Fossil fuels are certainly finite, but if perpetual demand existed for a hydrocarbon based fuel (“oil”) we could produce as much as we wanted by fixing carbon f

Fossil fuels are certainly finite, but if perpetual demand existed for a hydrocarbon based fuel (“oil”) we could produce as much as we wanted by fixing carbon from some source and using thermal depolymerization — hence my whole point about ingenuity. Shale and oil sands are in a sense ‘unfair’ to the original notion of peak oil which was focused entirely on cheap to produce crude that literally bubbled out of the ground in some places. But then peak oil is semantic; yes, it happened for some flavors of crude in the U.S. but we did and will find ways to produce more (if needed). Pending some fantastically cost effective way to mitigate all the externalities of burning oil, I certainly hope we reduce our use of it.