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Oil and Gas blog
Running Out of Oil Was Forecast for a Century, So Why Hasn't It Happened A century of exhaustion forecasts, from World War I to the peak-oil books, failed because reserves are an economic idea that grows with price and technology. Lipstick, Aspirin and Asphalt, Everything a Barrel of Crude Oil Becomes Gasoline is only part of each barrel of crude, and the rest becomes diesel, jet fuel, asphalt, plastics, medicines and fertilizer feedstock. Pipe, Rail or Truck, Comparing the Ways to Move a Barrel of Oil Safely Oil gets to market one way or another, and blocking pipelines pushes it onto trains and trucks with worse records for spills and deaths. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Was Built for War, Not for Gas Prices Congress built the reserve in 1975 to survive a supply cutoff like the 1973 embargo. Using it to steer pump prices spends a military asset on politics. The 1973 Airlift That Saved Israel and Cost America an Oil Embargo Operation Nickel Grass rescued Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and the Arab oil embargo that followed taught America that energy is a security question. From the 1973 Embargo to the 2022 Sale, a Strategic Petroleum Reserve Timeline The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was built as insurance against a supply cutoff, and its record shows when drawing it down made sense and when it managed prices. How America Went From Importing Natural Gas to Shipping It Worldwide In a decade America built import terminals and then turned them around to export, and those cargoes serve allies and displace coal and Russian gas. Hundreds of Millions Still Cook Over Wood, and That Is a Moral Question Cheap, reliable power is the surest road out of poverty, so discouraging poor nations from building it carries a moral cost that climate politics rarely counts. Four Pieces of Every Gallon and Why the President Controls the Fewest A gallon of gas is crude, refining, distribution and taxes, and the biggest piece is set on a world market no President commands. Here is what policy can move.