“GasHole” (spelled as one word) is a 2010 documentary,
directed by Scott Roberts and Jeremy Wagener, tracing the history of oil
production and the apparent attempts by the oil industry to sabotage
alternative fuels.
A central idea in the movie is the Hubbert Peak Oil Theory
(wiki article and admire the math ) which maintains that
domestic oil production in the United States might have peaked around 1970
(just when I started working) and for the whole planet, around 2000-2010.
But interest in alternative fuels started early, after WWII,
in the late 1940s, with ideas like the water injected carburetor There was a patent bought near Modesto CA Shell.
A heavy car called the Buick Roadmaster in 1947 was said to get tremendous
mileage. But the oil companies quashed
the research or hid it. There was also a
1947 Studebaker supposedly getting 150 miles per gallomn. A book describing the
engine went out of print and now is not even
in the Library of Congress (and all books are there, including mine, as I
learned in 1997). The film gives
accounts of a couple of researchers found murdered in the Mojave Desert.
Americans next got concerned about improving gas mileage
after the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, with the gas lines and even-odd rationing of
early 1974, leading politicians to promise energy independence. Speeches by Nixon (November 1973, just as
Watergate heated up), Ford, and Carter on the subject are excerpted. (I remember watching the Nixon speech in a
motel while on a work trip with Univac.)
But the public would lose interest after the shortages
passed (there would be another brief crisis in 1979 because of Iran).
The film punctuates itself with some engineering
demonstrations on high mileage could work, but older designs, before the
electric car. But the hydrogen car is
shown at the end.
The whole concept of peak oil is somewhat challenged by a
sudden domestic energy book in the US due to Marcellus Shale, leading to
enormous natural gas production (the Pickens Plan) and new ways to make oil. The
US may be a net oil exporter by 2030.
The new challenge is to produce and use the fuel without adding to
carbon emissions and climate change. This idea is already explored by the recent
drama “Promise Land” (review here, Jan. 2, 2013).
The official site for the (“GasHole”) film (Cinema Libre) is
here.
This film can be rented on YouTube for $2.99 or from Netflix
instant replay.
The film should be compared to the CNN TV documentary “We
Were Warned” ("Films on major challenges to freedom" blog, June 2, 2007).
Other films on this blog are “Fuel” (Sept. 19, 2009), and “Crude:
The Real Price of Oil” (Oct. 25, 2009), a short “Driving Greener” (June 24,
2008). Also, there is “A Crude Awakening”
(2007, Telepool, directed by Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack), a film making
dire, if outdated predictions, on my “doaskdotell” site (old review).
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