A year ago saw the final post on The Oil Drum, a popular blog — started in 2005 — devoted to discussing the idea that global oil production had peaked. Next up was an age of energy scarcity and economic collapse. Actually what peaked was interest in “peak oil.” As reporter Russell Gold points out in the WSJ today, US oil production began to rise in 2009 and continues to rise today thanks to the oil field innovation of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Innovation met scarcity and innovation won. And there are more innovations on the way, according to Gold. But won’t we one day run out of oil? It’s not infinite, after all, right? Actually price and technological advances rather than petroleum supply is more likely to keep plenty of oil in the ground forever. Gold: When the oil industry overcomes an obstacle and boosts oil production, […]