Oil industry admits world faces difficult future of scarce energy, high prices

Tuesday, September 25, 2007 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: peak oil, oil industry, health news

(NewsTarget) Recently the National Petroleum Council released a 476-page study, "Facing Hard Truths About Energy," which outlined the council's predictions for the future of the energy industry.

The report, which includes recommendations on government and industry policy, was compiled with the assistance of 350 participants, 19 governments and suggestions from an additional 1,000 people. In contrast with the 2001 federal energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, the study's list of contributors is open to the public. It includes mainly leaders and consultants in the energy industry, particularly in fossil fuels, but also academic institutions, banks, government agencies, private think tanks and a few non-governmental groups.

In the report, the National Petroleum Council forecasts that global energy consumption will rise by more than 50 percent in the next 25 years. It dismisses predictions of falling demand due to peak oil or other declining supply scenarios. Nevertheless, it predicts definite limitations on cheap fossil fuel supply, due to "accumulating risks" such as rising costs, geopolitical obstacles to extraction and shipment, and increasing regulation of carbon dioxide emissions.

While not endorsing them, the report treats attempts to stave off global warming as a given.

"It is a hard truth that policies aimed at curbing carbon emissions will alter the energy mix, increase energy-related costs and require reductions in demand growth," the report says. It suggests that the oil industry help address global warming by storing carbon dioxide under the earth.

The council recommended that the United States implement measures to reduce petroleum consumption, such as increasing the fuel efficiency of vehicles and buildings.

While giving a nod to alternative energy sources, the report ultimately encourages a continued reliance on traditional, fossil-fuel energy sources.

"Coal, oil and natural gas will remain indispensable to meeting total projected energy demand growth," it reads.