The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment (40 page)

Chapter 14: Starting the Race with Our Shoes Tied Together

1.
“Crumbling Nation? U.S. Infrastructure Gets a ‘D,’”
MSNBC.com
Staff and News Service Reports
, March 9, 2005.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7137552/
(accessed September 7, 2010).

2.
“Personal Savings Drop to a 73-Year Low,”
Associated Press
, January 1, 2007.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16922582/
(accessed September 7, 2010).

3.
“Eurozone household savings rate in December 2009 was 15.1% compared with US at 3.6% and Japan just above 2.0%,”
Finfacts Ireland
, April 30, 2010.
www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1019587.shtml
(accessed October 27, 2010).

4.
Aart Kraay, “Household Saving in China,”
World Bank Economic Review
, September 2000.
www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2001/02/10/000094946_0101300532131/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf
(accessed October 27, 2010).

5.
“Plutarch.”
BrainyQuote.com
,
Xplore Inc
, 2010.
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/plutarch109440.html
(accessed October 27, 2010).

6.
“Dire Outcomes Predicted for Municipal Pension Systems.”
Kellogg School of Management
.
www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2010/municipal-pension-systems.aspx
(accessed October 27, 2010).

7.
Steven Greenhut, “Vallejo’s Painful Lessons in Municipal Bankruptcy,”
The Wall Street Journal
, March 26, 2010.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703625304575115551578762006.html
(accessed September 7, 2010).

8.
Jonathan Stempel, “Corporate America Faces Big Pension Shortfalls.”
Reuters
, January 8, 2009.
www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0854172520090108
(accessed September 7, 2010).

9.
Laurence Kotlikoff, “U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don’t Even Know It.”
Bloomberg News
, August 10, 2010.
www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html
(accessed September 7, 2010).

10.
Ibid.

Chapter 15: Energy and the Economy

1.
Eric Beinhocker,
Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics
(Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2006), 68.

2.
Ibid., 9 and 11.

3.
Mark Buchanan,
Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001).

4.
Brad DeLong, “Estimating World GDP,” May 24, 1998.
www.j-bradford-delong.net/TCEH/1998_Draft/World_GDP/Estimating_World_GDP.html
(accessed November 3, 2010).

5.
Thom Hartmann,
Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, Revised and Updated: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It’s Too Late
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004): 12–13.

6.
Ibid.

7.
C.J. Cleveland, “Net Energy from Oil and Gas Extraction in the United States, 1954–1997,”
Energy
30 (2005): 769–782.

8.
“Salazar Reforms Oil Shale Program—Department of Interior News Release,”
Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management
, October 20, 2009.
www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/energy/oilshale_2.html
(accessed October 27, 2010).

9.
Nate Hagens, “Unconventional Oil: Tar Sands and Shale Oil—EROI on the Web, Part 3 of 6.”
Oil Drum
, April 15, 2008.
www.theoildrum.com/node/3839
(accessed November 8, 2010).

10.
Cutler J. Cleveland and Peter O’Connor, “An Assessment of the Energy Return on Investment (EROI) of Oil Shale,”
Western Resource Advocates
.
www.westernresourceadvocates.org/land/pdf/oseroireport.pdf
(accessed September 7, 2010).

11.
Cutler J. Cleveland, et al., “Energy and the U.S. Economy: A Biophysical Perspective,”
Science
(New Series) 225:4665 (Aug. 31, 1984), 890–897.

12.
Daniela Russi, “An Integrated Assessment of a Large-Scale Biodiesel Production in Italy: Killing Several Birds with One Stone?”
Energy Policy
36 (2008): 1169–1180.

13.
H. Shapouri, et al., “The 2001 Net Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol,”
USDA Office of the Chief Economist
, July 14, 2004.
www.brdisolutions.com/Site%20Docs/Net_Energy_Balance_of_Corn_Ethanol_Shapouri.pdf
. (accessed November 8, 2010).

14.
D. Pimentel and Tad Patzek, “Ethanol Production Using Corn, Switchgrass, and Wood; Biodiesel Production Using Soybean and Sunflower,”
Natural Resources Research
, 14:1 (March 2005): 65–76.

15.
Robert Rapier, “Understanding EROEI,”
R-Squared Energy Blog
.
http://robertrapier.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/understanding-eroei/
(accessed November 4, 2010).

16.
Ida Kubiszewski, et al., Meta-Analysis of Net Energy Return for Wind Power Systems,
Renewable Energy
35 (2010): 218–225.

