For Immediate Release
contact: Jan Lundberg - tel. 215-243-3144
Analyst issues warning on petroleum supply
Oil Crunch to flow from Strategic Petroleum Reserve Release
Arcata, Sept. 25, 2000--The environmental movements veteran oil analyst, Jan Lundberg, responded to the governments releasing crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Its not a solution. Many citizens who know what cheap oil has done to the planet are deeply disappointed. The North Pole has melted. The government has a responsibility to strive for energy conservation as never before, he said.
His nonprofit Sustainable Energy Institute, also issued a warning on todays rate of oil consumption: Thirty million barrels from the SPR represents just under two days of oil-guzzling in the United States, said Lundberg, president of the institute. Geologists recent estimates that world oil production is peaking means that the downslope involves difficult to extract, increasingly costly crude--of lower quality.
Sustainable Energy Institute has answers to the coming crunch: a paving moratorium; increasing rail transit, bicycling, and depaving. Two additional projects in the Pacific Northwest are pedal-powered produce delivery, and a Sail Transport Network. However, he warns that The implication for todays massive petroleum dependence is beyond transportation and heating homes: we have food-supply vulnerability. The U.S. loses up to 3 million acres of land per year to sprawl and petrochemical-oriented agriculture. More statistics that may assist in understanding todays system:
When the real costs of oil including externalities are factored into a gallon of gasoline, the price can exceed $15 per gallon. Subsidies for oil and driving mask the actual cost.
More than 12 million Americans begin their commute to work before dawn, as time in the car increases. U.S. crashes and car fumes kill over 100,000 annually.
###
For more background: see http://www.culturechange.org which contains an Auto-Free Times editorial on oil prices/supply, a Pledge for the Climate, and solutions to petroleum dependence.
Jan Lundberg formerly published the Lundberg Letter on oil trends. He now directs the Sustainable Energy Institute, P.O. Box 3387, Santa Cruz, CA 95063. Tel.1-215-243-3144. On the web at http://www.culturechange.org