Again, I think Hubbert's discussion re: oil production peaking is exactly what we're seeing w/ oil prices. If you were an oil company and knew that oil had peaked or was very near peaking, would you invest more money in refining capacity? Of course not. Peak oil means that no matter what you do from this point forward, you will never be able to produce as many barrels of oil as you did yesterday. This is hard to understand here in the US, but on the other side of the world you've got China (1.4 billion people) and India (1 billion people) that are experiencing some exploding economies and an associated increase in demand for fossil fuels. Fossil fuels expand economies and GDP...Last year alone China increased its use of fossil fuels by 25%, they're now the second leading consumer of fossil fuels in the world behind the US. The Chinese economy grew by an astonishing 11 percent last year...yet they're arriving at the party too late as oil production is showing some definite signs that it's peaking. This demand on the other side of the world coupled w/ a peak that has occurred or is about to occur means that oil prices are gonna skyrocket. They'll only go down if we experience a severe worldwide economic recession...that would have a catastrophic impact on us as pilots.

I think alternative fuels are great, but all this talk about alternative fuels saving the day is hogwash. We're addicted to fossil fuels, we worship fossil fuels, and when they start to get more scarce, things are going to get very interesting. Alternative energy is a step in the right direction, unfortunately, we're probably taking that step a little too late in the game at this point. EVERY PILOT SHOULD KNOW WHO M KING HUBBERT IS!!! His ideas are as fundamentally sound and as important as Bernoulli's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImV1voi41YY