Ken Gray, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, May 02, 2008
You drive past the gas station in Orléans and the sign says your fill is going for $1.22 a litre. Blame it on Russia.
The world’s largest oil producer reported that its output decreased for the first time in 10 years. It delivered one per cent less oil than a year ago.
What’s disconcerting about this little-known fact, trumpeted recently on the front page of The Wall Street Journal but getting little play elsewhere, is that the scenario unfolding in Russia is being repeated the world over. Essentially, its Siberian oil fields are aging, becoming tired, the easy-to-reach oil declining.
Main points
- The world’s great oil deposits …are seeing their production diminish despite astronomical demand.
- some experts are concerned that many countries have wildly over-estimated their reserves
- T. Boone Pickens thinks oil will reach $150 a barrel.
- What does this mean to the person driving past the gas station? Higher prices. A different lifestyle, maybe a radically different lifestyle someday.
- The suburbs could be hollowed out through demographics
- Ottawans will flock to transit (already, with $1.22-a-litre gas, ridership is up as much as 6.9 per cent year over year)
- City finances will be further battered by increased ridership on buses that are heavily subsidized by the municipality.
- City council needs to realize our transportation problems are now, not in some far-off fanciful date 20, 30 or 40 years in the future.
- Electric rail must be built quickly. If not, we’re in trouble
