Green Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons will announce on Monday the Party's plan to prepare for 'Peak Oil', the end of cheap oil.

Peak oil production occurs when roughly half of all recoverable supplies have been used up. After peak, production rolls over into a steady decline. The U.S. was the first country to exploit it's oil resources (as late as 1940 we were pumping more than half of all the oil in the world), and the first to peak (in 1970), but is among the last to recognize the problem of world-wide peak, which could come anytime from later this year to a few decades from now--depending on if you're an optimist or a pessimist.

Fitzsimons released a statement saying;

The price of oil is now over $60 a barrel, two years ago it was $30. Petrol at the pump is now $1.40 a litre. We do not believe this is a temporary situation - as oil fields deplete prices are likely to go even higher.

At Monday night's meeting I will lay out the Green Party's plan to prepare for a future of much higher oil prices and eventual scarcity.

The single most important thing we must do to secure a sustainable future is to reduce our dependence on oil. We do have options. New Zealand can survive into the post-oil age better than most countries, but as a nation we still largely have our heads in the sand when it comes to oil depletion and climate change, and the opportunities we have to plan for a better way of life.

At the present time the U.S. imports more oil than any single nation has ever produced in history, and yet the recent energy bill primarily focused on handouts to oil and gas companies.

U.S. Greens might do well to listen to what Fitzsimons has to say.

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