Kenneth S. Deffeyes

Kenneth S. Deffeyes is a geologist who worked with M. King Hubbert, the creator of the Hubbert peak theory, at the Shell Oil Company research laboratory in Houston, Texas. Deffeyes holds a B.S. in petroleum geology from the Colorado School of Mines and a Ph.D. in geology from Princeton University, studying under F.B. van Houten.^[1] In 1967 he began teaching at Princeton, where he is now professor emeritus. He claims Chickasaw ancestry.^[2]

"Deffeyes is a big man with a tenured waistline. His hair flies behind him like Ludwig van Beethoven. He lectures in sneakers. His voice is syllabic, elocutionary, operatic. ... His surname rhymes with 'the maze.' "—John Mcphee, Basin and Range (1981) ^[3]

In John McPhee's 1981 book Basin and Range, about the origin of Basin and Range topography, Deffeyes teaches geology to McPhee and his readers by analyzing road cuts and the exposed geologic strata that resulted from the construction of Interstate highway 80.^[4] On one trip, Deffeyes picked up a piece of Triassic shale near Paterson, New Jersey to demonstrate a common geologic field-test: he put the shale in his mouth and chewed it. "If it's gritty, it's a silt bed, and if it's creamy it's a shale," Deffeyes said. McPhee tried it and said he wouldn't "have thought to put it in coffee." ^[3]

Deffeyes Ph. D. dissertation research concerned volcanic ashfalls in Nevada that had been altered to zeolites. Not much was known about the potential uses of zeolites, so Deffeyes wrote a review paper on zeolites in sedimentary rocks. This resulted (according to both Deffeyes and John McPhee) in the founding of the natural zeolite industry. Zeolites have important uses in water purification, as catalysts in the petrochemical industry, and as molecular sieves.^[2][3]

He is the author of Hubbert's Peak, published in 2001. In 2005 he published the book Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak. On February 11, 2006 Deffeyes claimed that world oil production had peaked on December 16, 2005.^[5]

Quotes

• "Crude oil is much too valuable to be burned as a fuel."^[6]
• "The economists all think that if you show up at the cashier's cage with enough currency, God will put more oil in ground."^[7]

See also

Other peak oil advocates

• Jean Laherrère
• Dale Allen Pfeiffer

References

External links

• Deffeyes peak oil site at Princeton

Peak oil
Core issues	Peak oil Mitigation of peak oil Predicting the timing of peak oil Hubbert peak theory Olduvai theory
Results/responses	Hirsch report Rimini protocol Price of petroleum 2000s energy crisis Energy crisis Export Land Model Food vs. fuel Oil reserves Pickens Plan Simple living Swing producer Renewable energy commercialization Permaculture
People	Albert Allen Bartlett Colin J. Campbell John Michael Greer David Goodstein Richard Heinberg M. King Hubbert James Kunstler Jean Laherrère Jeremy Leggett Dale Allen Pfeiffer Richard Rainwater Michael C. Ruppert Matthew Simmons Richard C. Duncan Kenneth S. Deffeyes
Books	The End of Oil The Long Emergency Out of Gas The Party's Over Power Down Beyond Oil Twilight in the Desert
Documentary films	A Crude Awakening Collapse The End of Suburbia Oil Factor PetroApocalypse Now? How Cuba Survived Peak Oil What a Way to Go Gashole Fuel (film) Escape from Suburbia Crude (2007 film)
Organizations	The Oil Drum Energy Watch Group ODAC OPEC OAPEC IEA IRENA Post Carbon Institute REN21 Transition town
Other peaks	Car Coal Copper Food Gas Gold Minerals Phosphorus Soil Uranium Water Wheat Wood