Oil Economy

The world lacks the means to produce enough oil to meet rising projections of demand for fuel over the next decade. The world is mistakenly focusing on oil reserves when the problem is capacity to produce oil. Forecasters, such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), have failed to consider the speed at which new resources can be brought into production. The IEA predicted in its World Energy Outlook that global demand for crude oil would reach 121 million barrels per day by 2030, of which more than half would be supplied by OPEC. The agency predicted that more than $3 trillion of investment in wells, pipelines and refineries would be needed to raise output to such levels. The world's oil production, having grown exuberantly for more than a century, will peak and begin to decline. And then it really will be all downhill. The price of oil will increase drastically. Major oil-consuming countries will experience crippling inflation, unemployment and economic instability.  Our current oil economy must be transitioned into an economy based on renewable energies and transportation alternatives.