[jimbokun]

"In the end, perhaps the most misleading claim of the peak-oil advocates is that the earth was endowed with only 2 trillion barrels of “recoverable” oil. Actually, the consensus among geologists is that there are some 10 trillion barrels out there. A century ago, only 10 percent of it was considered recoverable, but improvements in technology should allow us to recover some 35 percent — another 2.5 trillion barrels — in an economically viable way. And this doesn’t even include such potential sources as tar sands, which in time we may be able to efficiently tap."

So, yes, the author concedes that the supply of oil is finite. But he is arguing that "Peak Oil" is much less imminent than many claim. Specifically, that there is an extra 1.5 trillion barrels of recoverable oil that "peak-oil advocates" do not account for. I would like to see a peak-oil advocate's take on these numbers.