From The Problem’s Not Peak Oil, It’s Politics:

Some “peak oil” cassandras warn that global energy production will soon fall into permanent decline. But a more immediate danger to world oil supplies may be the tempestuous politics of many producing countries.

A couple of points here:

First, with the proper definition of “more immediate”, this is inarguably true. Will upheavals outside the US, real or potential, have a bigger impact on oil prices over the next 6 or 12 months? Of course they will. But five years from now we’re facing an all but certain oil crunch due to market fundamentals, with the additional possibility of “tempestuous politics” kicking the situation into high gear.

Second, I really wish people who use the term “Cassandra” as a pejorative would take a few minutes to look it up, as in its Wikipedia entry. The key point in that myth is that she was right about the future and no one believed her. The fact that her predictions were shunned as a punishment for her own actions, typically infidelity to Apollo, makes it all the more of a perfect fit for peakers–there have been many predictions of a peak in the past, which obviously proved to be false, and those past actions are one of the main reasons it’s so freakin;’ hard to get people to take the threat of peak oil seriously.

And yes, I realize that some people, possibly including the author I quoted above, are no doubt aware of the Cassandra myth and are using it properly to indicate that the peakers are right but are being ignored. I strongly suspect that they’re a tiny minority of the people who throw around the “Cassandra” label.

Sorry for the late start this morning, folks. I had a last-minute appointment to get a recently installed dental crown “adjusted”. For the next few days I’ll be chewing on one side of my mouth and hoping that it’s not a condition that will require a root canal [insert Sam Kinison scream here].

So, what’s on your energy-saturated minds?