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59 comments on Ideas about the Future of Energy in the US (from our Industry Insider and Prof. Goose)

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NC on September 1, 2005 - 6:13am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
We have got to keep track of these posts to see how accurate they are 1,2 6, & 12 months out.

I hope you are right Lou.  I am concerned that fundamentals have changed.

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louGrinzo on September 1, 2005 - 7:23am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I hope I'm right, too, although I'm so used to being wrong (insert economist joke here) that it doesn't much bother me any more.

But I think we can't stress enough to the less-energy-aware people we talk to that the fundamentals have indeed changed, and permanently.  Right now we're in the early days of a market shock, but the worldwide energy markets began shifting well before Katrina, and will continue to do so after the current shock subsides.

I keep telling people that 1) if you think energy is expensive now, you're in for a distinctly rude awakening in the coming years, and 2) it will never be this cheap again, at least not for any significant length of time.

In my opinion, those of us who see the big picture have a moral obligation to help everyone else understand what's going.  With gas prices rising quickly and some markets experiencing shortages, we should have no trouble getting their attention.

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Donal on September 1, 2005 - 8:54am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
With peak oil debunkers, we have our work cut out in showing the big picture: http://alteng.blogspot.com
Odograph responds in the comments section.
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Rick on September 1, 2005 - 2:03pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
lou-
Building awareness of PO--a clear and correct perspective--is a very important point. As everyone on TOD knows, this is a very complex issue. And Herbert Simon won his Nobel Prize for pointing out that people oversimplify complex problems.

Building awareness takes time--multiple exposures to an idea, from credible sources, delivered in a form that the intended audience can take in. This is hard enough under the best of circumstances. But it will be greatly hampered by interference effects--one incorrect but appealing statement can torpedo a well-constructed perception. These can be emotive: "It's just the big oil companies price gouging," or logical but not quite right: "It's a temporary shortage caused by refinery outages," and so on.

What can we do? Consider the good examples of the visible PO voices: Deffeyes, Campbell, Simmons, Kunstler, Savinar, and many more. Start the discussion, raise the level of discourse, repeat the truth.

Get out there. Be prophetic. Write. Cultivate the media, and be the voice on radio or the TV sound bite, like Heading Out on the BBC. Proselytize among colleagues, customers, clients, students. And be willing to keep doing it for years.

The ideas and the vision are here at TOD. We need to keep expanding our sphere of influence.

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59 comments on Ideas about the Future of Energy in the US (from our Industry Insider and Prof. Goose)

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