[A-List] Re: GAO: Looming Threat to US Oil Supply

[Macdonald Stainsby]

CeJ wrote:
>>> Without peak oil, they would never do something such a poor 
>>> investment.>>
> 
> 
> To a capitalist, there is no such thing as a bad investment, so long
> as it makes money and makes more money than the last investment, or
> the investment itself increased from the last quarter, or last year or
> whatever period is tracked.

And that's the point. Only peak oil *guarantees* that the price of oil 
cannot come down to the level that tarsands become uneconomical. It is 
not a matter of siple profit when you are delaing with the absolutely 
insane size of the proposed infrastructure, all of which is start up 
capital to the total tune of 170 billion. This needs to be made up in 
profit and then surpassed. That would not be a safe investment if Saudi 
could just jump production and bankrupt the tarsands the same way they 
killed the USSR.


-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.