"Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission (that state’s energy regulatory agency), claimed
that the Earth possesses a “relatively boundless supply” of oil and
natural gas. Not only that -- and you can practically hear the chorus
of cheering in Houston and other oil centers -- but many of the most
exploitable new deposits are located in the U.S. and Canada. As a
result -- add a roll of drums and a blaring of trumpets -- the expected
boost in energy is predicted to provide the United States with a
cornucopia of economic and political rewards, including industrial
expansion at home and enhanced geopolitical clout abroad ... Senior government officials, including President Obama, have already
become infected with this euphoria, as have top Wall Street investors ... The speed and magnitude of this shift in thinking has been little short
of astonishing. Just a few years ago, we were girding for the imminent
prospect of 'peak oil,'
the point at which daily worldwide output would reach its maximum and
begin an irreversible decline. This, experts assumed, would result in a
global energy crisis, sky-high oil prices, and severe disruptions to
the world economy ... This burst of euphoria about fossil fuels and America’s energy future is guaranteed to have a disastrous impact on the planet ... The new energy euphoria is also fueling a growing sense that the American superpower, whose influence has recently seemed to be on the wane,
may soon acquire fresh geopolitical clout through its mastery of the
latest energy technologies ... A stance of what could be called petro machismo is growing in Washington ... To begin with, those virtually “boundless” untapped oil reserves have
yet to be systematically explored, meaning that it’s impossible to know
if they do, in fact, contain commercially significant reserves of oil
and gas ... More fracking, no doubt, will release additional oil and gas, but the
record shows that fossil-fuel output tends to decline once the earliest,
most promising reservoirs are exploited ... Preliminary drilling suggests
that many of the shale formations in Europe and China possess fewer
hydrocarbons and will be harder to develop than those now being
exploited in this country ... As is so often the case with mass delusions, those caught up in fossil
fuel mania have not bothered to think through the grim realities
involved."
Zum Artikel von Prof. Michael T. Klare, erschienen auf TomDispatch (15. Oktober 2013) »
Zum Artikel von Prof. Michael T. Klare, erschienen auf TomDispatch (15. Oktober 2013) »
