Tuesday, November 29, 2005

The Sense of the House



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 24, 2005

Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland (for himself, Mr. UDALL of New Mexico, Mr. GOODE, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. JONES of North Carolina, Mr. TANCREDO, Mr. GINGREY, Mr. KUHL of New York, Mr. ISRAEL, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. UDALL of Colorado, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. GILCHREST, and Mr. WYNN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States, in collaboration with other international allies, should establish an energy project with the magnitude, creativity, and sense of urgency that was incorporated in the `Man on the Moon’ project to address the inevitable challenges of `Peak Oil’.
Whereas the United States has only 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves;
Whereas the United States produces 8 percent of the world’s oil and consumes 25 percent of the world’s oil, of which nearly 60 percent is imported from foreign countries;
Whereas developing countries around the world are increasing their demand for oil consumption at rapid rates; for example, the average consumption increase, by percentage, from 2003 to 2004 for the countries of Belarus, Kuwait, China, and Singapore was 15.9 percent;
Whereas the United States consumed more than 937,000,000 tonnes of oil in 2004, and that figure could rise in 2005 given previous projection trends;
Whereas, as fossil energy resources become depleted, new, highly efficient technologies will be required in order to sustainably tap replenishable resources;
Whereas the Shell Oil scientist M. King Hubbert accurately predicted that United States domestic production would peak in 1970, and a growing number of petroleum experts believe that the peak in the world’s oil production (Peak Oil) is likely to occur in the next decade while demand continues to rise;
Whereas North American natural gas production has also peaked;
Whereas the United States is now the world’s largest importer of both petroleum and natural gas;
Whereas the population of the United States is increasing by nearly 30,000,000 persons every decade;
Whereas the energy density in one barrel of oil is the equivalent of eight people working full time for one year;
Whereas affordable supplies of petroleum and natural gas are critical to national security and energy prosperity; and
Whereas the United States has approximately 250 years of coal at current consumption rates, but if that consumption rate is increased by 2 percent per year, coal reserves are reduced to 75 years:
Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
(1) in order to keep energy costs affordable, curb our environmental impact, and safeguard economic prosperity, including our trade deficit, the United States must move rapidly to increase the productivity with which it uses fossil fuel, and to accelerate the transition to renewable fuels and a sustainable, clean energy economy; and
(2) the United States, in collaboration with other international allies, should establish an energy project with the magnitude, creativity, and sense of urgency of the `Man on the Moon’ project to develop a comprehensive plan to address the challenges presented by Peak Oil.
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This is not fiction.
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It may be theatre.
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But, it might also become real.
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*art courtesy of William Hammock

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow

8:03 AM  
Blogger Step Back said...

There are too many clowns on stage and not enough stage hands.

Why?

Adam Smith rewards the clown.
The clown makes the "magic" happen.
The clown brings the paying cutomers into the theater.
Everyone wants to be the clown in the spot light.

Stage hands are an afterthought.

Apollo Project, Harlem style is probably what we will get from Congress, all noise and no cattle. (No disparagement intended from this CCNY graduate, been there, lived there.)

8:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OZ, as usual your juxtaposition of words and visuals is sublime

9:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this is big news.

why is it not on the news?

12:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

wonderful! how can we help make it happen?

12:46 PM  
Blogger Los said...

There seems to be much buzz around peak oil and the need to do something about it. However, peak oil theory so far has only seemed to have lead the price of oil at an ever steady increase. Peak oil theory benefits the oil companies and the manipulative war machines currently active. What if it is not true? It is a belief that oil is a fossil fuel. And like most beliefs, is likely to be untrue. Petroleum has been proven to be abiotic, meaning not derive from biological matter, meaning not a fossil fuel. I think peak oil is fiction, and of quite the dangerous kind. I hope that no one beliefs me but does their own research on this issue.

11:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Where did this story come from? It could be the beginning of our coming to our senses.

8:21 AM  
Blogger oZ said...

Actually, the question of abiotic oil is not really relevant. What is relevant is whether or not oil supplies are depleting as we consume them.

And they clearly are.

The weak abiotic theory makes no real difference on our situation and the strong theory, which would actually replace fuels at our current rate, would have us swimming in oil.

Most proponents of the theory have dubious credentials scientifically, and strong political views. Gold, who wrote the book on the subject was a quirky astronomer

The newest abiotic, John Corsi, is the same man who wrote the book about Kerry's service in Vietnam.

Now there's a honest man for you.

8:37 AM  
Blogger Step Back said...

Caveman proposes that "peak oil" is a fiction.

I, me-self, thinkest that "Peak Earth" is a fiction. Christopher Columbus simply did not explore hard enough.

There is always more Earth to be discovered. We will simply explore and discover more and more. Then we extract the riches from our newly discovered countries and burn their bounties as a smoked sacrifice into the atmosphere just to show Mother Earth how much we value the ocean of air she has provided above us.

Let us move ever forward. To ANWR, to Antartica and beyond!!!

8:45 AM  

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