[Revi]

Roscoe Bartlett is the best voice we have in Washington. He has been on C-span and convened an energy conference. The fact that most other republicans just showed up to tout their particular pork doesn't mean that he's not getting the message out better than any other person in the government. We want the message out there, don't we?

[SoothSayer]

Firstly, that initial post was WAY too long ... I nearly walked away.

A link would have been better.

That said, the presentation was very good ... so why is nobody listening?

[NEOPO]

One aspect of bringing this "before" congress is so the issue of PEAKOIL has a H.R. # which any one of us americans can bring up in reference to PEAKOIL when speaking with our representatives in government.

They (the government) use to be able to say "peak what?" but now with these H.R. # we can directly reference PO.

and as I recall Roscoe was NOT happy with the presidents dismissal of PO.
After the meeting with the president he went right back to his initial stance if not strengthened.

Mr bartlett is telling all of his maryland constituents to prepare.

and you apparently have no clue about the level of denial most americans are in and what a congressman saying PO does to crack the denial nut.

Yes Bartlett made a very good presentation to congress - maybe one day he can do it while the majority are actually in session.

[bart]

Re: directinfo's attack on Bartlett

Peak oil must be maturing as a movement -- we are now in the attack-your-allies phase!

This happens in every movement. For any movement to be successful, it must draw upon allies from many different positions. Therefore, attacks like this are a wonderful strategy for sabotaging a movement.

Characteristics:

1. Perfectionistic, holier-than-thou standpoint. Nobody is seen as an ally unless he/she is 100% ideologically correct.
2. Energy is spent on attacking allies rather than doing anything productive.
3. Often a cover for opponents to disrupt a movement and destroy morale. (This WILL happen with peak oil.)
4. More often, attack-your-allies is just a bad habit, perpetuated by the unwise.

I'm not saying that one should not criticize other people or groups within a movement. Just keep it in perspective. Try to channel the fervor so that it is productive.

Commitment is not shown by intolerance, but by persistance and productivity.

[SoothSayer]

Often a cover for opponents to disrupt a movement and destroy morale. (This WILL happen with peak oil.)

It's amazing how few people know about this technique.

Internal strife caused by "supporters" starting endless minor disagreements is an effective way of killing activist groups. A trained "plant" can outwit naive beginner activists almost every time.

I wonder if it's happened in this forum at all?


Now to change the subject: if that presentation had been made in the UK parliament, people - especially the media - would have listened & reacted. It would NOT have been ignored!

[MJ]

I could only wish for somebody like Rep. Bartlett in my country. His lectures make my skin creep,

[directinfo]

Well, well guys...

This is perhaps the first time that I actually agree with every post 100% EXCEPT mine.

You all made excellent points.

I only have 2 comments in my defense:

1) This article was copied from a members only section of From The Wilderness website of Mike Ruppert. Therefore, the long post.

2) I am frustrated that Americans can't deal with real issues and that we have to stay talking about simpleton questions such as "whether oil is finite or infinitely abiotically available forever". This is ridiculous! We have 4.5 billion-year radioactive cancer-causing, death-dealing depleted uranium being sprayed in 5,000 tons of munitions all over Iraq right now on the pretense of preventing an attack on the US. And we are measuring radiation spikes in the UK and lung cancer spikes in the UK and USA. For God's Holy sake people, get a f**king clue and wake up!

So, that is my excuse for being wrong-er than all of you in my complaint to Roscoe.

I agree that he is kinda like a welcome can of beans brought into our prison camp. Still, I used his presentation as a chance to show how pitifully far we are from dealing with issues.

So let me please extend my hand out from my prison camp and thank you all for overseeing my desire to get things moving up there on capital hill... (shake my extended hand below...)

[bart]

Well said, directinfo.

I know the feeling of frustration. I'm especially frustrated with "my" side of the political spectrum: the greens, environmentalists and leftish Democrats. Why aren't they taking the lead on this?

Also, I have a soft spot for Bartlett because he reminds me of my grandparents: the same sense of thrift and integrity.

I can relate to conservatives like that, even though politically we are far apart.

[americandream]

mmmm.......well put disinfo....................

