Peak Oil is a term that describes the point at which worldwide crude oil production peaks and then eventually declines. It is generally agreed that fossil fuels such as crude oil, natural gas, and coal are all non-renewable in nature, meaning there is a limited quantity of these resources on the planet, and they aren't replenished in a timeframe useful to our civilization. Coal and oil have been in use for about 150 years. Oil powers human infrastructure in many ways, but especially our transportation.

Peak Oil was defined by oilman M. King Hubbert. In 1956, Hubbert predicted oil production in the continental U.S. would be shaped like a bell curve and would peak between 1965 and 1970. He was a year or two off - the actual peak was in 1970-71, after which production declined slowly to its current level of about 5 million barrels/day (2007). Shortly after the U.S. peak, the country began large scale imports of crude oil, leading to the oil shock of 1973 and the formation of OPEC.

Another description of Peak Oil is the point at which increases in production are no longer able to satisfy the increasing demand for oil.

There is a wealth of reading about Peak Oil in the form of books and documents available on the Internet. Some internet documents will be posted here for reference.

One of the most comprehensive reports on peak oil was commissioned by the federal government some years ago. The report was authored by Robert Hirsch of SAIC and two other consultants. The report doesn't attempt to predict when peak oil will occur, but goes into in-depth analysis of what ways we depend on oil, what we might do to reduce oil demand, and how much lead time we as a civilization need to take steps to reduce consumption or switch to other sources of energy. It is a detailed and sometimes depressing read, because (as one might expect from a government consultant) the writing style is blunt and just a bit dry. Still, it is well worth reading. You can find the document here:

http://www.boxboroughlocal.org/hirsch05022.pdf

[91 pages, 1.2MB]