US military predicts Peak Oil by 2012

The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.

The report, by the US Joint Forces Command, says: "By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India."

For more on this read The Guardian article. It looked like the British government was inching towards an understanding of the issue when the Dept of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) staged a behind closed doors discussion with industrialists and representatives of the Transition movement a few weeks ago. But nothing seems to have come of it. If the US military, surely one of the biggest single consumers of oil in the world, thinks Peak Oil is upon us, then why is the British government being so blinkered on this issue?