Oil expert tells Portlanders it’s downhill from here
February 28th, 2006 by Jim JustLast week oil geologist and geosciences professor Ken Deffeyes spoke to a sold-out audience in Portland about his latest book, “Beyond Oil.” Deffeyes, saying that he’s no longer a prophet but is now an historian, calculates that world oil production peaked on December 16, 2005 and has begun its permanent, irreversible decline, with economic consequences to follow. Watch what the oil companies are doing, not what they’re saying. They’re not drilling, they’re not building new pipelines, they’re not building new refineries. As for impacts, Deffeyes invokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocaolypse—war, famine, pestilence, and death. We could have had a soft landing had we started 20 years ago, but in the absence of a Churchill or a Kennedy, we’re not likely to move fast enough to avoid disaster. Deffeyes mentions Oregon, with its rich soils and abundant rainfall, as a good place to be.