The Economist has a piece on it: Feeling peaky
FT Alphaville discusses it: Peak oil goes mainstream (again)
From 2005, when oil was US$60/barrel, James Hamilton wrote: How to talk to an economist about peak oil
In a related point, I’ve also put together two charts looking at the number of miles driven in America. The first gives a rolling 12-month total of the number of miles driven per capita in America, while the second looks at deviations from previous peaks in the same. Both are from 1971 onwards. A few things to note:
- The current dip started well before the recession (peak was in June 2005); it’s been going for 79 months so far.
- The current level was last seen in February 1999.
- The current level (January 2012) is 6.34% below the most recent peak; the low point in the current dip was at 6.45% below (November 2011).
- The dip at the end of the ’70s and start of the ’80s (i.e. the second oil crisis and the Volker recession) reached 4.99% below the previous peak after 21 months and was back above that peak after 54 months.
