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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mmm, yes, I can amuse myself for hours pondering
the fate of the worlds most useless empire in the history
of humankind.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I know its wrong to think such things, but I just
wanna be there to see the dumb look on the average Yank's face when they
realize that: - </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1) They're screwed</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2) Their empire's collapsed and
now they're just part of the world they never new existed</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3) That everyone in that world
hates them for it. :)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Muhahaha!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Cheers,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Leigh</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=office@natsoc.org.au href="mailto:office@natsoc.org.au">Nature and
Society Forum</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=peakoil@act-peakoil.org
href="mailto:peakoil@act-peakoil.org">Peak Oil - discussion</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, May 09, 2006 12:14
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Peakoil] Washington Post on
Peak Oil - another milestone on theway to commonsense</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The article below was in the Washington Post
on Sunday. A major US daily, though not so 'establishment' as the NYT. But
it's a step forward. Has any Australian newspaper been as
forthright?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2>-----------------------------------------------------------------<BR>Keith
Thomas<BR><A href="http://www.evfit.com">www.evfit.com</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2>-----------------------------------------------------------------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt">For Sound Energy Policy, Don't Look to
Congress</SPAN></B><o:p></o:p></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">By Warren Brown<BR>Sunday, May 7, 2006;
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Original here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/05/AR2006050500974.html<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P>Congress thinks we're stupid. Maybe we are. We, most of us, refuse to
accept that we are living in a world of rapidly increasing demand for
declining fossil fuel resources.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>We believe more oil is to be found around the corner, in the next country,
beneath the ocean, under or in the next rock. Maybe it is.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>But people who have spent much of their professional lives looking at this
issue say it really does not matter that more oil is waiting to be found
somewhere. They believe there will never be enough of the stuff to fuel, feed,
clothe, house and move a constantly growing global population.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Those people include Vice President Cheney, White House energy adviser
Matthew Simmons and, believe it or not, President Bush.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>For some time now, Cheney and Simmons, an energy investment banker, have
been telling Bush that oil as we know it is about to go away. Their advice
largely is why the president in his State of the Union address in January
warned that America has become "addicted to oil." That is why the president, a
scion of the Texas oil patch, uncharacteristically chided his fellow
Republicans in Congress for offering yet another tax break for the nation's
oil companies, this one facilitating quick write-offs of the costs of resource
exploration.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>"Record oil prices and large cash flows also mean that Congress has got to
understand that these energy companies don't need unnecessary tax breaks like
the write-offs of certain geological and geophysical expenditures," the
president told the White House media corps.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>That does not mean Bush is no longer a bosom buddy of Big Oil. It does
mean, at least on this issue, that he is significantly smarter than
Congress.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>People enjoy poking fun at Bush, portraying him as something of an errant
fraternity boy. But this president is nobody's dummy. He fully understands the
concept of "peak oil," the high point of the bell curve at which 50 percent of
the provable reserves in any oil field have been recovered.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Oil is plentiful on the upside of the curve. It is less available,
substantially more difficult and enormously more expensive to retrieve on the
downside.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Experts contend that peak oil production in North America actually was
reached as far back as 1970, forcing the United States, for one, to rely more
heavily on foreign sources of crude, a decidedly dangerous and extremely
costly way of fueling our economy.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>One of those experts is Robert L. Hirsch, senior energy program adviser at
San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), which
conducts a variety of scientific studies for governments and global
corporations.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Hirsch and his colleagues last March completed a study for the Department
of Energy. Maybe it was too difficult for Congress to read. Certainly the
title was forbidding: "Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation
and Risk Management."<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Had Congress read Hirsch's report, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) might not
have proffered the silly idea of giving Americans a $500 tax rebate to help
cover the cost of rising gasoline prices, and Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist (R-Tenn.) might not have come up with the equally goofy idea of giving
Americans a $100 gas rebate.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Both proposals, now thankfully dead, constituted the most wrongheaded kind
of political pandering, the kind that supports the notion that American
consumers have a God-given right to cheap gasoline in a world where hundreds
of millions of people already are paying considerably more for that
fuel.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Congress was trying to play Robin Hood without portfolio, sticking a
windfall profit tax on companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., which raked in
$8.4 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2006, and passing a part of
the proceeds on to grumbling citizens.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>I have no doubt that Exxon Mobil and the rest of oildom are engaging in a
bit of profiteering, taking advantage of a very real energy crisis. But the
Stabenow and Frist proposals, along with the advocates of increased federally
mandated corporate fuel economy without any increases whatsoever in gasoline
taxes, completely miss the point.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Hirsch and his colleagues put it clearly in their report to the Department
of Energy:<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>We eventually will not have enough oil to fuel our enormously wasteful
American way of life.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Global oil production is peaking.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>"Optimistic oil production forecasts deserve to be viewed with considerable
skepticism," the Hirsch report said. "World oil peaking represents a problem
like none other. The political, economic and social stakes are enormous," the
report said.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>In plain English, that means America's cheap-oil ride is over. Ill-thought
consumer tax rebates will not help. Ill-thought tax breaks for oil companies
that are bumping up prices now in anticipation of oil's future decline will
not help.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>We need more political wisdom and the guts to do the right
thing.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>That starts with political leaders telling the American people the truth,
as Bush did in his "addicted to oil" comments. It means mandated increased
vehicle fuel economy accompanied by increased taxes on gasoline, engine
displacement and vehicle size. It means getting over our social and racial
biases, which still keep certain people out of certain neighbourhoods, and
coming up with a truly efficient, democratic mass transportation
system.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>"Waiting until world conventional oil production peaks before initiating
crash program mitigation leaves the world with a significant liquid fuel
deficit for two decades or longer," the Hirsch report said.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P>Wake up, Congress. Wake up, America. We are a part of that
world.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><!-- start the copyright for the articles -->© 2006 The
Washington Post Company<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P><!-- end the copyright for the aricles --><!-- start the copyright for the secions --><!-- end the copyright for the secions --></DIV>
<P>
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