Peak oil and other oil

A good survey of the current oil price crisis comes from the Telegraph. It covers many bases in a short time, leading up to this explanatory model:

Perhaps the most sensible conclusion is that many factors are at play: maturing oil fields; rising demand from India and China; a wall of speculative money; Opec’s cartel; underinvestment in new wells; and a falling US dollar exchange rate.

Note some interesting rhetorical moves: peak oil is mainstream enough that other explanations can now be called conspiracy theories.

Note, too, the concluding observations: peak oil and climate change combining positively, which is an optimistic take on the big picture.