ADDICTED TO PROSPERITY - Robert Bryce - Author | Journalist | Public Speaker
ADDICTED TO PROSPERITY
But forget about the president’s choice of words and consider, for just a moment, the math: nine out of ten units of energy consumed in the US and the rest of the world come from fossil fuels. On an average day, US consumption of coal, oil, and natural gas amounts to 41 million barrels of oil equivalent. That’s equal to the average daily oil output of five Saudi Arabias. Where will the US find such a huge amount of energy –- and all of it carbon-free? Obama didn’t have that answer. Instead, he vaguely referred to the “scientists and researchers” who are “discovering clean energy technologies that someday will lead to entire new industries.”
That might be true -– someday — but entrepreneurs have been searching for a replacement for oil for decades. Despite many billions of dollars in investment, nothing comes close to oil in terms of flexibility, cost, or convenience. Despite that long history of failure to find a replacement for oil, Obama is now claiming that we not only need to replace oil, but we need to replace natural gas and coal, too. And he made that claim without ever using the words “global warming” or “carbon dioxide.”
Original text here: http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm/4383/Addicted-to-Prosperity