Get news updates
Get facebook updates
Get twitter updatesThe world confronts a stark choice. Consumers can keep making bargains with oil and gas giants, minimizing regulations in exchange for low prices, allowing those who profit from declining fossil fuels to poison oceans and air shared by all. Or consumers can make sacrifices – imposing regulations and carbon taxes, requiring disaster preparation and development of sustainable sources of fuel.
The Mexican Gulf oil episode will transform energy, environment and trade politics in places far from the Gulf coast.
The oil spill catastrophe highlighted how good governance and vigilance protect the environment and safeguard the interest of investors. Neither American nor British regulators required the state-of-the-art remote equipment for deep sea drilling that might have stopped the flow of oil after the explosion. The BP experience suggested that other oil firms can anticipate similar punishment by foreign governments for future mishaps.
The crisis also spotlighted the oft-mentioned US addiction to oil. The US economy depends on oil, using 25 percent of the world’s supply for more than 40 percent of its total energy demands. The country has one fourth of China’s population, but uses nearly three times more oil.
Exxon-Mobil Corporation, the world’s second largest firm, claimed a “diverse” geographic portfolio in its 2007 annual report: Two-thirds of its projects are beyond the “Americas” – and the bulk of “key exploration captures” listed that year are offshore in Australia, Greenland, Canada, Libya, Indonesia, New Zealand and the Gulf of Mexico.
Energy is the foundation to a modern way of life. Delays in conservation and development of renewables can only lead to more of the chaos recently on display in the Gulf of Mexico.
Reliance on foreign oil, deep-sea domestic drilling and fossil fuels is unsustainable.
Original source: The Star
Solar links
Heat my Home Solar Panels UK
Solar Panels and Solar Installers and Installations
Solar Panels in the UK
Green Energy Suppliers, Providers, Schemes and Tariffs
Solar Panels Forum
Solar Heating Panels Installations
The Latest Evacuated Tubes Solar Panels for the UK Climate
DIY Solar Panels Kits
PV Solar Panels Installations
Heat Pumps
Tags: energy news UK, oil supply, Peak Oil, solar panels