I guess the question we all need to ask ourselves is what is ultimately driving the rush to the brink and the associated question as to whether its all/largely the fault of them yanks....I'm inclined to suspect that the rush is not merely an American driven......we are all implicated....every pathetic one of us (if anyone has any doubts as to the bona fides of this entire rotten species when it comes to living beyond its means (otherwise called the American Dream) I refer you to China and India). That said, one then is forced to ask as regards the abandoned (almost ecstatic) rush to oblivion:

1 Are our global leaders in denial.......in which case.....is the syndrome highly infectious and why?...or

2 Are our global leaders pathalogically unconcerned (pathological liars?)....in which case.....ditto?...or

3 Are peak oilers perhaps dramatising a redeemable issue.....which begs the question....why are the Middle East/Caspian/African oil regions currently busier than the London ring road at rush hour with a variety of oil and warrior traffic?.....or

4 At the end of the day, are we collectively (every flaming two legged scum sucker on earth) so enamoured of the cornucopian dream that we will essentially rearrange the deck chairs whilst this cruise liner sinks....to the f*ucking bottom.

I'm inclined to think its the last and that we have even more spectacular instances of GLOBAL apathy (NOT JUST AMERICAN) on the horizon.

[Revi]

I've given up on influencing the national government, but I don't think it's too late to get the message out to local and state government people. We have a democratic convention coming up and a guy named Chris Miller is the peak oil candidate in Maine. I don't think he'll get in, but he'll drag the peak oil elephant in the room out into the open.

Roscoe Bartlett is doing the same thing. He sees a huge problem and can't ignore it. He's an engineer I believe, and see things as problems to be resolved. At least he is getting the subject out there. He talked with President Bush and maybe the comment on America being addicted to oil was attributable to that. They now know what's going on. Maybe they'll do something. Maybe they already know about peak oil and are already doing things. (Iraq, etc.) There's always hope.

[thorn]

Free login required:

http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC. ... 9757519960

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Peak Oil Is Coming, and We Must Prepare
A world of steadily declining oil resources is a challenge to all.
BY ROSCOE G. BARTLETT

Are you comfortable that you understand oil and the central
role that it plays in your life and will play in the future of
your children?
It’s important to understand recent energy developments in the
context of the larger underlying problem of global peak oil. For our
national and economic security, the problem of peak oil requires us
to dramatically change America’s energy policies.
Consider some symptoms:

• Oil prices have increased more than 2.5 times since 2003.

• Oil prices spiked to $71 per barrel after Hurricane Katrina. Prices
increased to $73 per barrel after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned, “If you [the United States] make a wrong
move regarding Iran, definitely the energy flow in this region will
be seriously endangered.’’ Already, the price of oil reflects a $15-per-barrel security- risk premium because of limited spare capacity and the potential for supply disruptions, oil expert Daniel Yergin of the Cambridge Energy Research Associates said in May 4 testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

• The United States is addicted to oil, said President George W.
Bush in his 2006 State of the Union address. And as Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee on April 5, “Nothing has really taken me aback more as
secretary of state than the way that the politics of energy is . . .
warping diplomacy around the world. We have simply got to do
something about the warping now of diplomatic effort by the allout
rush for energy supply.’’
...

SPENDING OUR INHERITANCE
Both the United States and the world have grown dependent upon
oil. A September 2005 Army Corps of Engineers report, Energy
Trends and Their Implications, U.S. Army Installations, noted that
“Oil is the most important form of energy in the world today. . . .
Historically, no other energy source equals oil’s intrinsic qualities of
extractability, transportability, versatility, and cost.”
A Practice Focus We all benefit every day from oil. The energy density in one barrel of oil is the equivalent of 12 people working full time for one year. A barrel of oil yields 42 gallons of gasoline. Think about how far one gallon of gas takes your car. How long would it take you to pull your car that far?
America is like a young couple whose grandparents died and left a
big inheritance. The couple spend the money freely, become dependent upon it for their lifestyle, and then wake up one morning to discover that it’s running out. They have to do one of two things: spend less or make more. We have established a lifestyle where 85 percent of all our energy comes from fossil fuels, which will peak, run down, and then run out. Only 15 percent comes from other sources. A bit more than half of that 15 percent, 8 percent, comes from nuclear. Only 7 percent comes from true renewables, to which we will ultimately have to transition. The Army Corps of Engineers report noted that 70 percent of U.S. oil consumption is used in transportation. Oil is also a feedstock to other vital industries, including chemicals and pharmaceuticals— everything plastic. Peak oil will cause a liquid-fuel crisis because we can’t fill our gas tanks with and run our vehicles on coal, nuclear, wood, or wind.
A February 2005 report commissioned by the Department of
Energy, Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and
Risk Management (known as the Hirsch report), warned, “Oil peaking will be abrupt and revolutionary.’’ It concluded that a crash program to produce liquid-fuel alternatives at the maximum feasible rate must start 20 years before peak to avoid significant supply shortages and unprecedented economic, social, and geopolitical challenges.

