The failure to distinguish clearly between resources and reserves – and to recognize the importance of prices, costs, and technology in transforming resources into reserves – results in bad predictions about an imminent peak in oil production and misinformation that has had a negative impact on policymaking. Rather than focusing on the major short- and long-term challenges facing the oil industry, the debate about peak oil diverts attention to the wrong problems.
石油峰值论者没能地清楚区分石油资源和石油储量两者之间的概念——同时也未能认识到把资源转换成储量过程中价格、成本以及技术的因素的重要性——不但导致了他们对即将来临的石油产量峰值的不断估计错误，还导致信息误传，对政策制订产生了负面影响。有关石油峰值的争论把公众的注意力引向了错误的话题，而不是将目光集中在石油工业所面临的主要长期与短期挑战之上。