The Investigation - a major disappointment

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I just listened to this week's The Investigation on Radio 4. Described as 'Simon Cox investigates the truth behind rising oil prices' it was a major disappointment.

Cox spends half an hour looking for the culprit behind rising prices. The usual suspects are trundled out for view, i.e: oil producers and futures speculators, all the time ignoring the elephant of Peak Oil standing in the middle of the room knocking the china all over the place.

Most of the programme is spent with Cox buying oil futures, getting nowhere fast.

The most interesting part of the programme is when he talks to Mike Wagstaff of North Sea oil drillers 'Venture Production'.

Surprisingly, Wagstaff talks about the 'end of cheap abundant energy', oil as a 'depleting commodity' and an industry with no spare rigs or engineers on tap for new drilling, all pretty much standard Peak Oil arguments.

All this is blithely missed (or ignored) by Cox who is happier playing the futures market and watching his investment take a dive.

This show could have been a big step forward, helping to bring Peak Oil into the mainstream, an opportunity missed, what a shame.

To make up for this, take a look at Matt Simmons, an energy insider bullishly making the case in the US:

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