The author offers an up-to-date review of the state of the oil extraction industry to counter mainstream media glowing reports of a "golden age of oil". The growth based system of capitalism requires ever increasing amounts of energy; hence, the need to publish such reports so that people do not lose faith in the religion of capitalism, a system which bring so many short-term rewards to the high priests (the One Percent) as it creates one disaster after another for the rest of us.
...the future may prove far more recalcitrant than these prophets of an American energy cornucopia imagine. To reach their ambitious targets, energy firms will have to overcome severe geological and environmental barriers - and recent developments suggest that they are going to have a tough time doing so.