Britain is finally getting the message

From: Glenn Morton (glenn.morton@btinternet.com)
Date: Thu Jan 24 2002 - 23:20:07 EST

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     I ran into this clip this week:
            "It seems strange to think that Britain-one of the very few advanced
    industrial economies that is self-sufficient in energy could be facing a
    long-term energy crisis. Yet that is the inescapable conclusion of a review
    by Downing Street's Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) on Britain's
    future energy needs."
            "Britain is running out of natural gas, which accounts for 30 per cent of
    our electricity, and we may soon be forced to import gas from some of the
    least stable regions of the world. By 2006 we may have to import 15 per cent
    of our gas. " "There is no Alternative: We must Invest in Renewable Energy
    Now," The Independent," Jan. 23, 2002, p. 3

    and as Kenneth Deffeyes wrote of the peak in world oil production:

    "The mathematical peak falls at the year 2004.7; call it 2005. However, I'm
    not betting the farm that the actual year is 2005 and not 2003 or 2006. The
    top of the mathematical distribution is smoothly curved, and there is a fair
    amount of jitter in the year to year production. Remember, the center of
    the best-fit U.S. curve was 1975 ad the actual single peak year was 1970.
    There is nothing plausible that could postpone the peak until 2009. Get used
    to it." Kenneth S. Deffeyes, “Hubbert’s Peak” (Princeton: Princeton
    University Press, 2001), p. 158



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