[Peakoil] letter published in today's Canberra Times

[Jenny Goldie]

The cost of cheap oil
Clancy Yeates tries to persuade us not to worry about low oil prices ("Oil shock not as scary as it looks," BusinessDay, January 25), but at least he acknowledges it is not all good news.

It is very bad news indeed for oil exporters.

The main worry with low oil prices, however, is that governments may be deterred from making the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This transition is critical if we are to meet our climate-change objective of limiting global warming to 2degrees or, ideally, 1.5degrees.

Last week, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, stressed the importance of this transition, in association with greater energy efficiency, if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Birol also said he expected oil prices to remain low through 2016, but 2017 would see the beginning of a "rebalancing"; that is, a return to higher oil prices. That may prove a shock to those who have recently bought petrol-guzzling SUVs, but not to those who have invested in electric vehicles, hybrids or bicycles.

Jenny Goldie, Michelago, NSW


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