At the meeting, Dr. Charles Forsberg (formerly of ORNL and now with MIT), presented a fascinating analysis of the challenge associated with harmonizing the time-dependent dynamics U.S. electricity production and the time-dependent electricity demand. Charles proposes a large-scale nuclear-geothermal energy production and geological storage approach that is really interesting (more about this in a future post as well).
But one of the elements of Charles' presentation that really grabbed my attention was his analysis of the vulnerability of the U.S. petroleum supply. I want to draw your attention to it as well.
If you want (another) reason to ring your hands over our energy dependency and the un-sustainable vector we are on, take a look at this:
http://www.petrostrategies.org/Links/worlds_largest_oil_and_gas_companies.htm
The data there, based on information from The Oil and Gas Journal, Sept. 15, 2010 demonstrates the absolute control a handful of nations have over the world's oil supply.
Here's the bottom-line: the total equivalent reserves of the top four oil companies/nations (~936 Billion equivalent barrels) exceeds the COMBINED reserves of the next 46 companies (~ 846 Billion equivalent barrels by my count).
Who are these "four horseman" of the fossil fuel world?
Iran,
Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, and
Iraq
Where does Exxon Mobile rank? Exxon comes in at #14 with only 15 Billion barrels.
BP you ask? BP just manages to reach #18 on the list with only 13 Billion barrels.
Just for comparison, the U.S. Energy Information Agency @ ( http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=oil_home#tab2 ) indicates the U.S. consumed just under 19 million barrels of oil per day in 2009, importing just under 10 million barrels per day – just over 50% of our daily oil consumption.
That's not sustainable...
Just thinking,
Sherrell
