In today’s Wall Street Journal, David O’Reilly, CEO of Chevron, talks about some very hard energy facts, page B1. We all know them, but we don’t really like to hear them out-loud.Â
Netted out, he states that we’re stuck with our current energy technology for the decades to come. If we could start this day to re-do the energy infrastructure, regardless of cost, it would take a generation, 25 years, to change over to something other than oil, gas and coal. By the way, we don’t have the money or the technology to meet these new methods of energy delivery and production. That’s inconvenient.
In reality carbon based fuels will be with us for a long time to come. If we want to maintain a lifestyle similar to the one we currently have we will have to make come compromises. We’ll have to drill in the oceans off our shores. We’ll have to build many more nuclear power plants. We’ll burn more coal. We’ll have to drive more fuel efficient automobiles. We’ll have to build more mass transportation. Industries we rely on today to power our economy will go away. Things we haven’t thought of us will take their place. The laws of physics will not be repealed. We might want to consider intermediate steps to develop a cleaner environment. There is no silver bullet.
I’m sure that the marketplace will work it out, but it will be expensive for each of us. Remember, costly equals painful and risky.
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