The Peak Oil Crisis: The Real Energy Bill
Posted by Big Gav
This piece from the Falls-Church News Press comments on the latest US energy / pork bill. A lot of the same arguments apply here (particularly the point about us being "fortunate" that so much of our present day energy usage is wasteful and can be eliminated with relatively minor changes).
Congress has now passed the Energy Bill of 2005 and, as nearly every commentator has observed, it will do next to nothing with “high” gasoline prices, reducing US dependence on foreign oil, or to help cope with the impending peak oil crisis. In short, this bill was mostly a sop, creating the illusion that the Bush administration and Congress are doing something about gas prices and a growing unease about dependence on foreign oil.
It calls for no sacrifices from the American people. Thus, within a few years – or perhaps months — we will need another energy bill to deal with the real crisis that has arisen from peak oil.
What sort of provisions should a real energy bill contain?
By the time Congress gets around to the next energy bill of course, it will be apparent to nearly everyone a world-class crisis is upon us. The poor countries will be in anarchy due to their inability to afford or purchase sufficient oil. In the developed countries, the price of gasoline will be so high, there will be no question the current price is not just a temporary “spike” caused by speculators. If long lines at the gas pumps accompany very high prices, then the message to pass real legislation will come even sooner.
The required congressional actions are obvious and simple: mandatory conservation and the halting of wasteful practices, a shift to renewable energy, and the development of sustainable lifestyles. While this is easy to say, it will require decades and much hardship to accomplish fully.
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The goal of the conservation program would be to cut energy consumption in an orderly manner, in line with oil and gas depletion rates, so as to have the least possible impact on economy. The underlying premise would be to insure vital uses for oil such as food production, are adequately supplied, while “wasteful” use is heavily curtailed. This does not mean all will be well for many industries. Tourism, recreation, automobiles, and transportation, for example, are bound to be seriously disrupted, if not completed devastated, by the arrival of peak oil.
One of the assets the United States has as we enter an era of oil depletion, is a significant portion of our 20 million barrel per day consumption is pure waste which can be eliminated with relatively minor changes to our lifestyles and appliances.
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