Friday January 27, 2006

Energy will be THE issue in 2006, 2007, 2008, etc...

peakoil.com -> dailykos.com :

You are not going to escape energy issues in the coming months and years, so you might as well get ready to talk about them. The issue is acknowledged by all insiders. It has become visible to everybody via gasoline prices, higher heating bills, and rampant inflation at home, permanent tension with Russia, Venezuela and Iran on the international scene. Do you really think it won't have massive economical and political consequences?

One sector where peak oil (or more precisely, peak gas) is already visible is nuclear energy. The keenness of a number of countries to build new nuclear plants is at its highest in 30 years. And remember that the only alternative, for now, for baseload power, is coal. Coal is more plentiful than oil (although a major switch to coal could change that quickly), and it's still relatively cheap. But it's incredibly dirty to produce and to use, and it is one of the biggest contributors to global climate change.

The USA are the biggest consumer and importer of oil, but China is fast catching up. The biggest oil and gas reserves are located around the highly unstable Persian Gulf. Irrespective of whether it is the main cause of the war in Iraq, oil is definitely part of the background of that conflict, and it is one of the main reasons why anyone cares about what's happening in Iran, like it is the one thing that makes us listen to Chavez in Venezuela or to Putin in Russia. Geopolitics are essentially focused on energy issues these days - because it is the only way most of these countries can really threaten us or get us to care. It's all energy-related. You'd better care, it's going to impact you, personally, very soon if it hasn't done it yet.

(2006-01-27 15:33:59 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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