Posted by Joseph Romm at 12:34 PM on 04 Nov 2007/ (Grist)
After the introduction and an explanation of "The Coming Oil Crisis" and "Abandoning the Solution," the next part of "MidEast Oil Forever?" (subs. req'd) is a discussion of the "The Renewables Revolution."
One of the great energy tragedies of the 1980s is that President
Reagan gutted the renewable energy R&D budget (and the entire clean
energy budget) -- a stunning 90% cut in key technologies -- just as
America was assuming technological and marketplace leadership in core
areas like wind and solar power.
One of the great energy tragedies of the
1990s is that the Gingrich Congress blocked the Clinton
administration's efforts to significantly ramp up renewable and clean
energy funding, which could have restored U.S. leadership in
technologies that even then were obviously going to be the foundation
of major job-creating industries in the coming century.
Here is what we wrote on renewables:
The Renewables Revolution
Predicting our energy future beyond 2010 is chancy, but here we have
an opportunity to rely on perhaps the most successful predictor in the
energy business: Royal Dutch/Shell Group. According to The Economist,
"The only oil company to anticipate both 1973's oil-price boom and
1986's bust was Royal Dutch/Shell." Anticipating the oil shocks of the
1970s helped Shell to move from being the weakest of the seven largest
oil companies in 1970 to being one of the two strongest only ten years
later. Anticipating the oil bust was apparently even more lucrative.
According to Fortune's ranking of the 500 largest corporations, Royal
Dutch/Shell is now not only the most profitable oil company in the
world but the most profitable corporation of any kind.
...
More: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/11/4/104246/978
