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36 comments on Lord Browne Speaks, Beyond Petroleum?

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louGrinzo on December 2, 2005 - 12:38am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
You're not the only one waiting to see who calls whom in the poker game.  Somewhere, someone will have be the first to say, "Gee, folks, it's really looking like we're not going to have an infinite amount of oil, after all.  Let's see if we can cook up a plan B."

My hunch is that the powerful entities (corporations, gov'ts) have so much of a vested interest in keeping everything calm that they're all holding their breath and hoping that a combination of market response and technological breakthroughs saves the day.  

I find that approach (assuming that that's actually what they're doing) deeply offensive, and not just because they're lying.  By trying to ignore the problem they're taking two powerful tools out of the equation--public policy and an early change in market psychology.  Simmons likes to talk about how we'll need to pull on "all levers" to get through PO intact, a position I agree with 100%.  Public policy and market psychology are two of the most important levers at our collective disposal, so ignoring them is stupefyingly foolish.

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mikeB on December 2, 2005 - 8:08am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Somewhere, someone will have be the first to say, "Gee, folks, it's really looking like we're not going to have an infinite amount of oil, after all.  Let's see if we can cook up a plan B."

I have this nauseating feeling that even as fields tip over into decline, and prices rise, and economies crash, and people starve, they're not going to ADMIT to a doggone thing. They're going to blame, blame, blame.

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step back on December 2, 2005 - 9:54am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
... they're all holding their breath and hoping that a combination of market response and technological breakthroughs saves the day.

"Leaders" of major corporations are often "people persons" rather than technical nerds. They expect to bark out commands sort of like the way the Captain on the StarTrek TV space ship does,

"Make it so!", "I need more warp drive to escape from the Klingons. Give me more!".

Then some foreign-accented nerd from the lowly engineering bays comes back with the heroic try:

"Aye aye Captain. I'm giving it all she's got but the dilithium crystals can't take much more, sir. We are near the end of our ropes down here."

Then the Captain smiles to himself, knowing the engineer, being what he is, is way too conservative, and the ship she's got more to give, much much more.

"Scottie damn it, I need you to give me all she's got, give that extra 50% you've been holding back on !!"

--[Inner Thought Bubble: In other words, I know you are a lying engineer lying about engineering capabilites just like I am a lying head of ship and state, always lying about our financial situation and even though I know nothing about the nerdy technical details, I know the script always turns out right for me. The dawn always comes right after my darkest hour.]--

REST IN PEACE SCOTTIE

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36 comments on Lord Browne Speaks, Beyond Petroleum?

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