[lbo-talk] Ace on fuel economy

[jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net]

>    I haven't read a book on the oil 'bidness since, "The Seven
> Sisters, " by Anthony Sampson and the Joe Stork and Michael Tanzer
> books circa the OPEC boycott era. I'm skeptical of the Peak Oil books
> by Richard Heinberg and others...though ones written by geologists and
> economists unlike, "The End of Oil, " , might be much better? "The End
> of Oil is a stunning piece of work—perhaps the best single book ever
> produced about our energy economy and its environmental implications.
> Paul Roberts writes regularly for Harper's magazine, and he has
> schooled himself deeply in these questions, " says hairshirt Bill
> McKibben http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17179
> (Paul Roberts being a mere journalist scribbler ;-)
>   Would be interested what James Heartfield thinks about the Peak Oil
> thesis.Skeptical me feels that there is a weird confluence of
> interests between the Pig Oil Companies and some enviros on this.
>   In the meantime, found these pieces by Dave McGowan
> http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/ vs. Michael Ruppert
> http://educate-yourself.org/cn/peakoilindex.shtml (accused of being
> from a family w/ CIA connections, heh!) on Peak Oil, amusing. Since
> McGowan had a book blurbed by Christian Parenti,
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1567511848/ref=sib_rdr_bc/002-8550992-3049612?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00J&j=0#reader-page
>  I give him a little slack.

"The End of Oil" was not great in my opinion. I preferred Deffeyes book "Hubbert's Peak". Maybe it was the 
timing of my reading or some other factor but Deffeyes book certainly seemed more engrossing. To be 
honest I didn't actually finish Robert's book. Maybe it was going to get better but I doubted it. An 
endorsement from McKibben should have tipped me off.
I feel that a "weird confluence" between groups may be brewing in response to peak oil but that it isn't very 
big. I tend not to read too much about this issue that is written by journalists or pundits however so that may 
color my preceptions. 
A friend recommended "The Party's Over" also but I put it down only partly through the book. I didn't like it 
much. She's a bit nutty. She's big on something called "contrails"(?). Something about airplanes spraying 
something on people from high altitude. I don't ask her to elaborate on whatever this nutty idea is since I 
don't want to lose all respect for her. I won't waste my time reading absolute buffonery.

John Thornton