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October 6, 2008
Energy Sustainability
Posted by Rudy Baum on October 6, 2008 in The Editor's Blog
I recently attended a forum sponsored by Harper’s Magazine at the National Press Club on “The Geopolitics of Energy Sustainability: Meeting Demand in a Changing International Environment.”
The four speakers at the forum were erudite and represented different sectors of the energy policy universe. Kent F. Moors, the moderator, is executive managing partner of Risk Management Associates International and president of ASIDA, an energy consulting firm. The panel consisted of Elizabeth Cheney, vice president of exploration and production for Shell Americas; Bruce Schlein, vice president of environmental affairs for Citigroup; and John C. Topping Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Climate Institute.
Moors painted a fairly bleak picture, concluding, “At most, we have 30 years left of a sustainable crude-oil-based economy. The big fields are gone. We are looking at smaller fields, geologically difficult fields, and poorer quality crude oil. We need alternative energy sources, including alternative sources of hydrocarbons. This must include ways to increase the efficiency of existing fields, including mitigating the environmental damage of exploiting them.”
Moors observed that weaning ourselves from petroleum will be the “most difficult, excruciating change we have ever faced.” (more…)
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