Oil: Revenge Of The Negabarrels

Oil: Revenge Of The Negabarrels

Never before, say shell-shocked oil traders, has the world price of crude oil fallen so far.. Now we beg our Saudi and Russian buddies for higher oil prices to protect economic zombies called frackers, who produce oil but not profits.. In the early 1980s, oil users responded to 1973 and 1979 oil price shocks and the delayed effects of smart Ford-Carter policies with a gusher of energy efficiency.. In 2019, the global economy grew 2.9% but world oil demand and price shrank, helping stabilize carbon emissions for the third year in five.. This year, the same US mis-management that had crashed the coal sector and embrittled the oil and gas sectors also enlarged the pandemic, dropping oil demand by at least one-third in two months.. America's remarkable 35% drop in oil burned per dollar of GDP during 1977-85, aver-aging 5.2% per year, remains relevant because now it can be repeated and redoubled.. In those eight years, while GDP grew by 27%, oil use fell by 17%, net oil imports fell 50%, and net oil imports from the Persian Gulf tinderbox fell by 87%.. Our Pentagon-cosponsored study Winning the Oil Endgame estimated that in 2004, America's $2-billion-a-day oil bill