Let’s start with the obvious. Unless something very bad happens this year – a big meteor strikes the earth, a good sized war in the Middle East, or a major sabotage operation– we are likely to consume another 31 billion barrels of oil or, as we call it these days, “all liquids.” All liquids accounts for the odds and ends of liquid fuels such as the grain-based ethanol that is going into our gas tanks rather than our stomachs. No matter how much oil is left under the earth, by this time next year there will likely be yet another 30 billion barrels less to pump out.