17.
1 Gallon of Gas = 124,262 BTUs

Source:
www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=about_energy_conversion_calculator-basics
.

3,412 BTUs = 1 KWh

Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Bonneville Power Mgt.

1 Gallon of Gas = 36.4 KWh

(124,262 BTUs in a gallon of gas divided by 3,412 BTUs in 1 KWh)

Human work (sustained): 74 Watts/Hour (agricultural work) to 100 Watts/hour (very fit individual)

Therefore, 1 Gallon of Gas = 492 hours to 364 hours of human work output

18.
David Pimentel and Mario Giampietro, “Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy,”
Carrying Capacity Network
, November 21, 1994.
http://dieoff.org/page40.htm
(accessed November 4, 2010).

Chapter 16: Peak Oil

1.
Richard Heinberg,
The Party’s Over
, 2nd ed. (Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers, 2005); Thom Hartmann,
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004); James Howard Kunstler,
The Long Emergency
(New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005); Matthew Simmons,
Twilight in the Desert
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005); Richard Heinberg,
Power Down
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2009); Kenneth S. Deffeyes,
Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert’s Peak
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2005).

2.
Praveen Ghanta, “Is Peak Oil Real? A List of Countries Past Peak,”
Oil Drum
.
www.theoildrum.com/node/5576
(accessed October 28, 2010).

3.
Kevin Morrison and Steve Johnson, “UK Net Oil Importer for First Time in Decade,”
Energy Bulletin—Post Carbon Institute,
August 11, 2004.
www.energybulletin.net/node/1604
(accessed September 7, 2010).

4.
Andrew McNamara, “Highway of Diamonds,”
ASPO Australia
, March 4, 2008.
www.aspo-australia.org.au/general/highway-of-diamonds.html
(accessed September 7, 2010).

5.
“The World Factbook,”
Central Intelligence Agency
.
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html
(accessed November 6, 2010).

6.
“Table 11.5 World Crude Oil Production 1960–2009,” Energy Information Administration.
www.eia.doe.gov/aer/txt/ptb1105.html
(accessed November 8, 2010).

7.
International Energy Agency, “Demand,”
Oil Market Report
, March 13, 2009.
http://omrpublic.iea.org/omrarchive/13mar09dem.pdf
(accessed November 4, 2010).

8.
“World Energy Outlook 2008: Executive Summary,”
International Energy Agency
. November 2008, 6.
www.worldenergyoutlook.org/weo2008/WEO2008_es_english.pdf
(accessed November 4, 2010).

9.
“Export Land Model,” Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_Land_Model
(accessed November 5, 2010).

Chapter 17: Alternatives: Necessary but Insufficient

1.
Julian Simon, “When Will We Run Out of Oil? Never!”
The Ultimate Resource II: People, Materials and Environment
.
www.juliansimon.com/writings/Ultimate_Resource/TCHAR11.txt
(accessed October 30, 2010).

2.
“Energy Units,”
Bioenergy Feedstock Information Network
.
http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/energy_conv.html
(accessed October 30, 2010).

3.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Petroleum (Oil) Production,”
International Petroleum Monthly
, September 2010, Table 4.4.
www.eia.doe.gov/ipm/supply.html
(accessed October 28, 2010).

4.
Author’s own calculations relying on various information sources from the EIA, World Bank, and existing solar installations and biofuels production.

5.
“International Energy Outlook 2010,”
Energy Information Administration
, July 27, 2010.
www.eia.gov/oiaf/ieo/index.html
(accessed November 4, 2010).

6.
“World Wind Energy Report 2009,”
World Wind Energy Association
, March 2010.
www.wwindea.org/home/images/stories/worldwindenergyreport2009_s.pdf
(accessed October 30, 2010).

7.
Vaclav Smil,
Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects
(Westport, CT: Praeger, 2010.)

8.
National Research Council Committee on Assessment of Resource Needs for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technologies, “Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle Costs Likely to Remain High, Benefits Modest for Decades,”
Transitions to Alternative Transportation Technologies—Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles,
(The National Academies Press, December 2009).
www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12826
(accessed October 30, 2010).

9.
Robert Bryce,
Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence
(New York: Public Affairs, 2008), 206.

10.
“Plans For New Reactors Worldwide,”
World Nuclear Association
, August 2010.
www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf17.html
(accessed October 30, 2010); and “Nuclear Power Plants, World-Wide,”
European Nuclear Society
.
www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-power-plant-world-wide.htm
(accessed October 30, 2010).