US
Army Report on Peak Oil
These are words from a recently a released US Army (yes, that US Army)
strategic report: “The days of inexpensive, convenient, abundant energy
sources are quickly drawing to a close.”
When those tree-hugging hippies running the US military admit
that Peak Oil is real and imminent, you have to mute the TV and sit up
and take notice.
The Army report dealing with Peak Oil was published jointly in
September of 2005 by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development
Center (ERDC) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Historically,
no other energy source equals oil’s intrinsic qualities of
extractability, transportability, versatility, and cost. The qualities
that enabled oil to take over from coal as the front-line energy source
for the industrialized world in the middle of the 20th century are as
relevant today as they were then. Oil’s many advantages provide 1.3 to
2.45 times more economic value per MBtu than coal (Gever, Kaufman et
al. 1991). Currently, there is no viable substitute for petroleum.
In summary, the outlook for petroleum is not good. This especially
applies to conventional oil, which has been the lowest cost resource.
Production peaks for non-OPEC conventional oil are at hand; many
nations have already past their peak, or are now producing at peak
capacity.
This rather
unexpected candor from the Army that Peak Oil is real is welcome news
in the debate as it will help to debunk the debunkers.
Energy Trends and Their
Implications for U.S. Army Installations, 1.2mb. pdf
The 8 page
summary of the report, 75kb. pdf
|