Peak demand for oil is the big new thing . True, the International Energy Agency, in the annual World Energy Outlook it released earlier this month, didn’t envision a peak coming before 2040 barring a big acceleration in anti-climate-change efforts. But at least it’s talking about the possibility, and forecasting a slowdown in demand growth in the meantime. Others think the big day is coming much sooner. Simon Henry, the chief financial officer of Royal Dutch Shell, recently predicted a demand peak “between five and 15 years hence.” And as Bloomberg’s Javier Blas and Laura Blewitt pointed out last week , even the IEA thinks that demand from passenger cars, long the biggest users of oil, has already peaked. So that’s pretty exciting! The peaking of oil demand would mark a major historic turning point. Still, it’s impossible not to get a little wary when the words “peak” and […]