by DantesPeak » Wed 15 Mar 2006, 19:27:13
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '(')BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SESNO: Roscoe Bartlett may seem like an unlikely rebel in the war to end America's addiction to oil. He's a 79-year-old former scientist, worked on America's manned space, program in the '60s, and a soft-spoken great grandfather.
REP. ROSCOE BARTLETT (R), MARYLAND: We have been using more oil than we have found.
SESNO: But he's also a feisty conservative Republican congressman from Maryland who believes we're headed for the far side of a cliff, a cliff called peak oil.
BARTLETT: There will be a day when we have reached our maximum capacity for producing oil. After that, it's going to be downhill.
SESNO: Bartlett is co-chair of the Congressional Peak Oil Caucus. He was there when the president said...
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America is addicted to oil.
SESNO: Pleased to hear the words, but too little too late, contends Bartlett, who broke with his party and president last year and voted against their energy bill. He says it was simply inadequate.
SESNO (on camera): You're a Republican.
BARTLETT: I am.
SESNO: Pretty conservative guy. BARTLETT: But I'm not an idiot.
SESNO (voice-over): Bartlett recites the numbers. The world burns 84 million barrels of oil every day. The U.S. alone accounts for about a quarter of that. With explosive growth in places like China and India, it's estimated we'll need 40 percent more in just 20 years.
SESNO (on camera): If the world cannot produce more oil to keep up with growing demand, what happens?
BARTLETT: The least bad scenario, I think, is a deep worldwide recession. And if we don't work together, it could be the equivalent of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. War, famine, pestilence, and death.
SESNO (voice-over): Plenty of people reject Peak Oil's vision of impending doom, especially the oil industry. Exxon-Mobil has taken out ads saying with abundant oil resources, peak production is nowhere in site. "Hogwash," says Bartlett.
Bartlett heats his 150-year-old house with wood, has a passive solar greenhouse, and drives a hybrid car. He challenges his president, and calls for a mix of high and low-tech solutions, a big push on conservation and renewable fuels, higher fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, more nuclear power, fast.
BARTLETT: I'm probably going to be OK through my life. But what about my kids and my grandkids? What kind of a country are they going to live in? What kind of a world are they going to live in?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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