Challenging Britain’s energy assumptions

thenextwavefutures — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:08:35 +0000

No sooner had I published yesterday’s post on the wide disagreement about future oil production, than Britain’s Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security has called on the government to reassess its currently dismissive view of the risk of oil shortages. The Taskforce produced the Oil Crunch report which I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

In particular, the Taskforce has the government’s Wicks Review in its sights – Wicks published in August but gave little consideration to the risks of peak oil. The Taskforce describes Wicks’ approach to “peak oil risk” as “complacent”.

In contrast a recent report by the UK Energy Research Council talks of a “significant risk” of oil peaking even before 2020. This is now the subject of a supportive petition on the No. 10 website. And I heard today (in a comment from the floor at the TUC “Beyond Crisis” conference) that Bristol City has become the first council to release a report on the impact of peak oil on its local area (news release and report available).

At the same conference, the Guardian journalist Adita Chakraborty observed that it was possible that we might see the “end of the idea that the oil market is a ‘market’ … it doesn’t behave much like a market”. Rationing seems increasingly likely.

The picture is from Redt16’s excellent photostream on Flickr, and is used with thanks.

peak oil – the next wave

Challenging Britain’s energy assumptions