Deep Currents

You know there’s a problem with energy when the oil and gas industry itself is talking tough to the government about the need for change. The National Petroleum Council is a federally-created body made up almost entirely of representatives from oil and gas companies, big and small, and they just released a report for the Secretary of Energy called Hard Truths: Facing the Hard Truths about Energy, A Comprehensive View to 2030. I’ve only skimmed it so far, so I can’t tell you yet what their angle is, but just from the frontmatter it’s clear that they are pushing for less reliance on unstable autocracies, development of renewable energy sources, increases in energy efficiency, reductions in carbon output, investment in new nuclear capacity, and also increased usage of domestic sources of coal, natural gas, and oil. The report is several hundred pages and incorporated input from hundreds of experts, so at the very least it should be a well-researched source of context on the energy economy and our options going forward.

Written: September 10th, 2008