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Speaker 0 explains that petroleum wasn’t what they thought it was and asks if it’s just a mineral or how to classify its origin. He notes that when petroleum was first found, as motors and rails expanded in the early 1800s, oil shifted from a lubricant to a fuel, increasing its value. Rockefeller is described as the smartest man in the business at the time, making much of his money from both the transport and sale of petroleum. He describes the pricing challenge: oil has essentially no initial ground cost, so to raise prices, the industry would make it appear scarce, implying the need to conserve barrels.
A pivotal event is highlighted: in 1892, at a Geneva convention of scientists determining what organic substances are, a definition emerged. The convention defined organic as a substance with hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, usually living things. Rockefeller reportedly sent scientists who stated that oil is hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, thus derived from rotting formerly living matter, leading to the conclusion that oil is a fossil fuel. He claims the definition was used to describe oil as residue from formerly living matter, and that today petroleum is labeled a fossil fuel.
He challenges the idea of fossil fuel by pointing out that there has never been a fossil found below 16,000 feet, while oil is drilled at depths of 28,000–33,000 feet daily, arguing this fact contradicts the fossil-fuel claim. He asserts the term “fossil fuel” is used to create the impression of scarcity and depletion, linking it to depletion allowances and the belief that oil supplies are running out. He contends the world’s oil supply is not near depletion and is the second most prevalent liquid on earth, with many deposits still untapped.
Regarding pricing, he asserts that those in charge of petroleum aim to keep prices high, using the rhetoric of increasing scarcity to justify higher costs, including advocating for a world price rather than disparate national prices. He claims this pricing objective is part of a broader strategy, as seen in attempts to set a world price for oil and other commodities like wheat.
He recounts a four-year federal staff energy seminar during the so-called energy crisis, attended by high-level officials and even Henry Kissinger. The purpose, he says, was to propagate a propaganda line to establish a world price for oil. He mentions Kantrowitz, head of Kantrowitz Laboratories, who, at the table with geologists, challenged the fossil-fuel assertion, dismissing the notion and prompting laughter at their expense. Kantrowitz reportedly urged the geologists to drop the fossil-fuel claim, noting it’s in all books and papers, tracing the idea back to the 1892 conference, described in a thick scientific encyclopedia by Dieben Ostrand Company.
In summary, he argues there is a deliberate push to classify petroleum as a fossil fuel, supported by scientific and political maneuvering, with a substantial financial motive behind maintaining high prices and controlling markets. He concludes that “there’s a dollar sign behind almost everything.”