Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash

About Matt Savinar

Matt Savinar was born and raised in California. He received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of California at Davis. He received his law degree from the University of California at Hastings College of the Law, is a California licensed attorney. (State Bar #228957)

He has appeared on numerous national and international radio shows to discuss global Peak Oil, the ramifications of a declining oil supply, and what we can do to address our energy issues.

His work has been quoted extensively on the floor of the United States Congressand has been featured prominently in the pages of Fortune Magazine and favoraby mentioned on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. His website, LifeAftertheOilCrash.net, averages 15,000 visits and 50,000 page view per day. It is assigned reading at multiple university courses around the world. He is featured heavily in the widely-acclaimed 2006 documentary "A Crude Awakening"

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Contact Matt Savinar

Matt can be contacted via email: Matt@LifeAfterTheOilCrash.net

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Matt Savinar featured in Fortune Magazine special report on billionaire Richard Rainwater

Full text of article available here.

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Matt Savinar featured in Salon.com special report:

Article excerpt, originally published February 2006:

Matt Savinar, 27, once aspired to own a Hummer. He studied poli sci at the University of California, Davis, before going on to get his law degree at U.C. Hastings in San Francisco. He was into bodybuilding. Today, Savinar doesn't own any car, much less a Hummer, and he doesn't practice law, although he's licensed to do so. Frankly, he doesn't think that driving or the legal profession, with the exception of maybe bankruptcy law, have much of a future. Instead of buying a car, Savinar walks, takes the bus and catches rides with friends, but not because he's trying to save the world, he assures me.

Savinar doesn't drive because he's saving the money he'd spend on a used car to buy land; he's not sure exactly where yet, but somewhere with a supply of fresh water, arable soil, low population density and that's far from military bases. He's starting to get back into bodybuilding again, too, all the better to be healthy and in shape to till the earth and grow food, when the time comes. "I happen to think that we're going straight to hell, and I'm trying to figure out how to be in the least hot place of hell," he told me recently on an incongruously balmy 72 degree February afternoon in sunny Santa Rosa, Calif., at a restaurant just a few blocks from the apartment where he lives.

For a young, quick-witted, able-bodied man with an advanced degree, living in the most prosperous country in the world, Savinar has a pretty dim view of his -- and all the rest of our -- prospects. He believes that many if not most of the trappings of modern American life are endangered species and he's trying to figure out how not to become one of them. So Savinar has become a full-time prophet of "peak oil," spreading the word about how the world's oil production will soon peak and global demand will outstrip supply.

When that happens, he imagines that all the ways Americans now depend on oil will become rudely apparent, as the price of everything from filling up at the pump to fruits and vegetables in the supermarket shoots up. Cities and towns will start to struggle to provide basic services like police, firefighting, school buses, water and road repair. Office workers will lose jobs because they can't afford to commute to work from their suburban homes. Even if they could get to the office, there'll be fewer white-collar jobs, as businesses flounder under the strain of a flailing global economy. Yet suburbanites will be grateful for those big backyards to support vegetable gardens, if they can just keep their hungry neighbors from sneaking in at night and stealing their harvest. All that is before we even consider the possibility of an oil war with the likes of China, where, incidentally, so many of those cheap goods that we've come to depend on are manufactured.

But here's what really drives Savinar crazy. As our whole world is about to go hurtling, sickeningly, down the other side of peak oil, we cling to the vain hope that better fuel efficiency, more conservation and alternative energy will step in to save the day. He can't believe our ignorance. Just look at his lunch: chicken fajitas with red and green peppers, brown rice and green salad. Sound wholesome and healthy? No, Savinar reminds me, it's brought here courtesy of cheap energy.

"It's fossil fuels -- petroleum, coal, natural gas -- that have been converted into food," he says. Then, there's the wooden table he's eating it on, which was built god-knows-where and likely shipped here inexpensively courtesy of fossil fuels. Then, there's the financial system underpinning the bank loan that the owner of this restaurant likely got to open the joint, which is predicated on the idea that the economy will grow in the future, not shrink precipitously when oil prices spike. Then there's the asphalt on the four-lane of traffic outside, and the cars, trucks and, oh yes, SUVs zipping along on top of its smooth surface, as well as the concrete of the sidewalk bordering the mall across the street, where Ann Taylor and Talbots sell clothes surely imported from halfway around the world.

