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Oil Celebrates 150 Years: How Long Till We Finally Say Goodbye?

Stephen Wellman | Date: 08-28-09 | Comments

150 years ago on Aug. 27, Edwin Drake struck the first commercial oil well. The discovery of underground petroleum extraction not only gave birth to the modern oil industry, but much of the contemporary world we take for granted. Now the world turns its attention to moving past Drake's discovery as we look for new sources of energy. Will we ever get past petroleum?

Wired takes a look at the 150th anniversary of big oil with this insightful blog post:

But what began 150 years ago won't last another 150 years�or even another 50. The era of cheap oil is ending, and with another energy transition upon us, we've got to scavenge all the lessons we can from its remarkable history.

"I would see this as less of an anniversary to note for celebration and more of an anniversary to note how far we've come and the serious moment that we're at right now," said Brian Black, an energy historian at Pennsylvania State University and author of the book Petrolia. "Energy transitions happen and I argue that we're in one right now and that we need to aggressively look to the future to what's going to happen after petroleum."

Oil's energy density and the relative abundance of the substance at the time of Drake's discovery fueled the next phase of the industrial revolution. Oil powers everything from cars and plastics to pharmaceuticals. But the era of cheap oil is fast ending and, unfortunately for humanity, there is still no wide-scale, affordable alternative. The future of green energy appears to be more an ad hoc mixture of different technologies rather than one simple solution.

While each of these alternative energy sources�wind, solar, biofuel, etc.�looks good, no single one of them will be the catalyst for the energy revolution we need. This is a major cause for concern among many, since the lack of a new sustainable alternative to oil could pose plenty of tough choices ahead.