Matt Savinar Quoted Heavily in the U.S. Congress (March 14th, 2005)
On March 14, 2005 Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (Republican, Maryland) spoke on the floor of the US House of Representatives for an hour about the dire consequences of Peak Oil. He quoted Matt Savinar extensively, in addition to employing several analogies and examples originally published on LATOC.
Approximately 30 minutes into his presentation, Representative Bartlett stated:
What now? Where do we go now? One observer, Matt Savinar, who has thoroughly researched the options, and this is not the most optimistic assessment, by the way, but may be somewhat realistic, he starts out by saying, “Dear Readers, civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse Bible sect or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best-paid, most widely respected geologists, physicists and investment bankers in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by the phenomenon known as global peak oil.”
Later, Congressman Bartlett concluded by saying:
Is there any reason to remain optimistic or hopeful? Let me go back to Matt Savinar, that not-too-optimistic journalist. “If what you mean is there any way technology or the market or brilliant scientists or comprehensive government programs are going to hold things together or solve this for me or allow for business to continue as usual, the answer is no. On the other hand, if what you really mean is is there any way that I still can have a happy, fulfilling life, in spite of some clearly grim facts, the answer is yes. But it is going to require a lot of work, a lot of adjustments, and probably a bit of good fortune on your part.”
Matt Savinar Quoted Heavily in the U.S. Congress (July 20th, 2005)
Excerpt from speech, emphasis added:
Mr. Speaker, if you go to your computer this evening and do a Google search for peak oil, you will find there a large assortment of articles and comments. Like every issue, you will find a few people who are on the extreme, but there will be a lot of mainstream observations there.
One of the articles that you will find there was written by Matt Savinar. Matt Savinar is not a technical person. He is a lawyer, a good one, and he does what lawyers do. He goes to the sources and builds his case.
I remember in another life I was involved in morphing some of my knowledge of human physiology into the practical world, and I was awarded 20 patents. For every one of those I had a lawyer. I knew that he knew absolutely nothing about the subject that he was helping me on before he came to work with me. By the way, Mr. Speaker, the 20 patents I had, 19 were military patents so these were military lawyers. I was really impressed with how quickly they caught on and knew what was going on and were able to contribute.
I think that Matt Savinar has done that, and I wanted to begin this discussion this evening with a quote from Matt Savinar because it kind of grabs your attention and makes you either want to put down his article with the statement that gee, this guy cannot be for real, or you want to finish it to see the basis for his statement because he begins his article by saying, “Dear Reader, Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon.”
When my wife read that she had the first reaction that I mentioned, Gee, this guy is a nut. I am not going to read any further.
I said, Please read on and reserve judgment until you have finished reading his thesis.
She read on and at the end was genuinely frightened by what she read. . . . Matt Savinar could be correct when he said, “Dear Reader, civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon.” I would encourage you, Mr. Speaker, to pull up his article and read it. It is really very sobering.
Matt Savinar’s Website Shown to President Bush in Private 1-on-1 Meeting (Spring 2006)
In the spring of 2006, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett showed parts of the LATOC site to President Bush in a private, one-on-one, 30 minute meeting. For confirmation of this, click here and fast forward to 53:13.
