Sadly, this form of analysis is a pipe dream, no pipeline pun intended. In the scenario that the Democratic Party of the US actually tackling the automobile industry for mileage requirements, it would first of all be many years before any significant portion of the vehicles on the road were of any consequential difference. Second, the production of all these new cars would require energy, and the alternative energies we hear about (Ethanol, for example) do not reduce but increase reliance on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions-- you just don't have to see them as directly. Thirdly, this article completely flies in the face of basic market principles of growth or decline. Industries cannot simply become static; the American Department of Energy has predicted that standard growth (a growth that is the only way to avoid internal entropic economic results) will result in getting the US demand to push global demand (with rising Indian and China) well over 100 million barrels of oil a day in consumption. The markets will be there if the people will survive the rapidly ascending emissions of climate change and resultant storms, floods and other disasters.
This kind of analysis is wishful thnking because of just how brutally uphill a fight to turn around this madness appears. But we cannot afford to placate ourselves with visions of impending American collapse or decline, we must be proactive and work-- from pipeline to pipeline, coast to coast to coast to gulf waters, and from tarpit to refinery-- to shut the whole system down before the most frightening of disasters in history sinks us, while we wait for a decline in oil demand that will never come of itself.
--M
Beware U.S. energy policy, advocacy group warned
Ron Chalmers, The Edmonton Journal
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=62b989...
Published: Sunday, April 15, 2007
EDMONTON - Alberta's oilsands ambitions could go south because of the new concern in the United States for fuel economy and climate change, a Washington-based consumer advocate told an Edmonton conference Saturday.
High oil prices and rising exports depend on U.S. consumption, which could decline, said Tyson Slocum, director of the Public Citizen's Energy Program in Washington D.C., a group founded by Ralph Nader.
The current Democratic majority in the U.S. Congress is considering aggressive legislation to improve mileage and to address climate change, he said.
The House of Representatives recently passed a bill repealing $14 billion worth of recent subsidies to oil companies and shifting that money to a renewable-energy and energy-efficiency fund, Slocum said.
While the bill has not cleared the Senate or received presidential assent, he said Albertans should not assume that increased oilsands production always will find unlimited demand in the U.S.
"If we are going to have a discussion about Canadian energy policy, it must involve U.S. energy policy," Slocum said after speaking to 130 delegates at the Public Interest Alberta conference.
Strong fuel-economy standards in the U.S.will reduce American oil consumption and the price of oil, he said.
Although the United States has not ratified the Kyoto accord, "I think support is building to implement climate-change legislation," Slocum said.
rchalmers@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
