RE: T. Boone Pickens seems to agree with Glenn on oil production

I'll cut right to the chase by focussing on Don's final paragraph:

"So what's the average guy to do? I say, come out in favor of conservation
and the search for alternatives whenever the opportunity presents itself.
No matter whether the landing is hard or soft, the world is going to miss
easily producible petroleum and natural gas."

The average guy (and gal) would do well to plan ahead and to anticipate
increases in energy prices in real terms. This means maybe to resist buying
a 200+ m2 home in the suburbs for a family of 3-4 people. A home that will
require large amounts of energy to heat and cool the place and large amounts
of fossil fuel to power the cars to commute for the next 25 or so years. To
me, this is placing oneself near the bottom of a potential well from which
it will be difficult to escape when the crunch comes. When energy prices
will go up, who will be able to afford to heat and cool an excessively large
home and commute in a private car? By this time, the home may well have
become a white elephant.

We are running into a problem in this area with a (hopefully temporary)
scarcity of insulation material. The local utilities are offering
low-interest loans for homeowners to improve the insulation in their homes.
Of course, this creates a spike in the demand, results in shortages and/or
increases prices. The clever homeowners have anticipated this and are ahead
of the curve.

Our provincial utility has had to revise the cost of construction of a new
hydro dam as a direct result of the increase in fossil fuels. Fossil fuels
are needed not only to power the earthmoving equipment, ship materials, but
also making concrete of which large amounts are needed.

In summary, we need to curb our appetite for consuming large amounts of
energy. That's the Christian approach, anyway.

Chuck Vandergraaf

  _____

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of Don Winterstein
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:25 AM
To: jcannon@washjeff.edu; asa
Subject: Re: T. Boone Pickens seems to agree with Glenn on oil production

You're right, T. Boone and Glenn both make many of the same points.

<snip>

Don

----- Original Message -----

From: Joel Cannon <mailto:jcannon@jcannon.washjeff.edu>

To: asa@calvin.edu

Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 4:16 AM

Subject: T. Boone Pickens seems to agree with Glenn on oil production

Hi Folks:

NPR interviewed T. Boone Pickens, well-known in 70's for taking over
oil companies. I expect that you could find the interview on the NPR
website. I
missed the start but did hear him say that he thought oil prices would
not go down, that present production could not be increased, and that
oil prices would be over $100 barrel in 10 years.

The interviewer pressed him about what several petroleum executives
have said, particularly BP's chief who predicted that oil would fall
back down to $40/barrel. His statement was something like, "I don't
know how oil executives think."

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Joel W. Cannon                   |   (724)223-6146         
Physics Department               |   jcannon@washjeff.edu 
Washington and Jefferson College |      
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