Geologist, economist, and petroleum industry insider Mills makes an intelligent case for oil's continuing role as a major, growing energy source. A Herculean task, one would think, given public sentiment on the matter. Mills manages it by first neatly dividing opposing viewpoints into five camps: geologists (those who espouse peak oil theory), economists (the markets will work it out), militarists ... Read more(use power to secure energy supplies), environmentalists (fossil fuels: no), and no-Luddites (fossil fuels, consumption, and materialism: no). He then conquers their positions with lively, exhaustive sourced arguments to say that there may be more conventional oil than reported, colossal unconventional sources, and plentiful energy substitutes. Mills shows deep understanding of the complexity of the issue, and while promising no easy fixes, he is yet hopeful: gloomy predictions do not resemble the real world and take no account of human integrity.
Library Journal, Starred Review
"A debate is currently raging among geologists and economists over whether global oil production has peaked. One school of thought, buttressed by mathematical models and some empirical evidence, argues that the peak production of conventional oil occurred sometime over the last two decades. Kenneth Deffeyes' treatise is the classic statement of this position, and Matthew Simmons' application of the argument to recent Saudi production has attracted much attention. Contrarians argue that the peak-oil theorists may be right
eventually
but that the relative lack of new oil discoveries owes far more to underinvestment and geopolitics than to geology. Technological breakthroughs in extracting hydrocarbon from shale and deep water, they note, may be pushing out the time when peak oil might hit. Robin Mills offers a solid version of the contrarian case." Reviewed with: Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage. By Kenneth S. Deffeyes. Princeton University Press, 2001. Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. By Matthew R. Simmons. John Wiley, 2005.
Foreign Affairs
Show Less