Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Americans have become very accustomed to happy endings to complex matters, although many appear to be clueless about the connection between our living standards and foreign economic and political interests. I cite the ongoing decline in oil production has the potential for a serious impact on the living standards of Americans as well as the world.

It cannot be denied that the era of cheap and abundant oil is about to end. There is no resource or technology yet remotely capable of equaling the BTU content of oil by weight or volume. All credible energy authorities agree that much of the precious pockets of oil will be gone by the end of the 21st century.

The world’s major producer of oil, Saudi Arabia, began to note a decline in its primary oil fields as early as the mid-1970s; it is acknowledged that the Saudi oil production peaked in the period 1978 to 1981. U.S. production peaked in 1970, world discovery of new oil sources peaked in the 1960s, with ...