But Savinar isn't rollerblading while the oil burns. From his modest apartment, about 60 miles north of San Francisco, he parses the latest energy news and fulminates on his Web site, Life After the Oil Crash. "Dear Reader," he welcomes visitors to his site, "Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists and investment bankers in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global 'Peak Oil.'"

Far from being ignored or dismissed as the hyperbolic rantings of an underemployed twentysomething California attorney, his Web site (which has about 6,000 visitors a day, and which sells books, DVDs and soon solar-powered ovens) has been quoted in the U.S. House of Representatives by members of the Congressional Peak Oil Caucus, like Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett from Maryland. He's been name-checked in Fortune magazine in a recent profile of one of Bush's billionaire buddies, who claims to have read Savinar's site every day since last September, and is keeping $500 million of his fortune in cash just in case Savinar and other peak oil doomsayers, like James Howard Kunstler, are right.

Link to full article

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Matt Savinar Quoted Heavily in U.S. Congress by Maryland Republican Roscoe Bartlett

On March 14, 2005 Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (Republican, Maryland) spoke on the floor of the US Houe of Representatives for an hour about the dire consequences of Peak Oil. He quoted Matt Savinar extensively, in addition to employing several analogies and examples originally published on this site:

Approximately 30 minutes into his presentation, Representative Bartlett stated:

What now? Where do we go now? One observer, Matt Savinar, who has

thoroughly researched the options, and this is not the most optimistic

assessment, by the way, but may be somewhat realistic, he starts out by

saying, Dear Readers, civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon.

This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse Bible

sect or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of

the best-paid, most widely respected geologists, physicists and investment

bankers in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative

individuals who are absolutely terrified by the phenomenon known as global

peak oil.

Later, Congressmean Bartlett concluded by saying:

Is there any reason to remain optimistic or hopeful? Let me go back to

Matt Savinar, that not-too-optimistic journalist. "If what you mean is there

any way technology or the market or brilliant scientists or comprehensive

government programs are going to hold things together or solve this for

me or allow for business to continue as usual, the answer is no. On the

other hand, if what you really mean is is there any way that I still can have

a happy, fulfilling life, in spite of some clearly grim facts, the answer is yes.

But it is going to require a lot of work, a lot of adjustments, and probably a

bit of good fortune on your part.'

Bartlett employed two analogies, one regarding Jevon's Paradox and the other regarding the energy density of gasoline, both of which were originally published on the main page of this site.

The full transcript of Represtentative Bartlett's presentation is republished below. The folks at Energy Bulletin have posted videos of Representative Bartlett's presentation.

July 20, 2005 Update:

Representative Bartlett began his July 19 presentation July 19, 2005 Presentation to Congress by stating, emphasis added:

Mr. Speaker, if you go to your computer this evening and do a Google search for peak oil, you will find there a large assortment of articles and comments. Like every issue, you will find a few people who are on the extreme, but there will be a lot of mainstream observations there.

One of the articles that you will find there was written by Matt Savinar. Matt Savinar is not a technical person. He is a lawyer, a good one, and he does what lawyers do. He goes to the sources and builds his case.

I remember in another life I was involved in morphing some of my knowledge of human physiology into the practical world, and I was awarded 20 patents. For every one of those I had a lawyer. I knew that he knew absolutely nothing about the subject that he was helping me on before he came to work with me. By the way, Mr. Speaker, the 20 patents I had, 19 were military patents so these were military lawyers. I was really impressed with how quickly they caught on and knew what was going on and were able to contribute.

I think that Matt Savinar has done that, and I wanted to begin this discussion this evening with a quote from Matt Savinar because it kind of grabs your attention and makes you either want to put down his article with the statement that gee, this guy cannot be for real, or you want to finish it to see the basis for his statement because he begins his article by saying, "Dear Reader, Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon.''

When my wife read that she had the first reaction that I mentioned, Gee, this guy is a nut. I am not going to read any further.

I said, Please read on and reserve judgment until you have finished reading his thesis.

She read on and at the end was genuinely frightened by what she read. . . . Matt Savinar could be correct when he said, "Dear Reader, civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon.'' I would encourage you, Mr. Speaker, to pull up his article and read it. It is really very sobering.

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