108 of 112 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Pentagon is smarter than the Bush Administration, May 29, 2005
This study was co-funded by the Pentagon -- a plan for reducing U.S. oil use by 50% by 2025, and ending foreign oil dependency. Amory Lovins has been pursuing energy efficiency and renewable energy since the 1970s, when he wrote the influential SOFT ENERGY PATHS. That initiative was thrown off-track by the drop in oil prices in the 1980s. Now Lovins is back in demand in the post-9/11 world with the global Hubbert's Peak for oil upon us.
This is not a radical strategy. It is market-based, and is all based on existing technology. According to Lovins and his co-authors,
"...it will cost less to displace all of the oil that the United States now uses than it will cost to buy that oil. Oil's current market price leaves out its true costs to the economy, national security, and the environment. But even without including those now "externalized" costs, it would still be profitable to displace oil competely over the next few decades. In fact, by 2025, the annual economic benefit of that displacement would be $130 billion gross (or $70 billion net of the displacement's costs)."
WINNING THE OIL ENDGAME involves 4 shifts -- 1) doubling the efficiency of using oil, through measures such as ultralight vehicle design, 2) applying creative business models and public policies to speed the profitable adoption of superefficient light vehicles, heavy trucks and airplanes, 3) embarking on the crash development of biofuels, cellulosic ethanol in particular, and 4) applying efficiency measures to save 50% of the projected 2025 use of natural gas.
Lovins goes on to elaborate necessary policies, such as feebates as incentives for consumers, government acquisition plans, federal loan guarantees, and so forth. He notes that while eminently practical and market-based, the plan will not benefit all companies. He points to the examples of Shell and BP, oil companies that are in the process of tranforming themselves into energy companies, as models for success in this energy transition. (see www.oilendgame.com for more)
I admit that I am not by nature optimistic about the human condition, but Amory Lovins is, and he always makes me feel more confident about the future. Despair and fatalism produce nothing of value, so each and every one of us should join Amory Lovins and the Pentagon and fight for an end to foreign oil dependency, and fight for renewable energy! That will certainly mean fighting the Bush/Cheney Oil Administration -- let's roll!
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42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better Sooner Than Later, January 9, 2006
This study was funded partially by the Pentagon and written by scientists from the Rocky Mountain Institute, led by Amory Lovins. According to them, the US could end the need to import oil by 2040, and not need oil at all by 2050. "Winning The Oil Endgame" talks a game of improved efficiency, making cars out of lightweight carbon instead of steel, powering them with hybrid engines, substituting with biofuels, and using saved natural gas until Hydrogen fuel technology takes over in 2050.
Unfortunately, some data indicates the oil will already be all gone by 2040.
Lovins's plan requires extensive subsidy input from lobby-infested Congress. At the same time (for those businesses that would profit), it's business oriented and would create business savings and profits.
BTW, before I forget to mention it: No wonder the Pentagon is concerned about oil usage: every tank that proceeds at 1/2 mpg is followed by two fuel trucks. Enemy artillary units have quickly learned to target those trucks first.
I don't share Lovins's optimism about voluntary Congressional, political, corporate, or personal compliance with this plan. I have noticed, however, that every time gas prices go up, fewer people buy SUV's and more hybrid vehicles are sold. I believe most of his technologies will occur as societies become convinced that we really are ruining the atmosphere - and especially when they find oil really is running out and is pricing itself out of reach. They will then be forced into making do with less oil - and eventually doing without it altogether. Meanwhile, PV solar panels are way too inefficient, I don't see wind power taking off, biofuels are inefficient to produce (and their production uses energy), and I wouldn't discount prematurely the need for many more nuclear plants.
Very much worth reading - you can read it on the internet as I did - downloaded from RMI homepage.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book available on Author's Website, May 16, 2006
This review is from: Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profit, Jobs and Security (Paperback)
The book is available for download in pdf from the author's site without charge.
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