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Working title: Occupy1

There Will Be Fuel? An Open Letter to the New York Times

The below is an open Letter to the Editor to the New York Times.

Rarely is the public treated to such inaccurate, misleading and unhelpful “journalism” as in “There will be fuel” by New York Times correspondent, Clifford Krauss (New York Times, November 17, 2010) , even in this era of political spin and smoke and mirrors surrounding energy.

Let’s begin with the article’s concluding comment:

“When you add it up,” Mr. Morse noted, “you get something that very closely approximates energy independence.”

The facts of the matter are that no nation on earth is more dependent on imported oil than the U.S.  Although consumption has declined somewhat, due to the Great Recession, imports accounted for more than 61 percent of U.S. oil consumption in 2009. Net 2009 U.S. imports of 11.5 million barrels per day exceeded China’s TOTAL OIL CONSUMPTION of 8.6 million barrels per day by 33 percent….

…In summary, oil and gas are finite resources that are being consumed at unprecedented and growing rates. Despite what your article says, the U.S. is the worst offender and is highly vulnerable to future energy price and supply shocks. The growth trajectory of the already high consumption levels in the industrialized world and the rapid growth in consumption in the developing world is patently unsustainable. Articles such as this falsely promote complacency and thus are an extreme disservice to understanding the energy sustainability dilemma facing the World. The premise of this article that the U.S. is approaching “energy independence” could not be further from the truth.

J. David Hughes

David Hughes is a geoscientist who has studied the energy resources of Canada for nearly four decades, including 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada as a scientist and research manager. He developed the National Coal Inventory to determine the availability and environmental constraints associated with Canada’s coal resources. As Team Leader for Unconventional Gas on the Canadian Gas Potential Committee, he coordinated the recent publication of a comprehensive assessment of Canada’s unconventional natural gas potential. Over the past decade, he has researched, published and lectured widely on global energy and sustainability issues in North America and internationally. He is a board member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas – Canada and is a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute.

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-11-21/there-will-be-fuel-open-letter-new-york-times

Interview with Bob Hirsch on his team’s new book—“The Impending World Energy Mess”

“Andrews: How will some of those changing societal priorities role down to impact individuals?

Hirsch: Every one of us will be impacted by the decline of world oil production. Liquid fuel costs are going to escalate dramatically-that’s what happened in 1973 and 1979, and it will happen again. There will be shortages, which will cause all kinds of problems. There will be rising unemployment and dramatic declines in stock markets. And there will be inflation. It happened before, and it is logical that it will happen again, except this time the pain will last a lot longer.”

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-09-13/interview-bob-hirsch-his-team%E2%80%99s-new-book%E2%80%94%E2%80%9C-impending-world-energy-mess%E2%80%9D

Planet Earth Can’t Import Oil

…As EROEI decreases from 10:1 toward 1:1, the oil industry comes to resemble an obese but famished wet-nurse ravenously sucking her own breast at the crib of a starving infant….

http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/674/1/

Major reports point to oil supply turmoil and price volatility by Matthew Wild

The Oil Crunch: The world will experience peak oil at 91-92 million barrels per day “by end 2010/early 2011. Global capacity will then remain in the 91-92Mb/d range until 2015 from which time depletion will more than offset capacity growth. . .”

The Joint Operating Environment: “By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 MBD.”

Sustainable Energy Security: “A supply crunch appears likely around 2013…given recent price experience, a spike in excess of $200 per barrel is not infeasible.”

Taken together, then, these reports suggest the world will be entering into a period of turmoil due to oil supply issues as early as the beginning of 2011 or as late as 2013. This will be marked by a time of rising oil prices, simply due to demand. By 2015 oil output will be in decline and the world will collectively have to make structural changes, or else face outright economic decline, because less oil will be coming to the market at any price.

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-08-23/major-reports-point-oil-supply-turmoil-and-price-volatility

It’s ALIVE!

http://www.sanftestrukturen.de/index.html

Living homes aka Arborsculpture.

when truth is unbelievable

But seven years after I began a crusade to educate and mobilize my fellow citizens, I find the environmental movement seems largely ineffective, the culture more distracted and people more ambivalent than ever. Climate change is seen as a hoax perpetuated by grant-greedy scientists, peak oil remains the territory of kooks and pessimists and the next iPad version is more important to the public and media than the next version of Earth we are creating by radically altering the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere.

http://www.energybulletin.net/53678

Convince us

There is no more compelling testimony that peak oil is a critical issue than the time and treasure one is willing to put into preparing oneself for a post-peak oil world.

http://www.energybulletin.net/53641

Addicted to Fossil Fuels

…So, you ride a bike or walk? Sure, you use far less energy. But the bike is made of coal (smelted aluminum and iron) and oil (tires, seat, plastic), then it is painted with oil. It’s a Gary Fisher, you say? OK, clear-coated with oil, or anodized with coal. Your Nikes or Chacos are pure oil, plus some coal (Chinese electricity) toted over on a smoky, Bunker No. 6-burning container ship. Your PV system (and mine): oil (plastic) and coal (aluminum), in combination with coal (electricity to make the smelt the silicon, refine the cadmium and tellurium), plus some more coal (electricity) to run the plant. And those coal plants which make the electricity to make these “clean energy” solar cells (of yours and mine) are over in China, where they can’t be protested. They’re out of sight and out of mind, unless you’re Chinese and breathing the effluent of a plant which no doubt has far fewer scrubbers and precipitators than those required in the US….

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/53471

195 Californias or 74 Texases to replace offshore oil

…Therefore, to replace our offshore oil with wind, you’d need 195 Californias, or 74 Texases of wind, and probably 20 years to build it….

…A Junkie’s Reality

Those who would shut down offshore oil drilling might want to consider this: Over the next 20 years, the only real alternatives to offshore drilling are to become even more dependent on oil imports at the worst possible time, or trade it for the environmental horror of tar sands and coal-to-liquids production.

I don’t want to be cavalier about the environmental damage of the oil spill. The Deepwater Horizon spill is a disaster in the same way that liver failure is a disaster for a junkie. And that is our reality: scrounging around back alleys and taking unsavory risks to get our daily fix….

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/52965