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| Wednesday, August 19, 2009 |
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Energy expert urges conservation November 29, 2006 The days of dancing in oil around exploding derricks is over, and it’s past due time to think about conserving crude consumption, said Scott Waterman. Waterman, who works as the State Energy Programs Manager for Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, is looking to find ways to build more energy-efficient homes as he speaks around the state, taking on a number of education programs. “I got interested in energy efficiency when I first looked into the overall energy picture, and what I found really disturbed me,” Waterman said. He is among many who follow the prediction that the world has likely reached monumental halfway points in oil production — meaning it’s high time to get smart about conservation. “We are near the halfway point of conventional oil — that is, in the form the country has come accustomed to. It has taken nearly 145 years to get here, and at the rate we’re going, we may only have a 30-year window left,” he said. That prediction, Waterman said, includes increased demand through the years. According to peakoil.com, the theory of peak oil states that any finite resource will have a beginning, middle and end of production. At some point, that production will reach its maximum output. It applies to oil when about half of a reserve of oil has been extracted, and presumably, it can apply to the entire world’s supply. The theory also states that as oil production reaches that point, recovering the remainder of the supply becomes more expensive. Peak oil theorists also stand readily by the 1956 prediction by Marion King Hubbert, a Shell Oil geologist who predicted the peak of U.S. oil would happen in the late 1960s. And while Hubbert was essentially laughed out of the industry, he was correct. Today we consume around four times as much oil as we discover. The editors of peak oil, applying Hubbert’s peak to world-oil production, estimate that approximately half of all oil that will be recovered, has been recovered, and oil production may reach a peak in the near future, or perhaps already has. One of Hubbert’s students, Ken Deffeyes, at Princeton University, said that using Hubbert’s same formulas, the country reached its peak in December 2005. “It really doesn’t matter when it happened — we’ll just know that we’ll see the peak in the rear-view mirror ... That’s one of the reasons I give this talk, because ‘business as usual’ is not sustainable,” he said, adding this country was founded on cheap, available energy — and that’s no longer the case. As the price of oil goes up, failing to make buildings much more energy efficient will become too expensive. Waterman said it costs just $12 to save a barrel of oil — which people can do on their own in simple, practical ways. “Probably the easiest thing to do is change out all your light bulbs, and convert to compact fluorescent. I did it, and immediately started saving about 10 bucks a month — and that was more than a year ago. That’s $120 over the course of a year,” Waterman said. “That’s a no-brainer.” “In some ways, we as Alaskans are more conscious of where the energy use goes in our homes, compared to the country ... that could be explained by the connection between health and safety and durability issues,” he said. “It’s not strictly about money, or the noble idea of being energy efficient. There is a layer of practical interest, affordability and comfort.” Asked if national issues such as efforts by U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens to tap the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve affect his thinking, Waterman said, “If the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards were adjusted to 40 miles per gallon average on personal vehicles, we would save 25 billion barrels of oil over the course of 10 years.” Waterman said. That’s more than double what geologists believe ANWR contains in crude. “We’re at a point in development where we’ve come to a crossroads. We have to make some choices here — if not for ourselves, then for future generations,” Waterman said. Does that mean we’ll have to change our entire lifestyles to make it work? Waterman said not necessarily. “There are a lot of ways to make electricity — how about renewable energy?” he asked. Waterman speaks today at the Anchor Point Chamber of Commerce. |
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