John Hennessy III,
P.E.
As the world strives to cut carbon emissions, electric power from renewables has emerged as a vital energy source. Yet transport and industry will still require combustible fuels for many purposes. Such needs could be met with hydrogen, which itself can be produced using renewable power.
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With transit bills, electric cars and other non-gas-guzzling transportation options reeling from late-2014’s sudden drop in oil prices, a lot of us are wondering just how cheap our gasoline really is. A new interactive report released by Bloomberg ranks the affordability of gasoline around the world, showing how we stack up against our international peers.
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“Fossil fuels, which provide 85% of our current energy, suffer from two fatal drawbacks. One of which is the fact that they produce greenhouse gasses that are undermining the viability of our climate and therefore our future of industrial society…The other drawback of fossil fuels is that fact that these are depleting, non-renewable resources…So one way or another we will be moving away from fossil fuels as time goes on, it’s just a question of whether we do it in a planned and organized way, or just wait until we can no longer afford to extract the stuff that’s left.”
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SECURING AMERICA’S ENERGY FUTURE
ENERGY SECURITY LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
Too often, America’s exposure to the risks of oil dependence has been measured by consumers and
policymakers as a function of the price of oil at a specific point in time or our level of reliance on foreign
suppliers. The result has been long periods of inaction and inattention after each crisis, which simply
leaves the country dangerously exposed for the inevitable next crisis. The risk of such complacence
today is high. Low oil prices have reduced the sense of urgency shared throughout the country as
recently as 2014. Yet just as it has been so many times before, the oil market is in the midst of a cycle.
We must be better prepared when the tide once again turns.
INTERNATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY AGENCY (IRENA)
The reduction of pollution and climate impact through rapidly increased use of renewable energy by 2030 could save up to USD 4.2 trillion per year worldwide, 15 times the associated costs of doubling the share of renewables. Today’s energy markets, however, do not adequately value climate impact or air pollution. Energy and environmental policies need to correct for these externalities.
CAMBRIDGE ECONOMETRICS
THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CLEAN TRANSPORTATION
Policies to tackle climate change are likely to lead to lower oil prices, according to the results of this analysis. As governments start implementing the Paris Agreement, they will increasingly need to cut carbon emissions from transport by curbing the combustion of petroleum fuels. Lower oil prices will prevail in this lower-demand scenario, compared to a business-as-usual scenario where oil demand would rise unchecked and in line with economic growth and expanding mobility trends.
INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY RESEARCH
While headlines have reported declining oil, gas, and coal prices, those declines do not deter from the fact that U.S. energy resources are valuable to our domestic economic growth. The most recent government estimate of those benefits was a 2012 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study, produced at the request of the House Budget Committee, which analyzed federal lease revenues that could be expected to arise from a proposal to open federal lands and waters to oil, gas, and coal extraction.
THE NEW CLIMATE ECONOMY
Despite this mounting evidence of the costs of fossil fuel subsidies, and the potential virtuous cycles that could result from their removal, governments are often reticent to undertake reform. Researchers have identified several specific reasons for the persistence of subsidies. Some of these are explicit, such as a lack of information, while others are implicit, driven by special interests.
This video is the third in a four-part series by Richard Heinberg and Post Carbon Institute. The themes covered in these videos are much more thoroughly explored in Heinberg’s latest book, Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.
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In this new short video Richard Heinberg explores how — in our economy, the environment, and energy production — we may well be. When previous societies have hit similar limits, they often doubled-down by attempting ever more complex interventions to keep things going, before finally collapsing. Will this be our fate too? And is there an alternative?
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