Bloomberg headline on oil says it all …

Oil Falls Below $125 as U.S. Fuel Supplies Gain, Demand Drops - Bloomberg

While the apologists for Big Oil and the investor class railed about speculators driving up oil prices over the past several weeks, an opportunity was lost for the American public to begin to understand the true nature of a non-renewable resource — and the power of conservation.

If you take a moment and read the Bloomberg story linked above, you’ll see that domestic oil supplies are up and that U.S. demand for oil is down.  According to the article, the U.S. Energy Department reports that U.S. fuel consumption is down 2.1% over the last three weeks.  Last week’s U.S. fuel demand averaged 19.9 million barrels per day, the lowest demand in eighteen months.

The world is running out of oil.  We are nowhere near ready to make the leap from a carbon-based economy to whatever will be our next energy source or set of sources.  Conservation is key.  We simply need to consume what’s left at a drastically reduced rate or face harsh economic circumstances which will make $4 per gallon gas look like the good old days.

I’m still waiting for some member of Congress or a federal regulator to uncover the evil cabal of speculators that have been driving up our cost of living.  It’s true there is increased speculation in the oil markets, but a more scarce resource - and one that is primarily supplied from the sketchiest parts of the world - will be prone to speculation.

Bloomberg’s lesson today is that decreased demand increases supply and drives down prices.  The question is whether or not the politicians and talking heads on TV will begin to talk about conservation again.       

The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World