RE: So what now do we do?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
> Behalf Of Jan de Koning
> Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 9:51 AM
>
> At 07:44 AM 04/12/2003 -0500, Walter Hicks wrote:
> >I have the solution to the world's energy problems (below)! etc.
>
> Would it not be better if we started with: how can we bring our energy
> consumption down? We (myself included) use a lot of fabricated energy,
> which is really not "needed."

Jan, Two things wrong with that. Reducing consumption by a billion barrels
per year will only move the peak of oil production by about 6-18 months. It
is amazing but even severe cuts in usage (which would clearly affect the
economy) will only change the date of the peak by a couple of years or so.
After the peak, economics will do a fine job of bringing energy consumption
down. Jobs will be lost, the economy will decline and there will be a drop
in demand, causing a temporary crash in the price of crude which in turn
will cause layoffs to take place in the industry (probably putting me into
retirement earlier than I wish). But the temporary surplus will not last
long because of the continued decline in production, so the price of oil
will skyrocket again until it chokes off enough economic activity to reduce
demand again.

We need something OTHER than oil or gas to energize us.
Received on Thu Dec 4 19:48:05 2003