The words “oil glut” were not something I ever expected to hear in 2015, 45 years after scientists predicted with confidence that the world had reached peak oil, the point after which oil production would steadily decline.
Those projections fueled expensive and far-reaching policy changes aimed at conserving energy. The regulations fell particularly hard on Detroit’s automakers.
And while production did drop for a few years, advances in technology and discoveries of new reserves now make those doomsday voices sound foolish.
Today’s problem is not too little oil, but too much. America is producing so much crude it is running out of storage space. Tanks in Cushing, Oklahoma, where most U.S. oil is traded, are reaching their capacity of 85 million barrels, and new ones are being built.
Even though gasoline prices have been back on the rise for a few weeks, analysts expect the over-supply to send them dropping again in the spring.
So head to the gasoline station and fill up that thirsty SUV. Start driving. If you don’t, the poor folks in Oklahoma are going to be swimming in oil.