Lunatic fringe

A little self-intervention from my fellow loonies...

"What people need to hear loud and clear is that we're running out of energy in America."

George W. Bush
U.S. President
[source]

"We may be at a point of peak oil production ... I can only tell you that I have studied this data seriously. I consider it an existential threat to your future."

Bill Clinton
Former U.S. President
[source]

"By some estimates, there will be an average of two-percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead, along with, conservatively, a three-percent natural decline in production from existing reserves."

Dick Cheney
U.S. Vice President
[source]

"We almost certainly are at or near what they call peak oil"

Al Gore
Former U.S. Vice President
[source]

"Currently, there is no viable substitute for petroleum."

U.S. Army report: Energy Trends and Their Implications for U.S. Army Installations
[source]

"The best Saudi oil is gone... Middle East production will go down by one third by 2012."

Matthew R. Simmons
Energy industry investment banker, energy advisor for the Bush administration
Chairman, Simmons & Company International
[source]

"...we're depleting our reserves four times faster than the rest of the world. America needs a national energy policy and a program on a scale of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II to prevent or mitigate the consequences of global peak oil. Doing nothing or doing too little too late will lead to a global economic and geopolitical tsunami with potentially devastating ramifications."

Roscoe G. Bartlett
U.S. Senator (Maryland)
[source]

"Global oil [production] is 84 million barrels (a day). I don't believe you can get it any more than 84 million barrels. I don't care what [Saudi Crown Prince] Abdullah, [Russian Premier Vladimir] Putin or anybody else says about oil reserves or production."

T. Boone Pickens
Legendary oil baron and
Chairman, BP Captial Management
[source]

"One thing is clear: the age of easy oil is over"

David J. O'Reilly
Chairman and CEO, Chevron Corporation
[source]

"World oil production has now ceased to grow. Decline is the next step. The picnic's over."

Kenneth S. Deffeyes
Petroleum geologist formerly with Shell Oil, professor, and author
[source]

"The days of inexpensive, convenient, abundant energy sources are quickly drawing to a close"

U.S. Army report: Energy Trends and Their Implications for U.S. Army Installations
[source]

"Realistically, we're probably at peak now. If not, production will fall faster later."

Matthew R. Simmons
Energy industry investment banker, energy advisor for the Bush administration
Chairman, Simmons & Company International
[source]

"Oil prices may well remain high for a prolonged period of time... Further rises - if they materialise - may have more severe consequences than currently anticipated."

Statement from The Bank of International Settlements
(Often referred to as, "the central banker's central bank.")
[source]

"Alternatives like biofuels, ethanol or biomass can play a marginal supportive role but nowhere near on the scale required. When the oil runs out the economic and social dislocation will be unprecedented."

Michael Meacher
Former U.K. Environment Minister
[source]

"...the top-10 oil groups spent about $8bn combined on exploration last year, but this only led to commercial discoveries with a net present value of slightly less than $4bn. The previous two years show similar, though less dramatic, shortfalls."

Wood Mackenzie
Energy Consultant
[source]

"Peak oil is at hand with low availability growth for the next 5 to 10 years. Once worldwide petroleum production peaks, geopolitics and market economics will result in even more significant price increases and security risks."

U.S. Army report: Energy Trends and Their Implications for U.S. Army Installations
[source]

"My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet airplane. His son will ride a camel."

Popular saying in Saudi Arabia