PsychoticDan
15-02-2006, 19:00
A reprint from energybulletin.net of an article from New Republic magazine. You can't get the full article unless you want to pay to subscribe, but here are some of the important points.
Bush may be taking the idea of peak oil seriously
John P. Judis, The New Republic
...Bush's proposal for solar or safe nuclear power will not lead energy prices to fall anytime soon. So while it's true that, like most Bush statements, this one clearly contained a kernel of politics, it may also have reflected genuine concern about a real problem: America's dependence on oil, regardless of where it comes from. This concern, which originated decades ago among maverick geologists, has spread recently to Bush's Department of Energy (DOE) and may have been at least partly responsible for his surprising and uncharacteristic remark about the country's addiction to oil. If so, it's a welcome admission--even if the solutions Bush is proposing fall woefully short.
...Until recently, the Bush administration's DOE appeared to side more with [PO skeptic] Yergin than with [PO writers] Deffeyes and Goodstein, but a DOE report issued last February, along with recent comments from Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, suggests it might be rethinking its position. The report, "Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management," by Robert L. Hirsch, Roger Bezdek, and Robert Wendling, argues that the predictions of imminent peaking must be taken seriously. "
...The authors of the DOE report do not offer a prediction of their own about when the peak will be reached. Instead, they argue that the dire forecasts rest on a sufficiently "robust geological foundation" that policymakers must now take into account. "Prudent management calls for early action," they conclude. And the department is clearly worried. Bodman, a former professor of chemical engineering at MIT--and, unlike some of his colleagues, eminently qualified for his cabinet post--recently ordered another report on peak oil.
(14 February 2006)
Has anyone else heard about another DOE report on peak oil?
The article just went behind a subscriber-only wall. Except for the mention of another DOE report on Peak Oil, there is nothing in it new to people following peak oil. -BA
A link to the DOE report (www.hilltoplancers.org/stories/hirsch0502.pdf ) mentioned.
Bush may be taking the idea of peak oil seriously
John P. Judis, The New Republic
...Bush's proposal for solar or safe nuclear power will not lead energy prices to fall anytime soon. So while it's true that, like most Bush statements, this one clearly contained a kernel of politics, it may also have reflected genuine concern about a real problem: America's dependence on oil, regardless of where it comes from. This concern, which originated decades ago among maverick geologists, has spread recently to Bush's Department of Energy (DOE) and may have been at least partly responsible for his surprising and uncharacteristic remark about the country's addiction to oil. If so, it's a welcome admission--even if the solutions Bush is proposing fall woefully short.
...Until recently, the Bush administration's DOE appeared to side more with [PO skeptic] Yergin than with [PO writers] Deffeyes and Goodstein, but a DOE report issued last February, along with recent comments from Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, suggests it might be rethinking its position. The report, "Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management," by Robert L. Hirsch, Roger Bezdek, and Robert Wendling, argues that the predictions of imminent peaking must be taken seriously. "
...The authors of the DOE report do not offer a prediction of their own about when the peak will be reached. Instead, they argue that the dire forecasts rest on a sufficiently "robust geological foundation" that policymakers must now take into account. "Prudent management calls for early action," they conclude. And the department is clearly worried. Bodman, a former professor of chemical engineering at MIT--and, unlike some of his colleagues, eminently qualified for his cabinet post--recently ordered another report on peak oil.
(14 February 2006)
Has anyone else heard about another DOE report on peak oil?
The article just went behind a subscriber-only wall. Except for the mention of another DOE report on Peak Oil, there is nothing in it new to people following peak oil. -BA
A link to the DOE report (www.hilltoplancers.org/stories/hirsch0502.pdf ) mentioned.