With prices peaking (and peaking… and peaking…), the world looks a tad more peaked than it did not so many months ago and “peak oil” — the possibility that the limits of fossil fuel resources on this globe of ours might in our lifetime, even in the coming decade, run up against the soaring desire for the stuff — looks ever less like the stuff of fantasy. In that light, I thought it might be interesting to revisit a few comments Dick Cheney made back when he was the CEO of a giant energy company. Now, we all know, courtesy of our media, that control of global energy resources had nothing (or next to nothing) to do with the invasion of Iraq and that global energy flows and resources were the last things on the minds of neocon and Pentagon hawks, national security advisors, or even vice presidents while they were hatching plans to dominate the world forever and a day.

But you see, back before Dick Cheney became our Veep, a whole year-plus earlier, before, that is, he forgot all about the importance of energy in our world and cut all ties with Halliburton, the company most involved in (and that seems to have sucked the most money out of) our Iraqi adventure, he had a few choice words for a sympathetic audience gathered at the Institute for Petroleum on a relevant subject or two. He was introduced by Chris Moorhouse, who reviewed his career in and out of government and then commented, “Not surprisingly, with such a wide ranging career in politics and now at Halliburton, Dick Cheney [h]as a deep interest in the geo-politics of the energy industry.”

Cheney then went on point out that oil remains basically “a government business” and to lay out briefly some of the math behind peak-oil fears:

“For the world as a whole, oil companies are expected to keep finding and developing enough oil to offset our seventy one million plus barrel a day of oil depletion, but also to meet new demand. By some estimates there will be an average of two per cent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead along with conservatively a three per cent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from?”

If you happened to be a vice president with the kind of power no vice president has ever had, you might give a passing thought or two to securing some of that oil — if you were still worried a year-plus later about where it was going to come from. He also offered the following assessment of oil in our world back in the distant days of 1999:

“Oil is unique in that it is so strategic in nature. We are not talking about soap flakes or leisurewear here. Energy is truly fundamental to the world’s economy. The [1991] Gulf War was a reflection of that reality. The degree of government involvement also makes oil a unique commodity. This is true in both the overwhelming control of oil resources by national oil companies and governments as well as in the consuming nations where oil products are heavily taxed and regulated… It is the basic, fundamental building block of the world’s economy. It is unlike any other commodity.”

Actually, here’s the strange thing about our media and the latest Iraq war: If Iraq had indeed been the global capital of soapflakes or leisurewear, I guarantee you fears and speculations about either product would have garnered far more press during those months of war and occupation than (until very recently) oil did.

[This article first appeared on Tomdispatch.com, a weblog of the Nation Institute, which offers a steady flow of alternate sources, news, and opinion from Tom Engelhardt, long time editor in publishing and author of The End of Victory Culture and The Last Days of Publishing.]

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