The graphs show clearly what we would expect from economic demand theory - increased demand as energy prices fall, plus gearing and economic growth from the more efficient use of FF.

As we move to an era of increasing energy costs the reverse will be true, unless we can find an alternative which will continue to produce adequate amounts of energy requiring a falling percentage of income year after year indefinitely.

Sadly, once started on the route of FF use we can't retrace our steps (in the UK at least) - it looks like we will simply have to live with less energy and it will likely cost a much larger percentage of our income in the short term.

IMO, since in the UK climate we must have a certain amount of energy for heating/cooking, in order to be affordable by all this minimum amount will have to be rationed at some stage. The good news is that the Government can, and is, planning for this (though not overtly since that might panic the public unnecessarily). The long and tortuous path to ID cards for all UK citizens is well under way and is the first critical step to rationing.

http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/index.asp

Demand can be destroyed in a proactive and virtuous way via conservation. Being able to do exactly what we do now but using a lot less energy. Energy efficiency is King

Why is it necessary to be able to do exactly what we do now? We need to create an economic infrastructure that will work within the constraints of our finite world. Starting off with a preconceived notion of the level of economic services to which we are entitled does not strike me as an intelligent way to face the coming crisis. If we have truly lived beyond our means and expanded the earth's population beyond what can be supported at OECD standards of living then we have no choice but tighten our belts and pay the price for our past extravagance. I am in favor of making that price as small as possible for humanity as a whole, but having everyone striving to hang on to exactly what they have now is likely to maximize that price rather than minimize it.

Hi Bob,

Very informative post. I remember back in the 60s when there were claims that electricity would be "too cheap to meter" with the advent of nuclear! Of course even back then nobody was proposing to actually supply it for free.

I found this;
"It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter, will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of history, will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age."

Lewis L. Strauss
Speech to the National Association of Science Writers, New York City September 16th, 1954.

So, looks like we will soon be at 0 out of 4.