Matt Simmons dies at 67

Peak oil guru

Jay Blazek Crossley, Aug 09, 10.

Matt Simmons, the energy investment banker who is credited with bringing the idea of peak oil to the general public, passed away at his house in Maine following a heart attack, according to the Houston Business Journal and Bloomberg.

Simmons had recently left Houston-based Simmons and Co. International, which he founded and led for many years, to focus a newer venture to explore alternative energy, the Ocean Energy Institute.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Simmons from a Fortune magazine article in 2008: “I find it ironic that here we have the biggest industry on earth, and I’m one of the few people to figure out that we have a major problem, and I did it all in my spare time. How stupid and tragic is that? I shouldn’t be one of the only folks that actually has a handful of ideas of how we can keep from blowing each other up and get through this.”

Simmons laid out his ideas about peak oil in his 2005 book, Twilight in the Dessert: The Coming Oil Shock and the World Economy.