Star Tribune Letter

I wrote this short letter at the end of August in response to a New York Times piece in the OpEd section. It was not published.

Not the Best Bet

John Tierney of the New York Times is wrong to believe that the price of oil will not increase dramatically in the future (The $10,000 question on price of gasoline, Aug.25). He is betting his money on the idea that new discoveries and technologies will keep oil from multiplying in price.

There are two flaws with this idea. The first is that global oil discoveries peaked in the 1970's when governments and energy companies scoured the globe for new oil fields. Since then, new discoveries have only been a tiny fraction compared to those of the 1970’s. The second flaw is believing that technology is a replacement for oil. Technology controls how we use the resource and is not the raw commodity itself. Even with futuristic technology, cars will still require gasoline and as of right now there is no suitable replacement for oil.

It’s time to think realistically about the upcoming oil dilemma the world will face and not live in Tierney’s cheap energy fantasy.