All: BEFORE YOU READ THIS, I am sharing my thoughts. Please respect my opinion, and I will respect yours.

THINK BEFORE YOU POST A REPLY. I'm looking for intelligent insight, not angry words.

Also, let me just say that I am an optimist at heart. I'm a "glass is half-full" kinda guy.

I am finding myself unsettled today. I enjoy driving my Trooper 20 miles a day each way to work and can easily afford to fill it with gas. Heck, I can even afford $5.00 a gallon if I had to, but most folks can't. I haven't worried about it much.

I always figured gasoline prices would start to rise and other problems would come about when the world RAN OUT of its supply of crude oil. This seems to be about 50 years away, I figured hybrids, fuel cells, all this other cool stuff would evolve and grow by then.

Now my confidence has been shaken at its core.

The concept of "Hubbert's Peak" or "Peak Oil".

This new concept that I ran across introduces this thought:

Things will get tough just after the supply PEAKS. The idea is that THE OIL WON'T RUN OUT ANYTIME SOON, but THE CHEAP OIL WILL RUN OUT SOON AND ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE.

I always figured the oil would run out in my lifetime, I just turned 30, and we probably don't have 50 years worth of crude left, So I figured by the time I was 80 we were going to need something new.

I never figured it could run out in my Trooper's lifetime.

At first I wanted to dismiss Peak Oil as propaganda from Enviro-Freak left-wingers. Then I wanted to dismiss it as propaganda from greedy oil barren right-wingers. The more I read, the more I started to get sick to my stomach.

The argument is that the trouble starts when the supply cannot keep up with the demand, not when the supply is exhausted. Unfortunately, this makes perfect sense.

The advocates of Peak Oil have been labeled "Chicken Little" and "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."

Please take a look at this and decide for yourself, let me know what you think.

What would make me feel better are some cold, hard facts about Alaska's oil reserves, some offshore drilling statistics, or something about an abundance some where.

Right now I don't feel very good at all.

Nate