Friday, January 19, 2007

Reading Material

Worldwide demand for petroleum fell in 2006 by about 1%. A teardrop in a monsoon, but something. At the same time, confirmation that the Mexican Cantarell field is declining. So losing Cantarell in the next couple of years may not be too overwhelming if global demand stays steady or continues to decline slightly. Time will tell.

And MUST READING BY THE ALDERMANIC CANDIDATES!!!

I know Westgard and Harrington can find this blog. I hope you are paying attention now gentlemen. You should be sharing this with your candidates. I don't think Moore (or Daley) knows how to spell "Peak Oil" but the fine folks in Portland, Oregon do. The city sponsored a task force, which has just issued an 88 page report (PDF when you click on the link) describing the problem and its potential impact on the city. I have to read the whole thing, but THIS is what I'm talking about!

Contingency and disaster plans are what you put in place AFTER the crisis rears its ugly head. What Portland is trying to do is get ahead of the train and prevent it from running off the rails. This is what Chicago should be doing. Heck every city should be doing this since the feds and the state are whistling past the graveyard. Now I'd really like to know which one of our aldermanic candidates is going to get behind an idea like this for Chicago?

1 comment:

Kheris said...

Biofuels are an option, however one has to be careful. Ethanol lacks the BTUs of regular gasoline, making it less efficient, and that's the refined product after it's been through all the work of refining. I don't know about biodiesel. We need a combination of options.

Are you completely certain wind isn't already powering City Hall? ;)