[ UPDATE: For a report on this broadcast with complete transcript and audio downloads see the report at Swiss America Trading
Unfortunately the debate was a very quick and shallow one, in which the abiotic oil theory is trumpeted repeatedly, and the Limits to Growth study from 1972 is again misrepresented. Simmons gets barely two minutes of airtime to make his case. The overall impression left on a casual observer might be something like “the experts disagree again, what chance do I have to make sense of it?”
For a more in depth look at these two points of contention I can recommend the following articles:
- The “Abiotic Oil” Controversy by Richard Heinberg
- Revisiting The Limits to Growth: Could The Club of Rome Have Been Correct, After All by Matthew Simmons
-AF ]
In what is sure to be a scintillating segment of television, Craig R. Smith co-author of WND Books’ “Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil,” will go head-to-head with author Matthew R. Simmons in a debate entitled “Deep Oil vs. Peak Oil” on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning at 9 a.m. Eastern.
Smith and co-author Jerome Corsi contend in “Black Gold Stranglehold” that oil is not a product of decaying dinosaurs and prehistoric forests, but that oil is constantly being produced by the earth, far below the planet’s surface, and that it is brought to attainable depths by the centrifugal forces of the earth’s rotation.
Simmons’ “Twilight in the Desert” argues that oil is a finite resource and asserts that Saudi Arabia’s oil production may have already peaked, leaving the world in a politically and economically unstable situation.
Ultimately, infinite or finite oil reserves have serious economic implications. Smith’s “deep oil” argument provides a perspective as to how America’s unbalanced pattern of consumption and lack of production puts consumers in a virtual stranglehold by foreign governments, corrupt political leaders, terrorist organizations and oil conglomerates. Likewise, Simmons’ “peak oil” claim puts consumers in a critical position if Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s low-cost oil producers, experiences diminished reserves forcing the U.S. to buy oil from other countries at higher prices. With high prices at the gas-pump and record-setting heating-fuel costs, Smith and Simmons’ debate is likely to highlight the contention that more needs to be done to address refining and exploration problems facing the U.S.