...

A NEW POLICY
Current American energy policy is a recipe for catastrophe because
it is designed to fill what will be a growing gap between the amount
of oil we want to use and the decreasing supply that will be available as a result of peak oil.
We should recognize that it is futile to attempt to fill the gap with
more oil production or alternatives. To the extent that we fill the gap without reducing our oil consumption, we will deny our children and our grandchildren access to these finite energy sources. That is why I oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. If we pump ANWR tomorrow, what will we do the next day? Right now it’s like money in the bank collecting very high interest.
We should take steps to transition to a far more efficient and sustainable use of energy. First, and most urgent, we must raise awareness about the impending crisis from global peak oil. Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and I have formed a Peak Oil Caucus in the House of Representatives to educate our colleagues and our country about global peak oil. Second, we have introduced H. Res. 507, a bill that states “The United States, in collaboration with other international allies, should establish an energy project with the magnitude, creativity, and sense of urgency that was incorporated in the ‘Man on the Moon’ project to address the inevitable challenges of ‘Peak Oil.’ ” In particular, an energy policy to address peak oil ought to consider these specific actions. Most urgently, we should develop contingency plans to deal with disruptions of the oil supply. In the short term, we should reduce energy consumption dramatically to save money, buy time, and free up energy to invest in alternatives. And in the long term, the world needs to move to reliance upon renewable sources of energy rather than fossil fuels.
If every American contributes to meeting the challenge of peak oil,
I am confident we will have a bright future.

Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.) represents Maryland’s 6th
Congressional District. His Web site is www.bartlett.house.gov.

[Jellric]

Giving a presentation on Peak Oil right now.

Edit: It has ended. Hope some of you were able to see it.
Very effective presentation with about 20 charts.

[Cyrus]

I was flipping through and saw the phrase "Peak Oil", so I definetly stopped.

Very effective presentation!

I especially enjoyed the part about the nuclear power plants; as in the ammount of time it takes to build them, and the ammount oil will have declined as we do so.

[thorn]

Text:

http://www.xecu.net/thorn/PO/POJune14-2006.html

[Revi]

Thank god for Roscoe Bartlett. He keeps the message out there. Maybe somebody will listen. His presentation with the charts and graphs is really great. I think anyone who takes the time to listen will get it when they see it.

[dinopello]

Jan 17, 2006 8:50 EST.

Talking about PO of course.

Will he say anything new, or is it just another reminder ?

Just introduced Gilchrest (R) from Maryland who will tallk a bit about GW.

[joewp]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'J')an 17, 2006 8:50 EST.

Talking about PO of course.

Will he say anything new, or is it just another reminder ?

Just introduced Gilchrest (R) from Maryland who will tallk a bit about GW.

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joewp', 'N')ow there's a couple of Democrats talking about all these wonderful alternatives that will allow us to drive around after oil is gone.

Clueless politicians.

[joewp]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', '
')edit: now a freshman democrat from Florida is talking about if "we put our nose to the grindstone" we can make America "energy independent".

[DantesPeak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Peak Oil Crisis: Congressional Hearings - Round #2
By Tom Whipple
Thursday, 18 January 2007


The first congressional hearings on peak oil were held in December 2005 when a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee had a half-day session devoted to the topic. At the hearing several luminaries of the peak oil community testified that indeed the world was about to start running short of cheap, easy to find oil and that indeed there would be serious consequences for the industrialized world. This view was countered by the man from Cambridge Energy Research who testified that to the contrary, world oil production could continue to grow for decades, never really would “peak,” and this was a problem for future generations. Happy motoring everyone!

This apparently was just what the good Congressmen wanted to hear at the time, for after a few desultory comments about how “the oil wells back in my district are still pumping away,” the matter was forgotten.

What a difference a year makes. In the intervening 13 months, the world burned up an additional 31 billion barrels of cheap oil, gasoline flew way up and then way down, and more importantly the international scene with respect to the future of oil production grew far darker.

This time, the hearings were held by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. They approached the subject from the perspective of the national security implications of our dependence on foreign oil supplies. By skipping over the arguments on the size of the world’s remaining oil reserves and focusing just on who owned these reserves and what they were going to do with them, the Committee was able to achieve a remarkable amount of bi-partisan agreement that the country is facing a very big problem.