The late Dr. M. King Hubbert is well known as a pioneering authority on the estimation of energy resources and on the prediction of their patterns of discovery and depletion.

He was also a trailblazer in geophysics though he was best known for his startling prediction, first made public in 1949, that the fossil fuel era would be of very short duration. "Energy from Fossil Fuels, Science" [scanned, 260 kb] [Printing aids] [February 4, 1949]

His subsequent prediction in 1956 that U.S.oil production would peak in ten to fifeteen years and decline thereafter was met with consternation but his analysis proved to be remarkably accurate.

In 1974, at the request of Congressman Mo Udall, Hubbert provided written testimony about the monetary implications of industrial growth to the Subcommittee on the Environment of the committee on Interior and Insular Affairs in support of The National Energy Conservation Policy Act of 1974.  The act was to establish a comprehensive energy conservation program to regulate growth of energy to not more than 2 percent a year.   

To establish his credibility to provide testimony on the subject, Hubbert provided an overview of his rich experience as well as an extensive list of his achievements and relevant work:

“My name is M. King Hubbert. I am a Research Geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, but I wish to make it clear that I am testifying as an individual and I am not representing the views of the Geological Survey or of the Administration. My scientific education was received during the 1920's from the University of Chicago from which I have received the degrees B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. jointly in geology and physics with a minor in mathematics. One half of my professional career, beginning in 1926, has been in both operations and research with respect to the exploration and production of petroleum. The second half has been divided about equally between university teaching in geology, geophysics, and mineral and energy resources, and work with the Illinois and U.S. Geological Surveys. In the petroleum industry my work included geological and pioneer seismic explorations in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma during 1926-1928 for the Amerada Petroleum Corporation and in petroleum exploration and production research during l943-1963 for Shell Oil Company and Shell Development Company in Houston, Texas. Also, for about a decade of this latter period I was an Associate Director for Exploration and Production Research for Shell during which I helped to organize and staff a major research laboratory for petroleum exploration and production.

My university teaching comprised a decade during the 1930's in geology and geophysics at Columbia University; Professor of Geology and Geophysics (part time) from 1962-1968 at Stanford University; a Regents' Professorship during the Spring Quarter, 1973, at the University of California, Berkeley; and numerous shorter lectureships at various universities, including California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

My scientific and professional affiliations include membership in the National Academy of Sciences (elected in 1955); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1956); Geological Society of America (former President; Day medal for geophysics; Penrose Medal for general geology); American Geophysical Union; American Association of Petroleum Geologists (Associate Editor; Honorary membership) Society of Exploration Geophysicists (former Editor; Honorary membership) American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (Lucas Medal for petroleum engineering): and Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (Honorary membership).

Of particular pertinence to the present hearings on the rate of industrial growth has been a continuing study, begun in 1926, of mineral and energy resources and their significance in the evolution of the world's present technological civilization. Of the more than a dozen published papers resulting from this study, the following bear directly upon some of the concerns of the present hearings:

• Hubbert, M. King, 1950, Energy from fossil fuels: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Centennial, Washington, D.C., p. 171-177.
• Hubbert, K. King, 1962, Energy resources--A report to the Committee on Natural Resources: National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Washington, D.C., Publication 1000-D, 141 p. Reprinted, 1973, National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Virginia 22151; available as PB 222401.
• Hubbert, M. King, 1969, Energy resources, in Resources and Man; National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Report of Committee on Resources and Man: San Francisco, W. H. Freeman & Co., p. 157-242.
• Hubbert, M. King, 1972, Man's conquest of energy: Its ecological and human consequences, in the environmental and ecological forum 1970-1971: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Office of Information Services, p. 1-50; available as TID 25857 from National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Virginia 22151.”  

Despite its overwhelming thoroughness, this litany of achievement scarcely scratches the surface of Hubbert’s contribution to science and society.  It also fails to express the daunting circumstances and the long frustrating years through which Hubbert endured along his path to unprecedented achievement in earth sciences.

The historical record reveals that Hubbert was not only a hero in his time, but also a sterling example of a leader who serves in his leadership.  In the face of adversity and incredulity, Hubbert spoke his truth shattering common scientific misconceptions, if not immediately, then over time.  His brilliance was perhaps only surpassed by his strength of character – he was both uncompromising and unyielding in the pursuit of the truth.

M. King Hubbert lived to see many of his many of his predictions come to pass and his former detractors fall.  Their descent was more a conversion – to positions he initially proposed decades earlier – and en route King collected a formidable number of major scientific honors.  The award parade peaked when he received the Vetlesan Prize from Columbia University.  The Vetlesan is the highest honor in earth sciences. It was doubly significant in Hubbert’s case because he left Columbia in 1940 after many stormy years on the faculty in which he tried, without success, to merge physics and geology into geophysics.

In his introductory remarks at Vetlesen ceremonies, Barry Raleigh director of Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory said “Today Hubbert’s intransigence is regarded as incomparably valuable. Being outspokenly correct when the conventional wisdom would have it other wise may not win popularity contests, but the vitality and intellectual integrity of men such as King Hubbert are rare and precious qualities. Recognition of King Hubbert marks our great gratitude and humble respect for all that he has done for our science and for this country.” 

For Hubbert's memorial, the Geological Society of America extolled “there was not a geologist, hydrologist, geophysicist, petroleum engineer, or mineral economist in the entire world that was not deeply in his debt.    If art is a perfection of memory, as has been said, then perhaps science is the sublimation of reason.  A superb exemplar was the scientific productivity of M. King Hubbert.  The ideas he wove into the great skein of geological thought not only illuminated the advances of this century but endure as a celebration of reason… All honor then to the young man from San Saba who ventured alone and traveled far to see elusive truths in the scheme of things.  He succeeded, probably beyond his expectations and in all likelihood beyond his dreams."