The big oil companies have been running ads about alternative energy (I just saw a Chevron ad about geothermal seconds ago*) and ads that obliquely touch on the subject of peak oil - without, of course, ever using that term.

I wonder what the point of those ads is. There doesn't seem to be direct economic benefit to the companies for running them. Maybe the point is to give the general public a sense that of the imminent collision of excrement and air mover. Not the details of course, just enough so when the gas lines form, or the first US city loses gas pressure in February, they'll be able to stand up before a Senate committee and point to the ads and say "we've been educating the public about this for years."

Getting back on topic, it may be that CNBC takes these ads as license to discuss the underlying facts.

*Of course the geothermal ad was followed by a Ford ad where a woman swapped her Camry which gets EPA 24/33 for one week for a Fusion that gets 20/28. Go figure.