There's Not Enough Oil In Saudi Arabia. . .

With gas prices on the rise (today's national average is $3.11), Big Oil's friends in Congress are once again calling for looser regulations and more offshore drilling. Fred Upton, the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, cites as his model Ronald Reagan's "free market and limited government approach," and concludes

Two critical first steps would be to remove the obstacles to domestic oil production and put an end to EPA's global warming regulatory overreach.

Upton's "bogus '80s nostalgia" is thoroughly dissected by Andrew Leonard in Salon here. But a cable released by WikiLeaks and discussed in the UK Guardian reveals that not even the Saudis think they have enough oil to keep prices from escalating.

According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, [Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramco] said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then – possibly as early as 2012 – global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as "peak oil".

Husseini said that at that point Aramco would not be able to stop the rise of global oil prices because the Saudi energy industry had overstated its recoverable reserves to spur foreign investment.

Uh-oh. This might be a really good time to get Beyond Oil.