Get Real

Energy will be increasingly expensive

It would be a soothing scenario to wake up one day and know that our country is now powered by vast wind and solar farms, putting out ample clean, renewable energy to run our homes, cars and businesses. Unfortunately, that scenario will remain just a distant dream for now, although I hope it will one day be a reality for my children. In the meantime, we need to get real, as the fundamentals point to higher energy prices and more scarcity in the decade ahead. As with all crises, it will be a time of change, hardship and opportunity.

Those who believe the current weakness in global energy demand is the wave of the future may indeed be right, as long as the

Oil now accounts for 95% of transportation energy worldwide. By-products from oil create materials we use everyday, including plastic, chemicals and synthetic rubber.

Technology will certainly help in future years to recover and discover more oil, but a finite, depleting resource will continue to deplete, no matter how smart our technology. Depletion is relentless and irreversible.

It has been pointed out many times, but the Top 10 largest oil fields (by production) in the world produce 20% of the world