GM: Oil has peaked - Time's up for petrol cars

Well, well... an interesting start to the year with gold at over $900 (inflation hedge & oil coupling, anyone), oil taking a slight price cut and KSA trying to assure Europe that "we'll keep you afloat for the early spring."

But none of that was as interesting as the keynote at Detroit Auto show by General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner and the ensuing media cover of the event. What did Mr Wagoner say?

"AS the demand for energy around the world is growing faster than supply. And that's not just a cyclical phenomenon, it's structural... The world will need 70% more energy in the year 2030 than it did in the year 2004."

What was the response?

One article in Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. The mind boggles.

The article details that GM thinks bio-ethanol is an important interim step as a bridge fuel to better battery technology. So much for the hydrogen dream they were still touting as the solution a bit more than a year ago. Fortunately, others are seeing through the GM smoke screen as well.

Well, how much of a solution are biofuels? Stuart Staniford at the Oil Drum did a thorough article @ TOD about burning food for fuels..

His conclusion? Even if we burn up all the food you, me and everybody else eats every day into liquid fuels, they still will not account for more than a fraction of the daily oil need of the world.

Regardless, it looks like we will just do that: burn food for gasoline, even if even EU is now accepting it is problematic and Nobel laureate level scientists are saying it is downright stupid.

Well, time to buy those agricultural stocks. You didn't think they could go higher than this? Well, looks like you were wrong.

Even if the world is going to a hell in a hand basket, one can always speculate and make a killing on it.

What a truly wondrous world we live in :)