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Journalist Michael Klare says the age of "easy oil" is over.

"Easy oil would be the stuff that would be easy to get out of the Earth, in large reservoirs, close to the surface or in shallow, coastal areas, or in friendly countries that are law-abiding and nearby," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "All of that oil is now gone. We'll never see it again."

Klare has written several books about the oil industry. Blood and Oil examined America's dependence on foreign sources, and his latest, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, focuses on the geopolitical problems countries face if they don't find alternative energy resources.

He sees America entering a new era: one of "tough oil."

"Tough oil is deep underground, far offshore, in complex geological formations like shale rock or in the Arctic. Or in unfriendly, dangerous countries," he explains. "That's what I mean by tough oil. That's all that's left on the planet, so that, to the degree to which we remain dependent on oil, that's what we're going to have to go after."

But going after the "tough oil," Klare says, is tough in part because of the complexities of weather, geology and politics. And he warns that deep-water drilling in "tough oil" areas may well lead to more disasters like that of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico.

"I think that when you engage in drilling in environmentally hazardous areas — which is the trajectory we're on — more such disasters are inevitable because we're operating in places increasingly where the geological formations are unfamiliar, unknown — and where the Earth will behave in unexpected, unforeseen ways, and we can't protect against all of these unforeseen events. So all kinds of disasters are likely to occur."

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Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off