Yangbo Du has forwarded a page to you from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
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The relative ease of developed countries' adjustment to the gradual increase in petroleum prices suggests that maintaining a price floor for petrol (or all fossil fuels -- coal and gas prices have increased as well) would be highly viable. Not only would a price floor accelerate a shift away from fossil fuels, but also help trigger transition towards transparent and democratic governance in petroleum and gas exporting states, especially Russia, Venezuela, and Iran (regimes in these countries owe their power to revenue from energy exports). Via an accelerated shift towards non-fossil fuel energy sources; the United States, OECD Europe, and other importing countries could help 'crash' the market price of petroleum while maintaining the price floor. The importing states would keep the difference between the two prices and, ideally, use it to offset payroll and capital taxes and/or invest in infrastructure for low-carbon energ! y.
by Alfred Cavallo
Since the beginning of the modern oil age in 1859, pessimists have warned that the oil wells would soon dry up or that oil production would peak and not be able to keep up with ever-increasing demand. Again and again, the pessimists have been proven wrong, often embarrassingly so, as science and technology have allowed more oil to be extracted from existing fields and from deposits in more challenging locations such as the Arctic and the deepest waters of the continental shelf.
yang...@mit.edu
Although France is still dependent on petroleum for about one-third of its energy supply (mainly for transport), fission power supplies over 40 percent of its energy needs. For electric power generation in the US, a portfolio to which nuclear power, fossil fuels, and renewable sources each contribute one-third appears feasible by 2050. Assuming that electric power provides at least 60 percent of US energy consumption by 2050 as projected by the Electric Power Research Institute and that all coal plants utilize carbon capture and storage by then, achieving this balance of electric power sources would constitute at least half of an 80-percent-by-2050 GHG emissions reduction goal. The other half encompasses reduction via economy-wide end-use energy efficiency as well as low-carbon liquid or gaseous fuels for transport.
by Kurt Zenz House
I'm writing this column from the South of France, where for the past five days I've been a member of a Harvard delegation that toured several nuclear facilities operated by AREVA, the French state-owned nuclear company. AREVA is a product of the French government's decision in the 1970s to chart a coherent and consistent national energy policy centered on nuclear power.