centers, ruining agricultural lands, spreading populations out in far flung suburbs, with a dependence on an energy supply that will be gone in less than 100 years.

That's right folks, GONE.