With oil around $100 a barrel, drivers wince whenever they pull into the gas station and businesses watch their bottom lines shrink. Watch out, say doomsayers, it will only get worse as oil dries up. It’s a plausible argument, especially considering the rate at which countries like China and India are now sucking up oil. Even more troubling, the world’s largest oil fields sit in geopolitical hotspots like Iran and Iraq. Some believe their nations need to secure remaining supplies using military force, while others consider dwindling supplies a blessing that will help solve the problem of global warming. But wait-is it really the end of oil? Absolutely not, says geologist, economist, and industry-insider Robin Mills.

There is no other book by an industry insider that effectively counters the peak oil theory by showing where and how oil will be found in the future. There also is no other book by an insider that lays out an environmentally and geopolitically responsible path for the petroleum industry and its customers. The Myth of the Oil Crisis, written in a lively style but with scientific rigor, is thus a uniquely useful resource for business leaders, policymakers, petroleum industry professionals, environmentalists, and anyone else who consumes oil. Best of all, it offers an abundance of one commodity now in short supply: hope for the future.

According to Mills, many ideas about petroleum depletion and its consequences are not just grossly overstated but plain wrong. Calmly and persuasively, he argues: The supply of oil and gas is much larger than imagined by the pessimists.

-Seeking political, military, or commercial control of oil supplies is unnecessary, self-defeating, and exorbitantly expensive.

-Oil is merely one convenient source of energy.

-Opportunities exist to decrease the global consumption of oil radically while maintaining a healthy economy.

-The environmental impact of fossil fuels is the most serious problem the world faces today. But a portfolio of solutions can solve it.