Recap of Summit on America’s Energy Future

The National Academies Summit on America's Energy Future: Summary of a Meeting
Committee for The National Academies Summit on America's Energy Future, National Research Council, 2008

Description: "There is a growing sense of national urgency about the role of energy in long-term U.S. economic vitality, national security, and climate change. This urgency is the consequence of many factors, including the rising global demand for energy; the need for long-term security of energy supplies, especially oil; growing global concerns about carbon dioxide emissions; and many other factors affected to a great degree by government policies both here and abroad.

"On March 13, 2008, the National Academies brought together many of the most knowledgeable and influential people working on energy issues today to discuss how we can meet the need for energy without irreparably damaging Earth's environment or compromising U.S. economic and national security-a complex problem that will require technological and social changes that have few parallels in human history.

"The National Academies Summit on America's Energy Future: Summary of a Meeting chronicles that 2-day summit and serves as a current and far-reaching foundation for examining energy policy. The summit is part of the ongoing project "America's Energy Future: Technology Opportunities, Risks, and Tradeoffs," which will produce a series of reports providing authoritative estimates and analysis of the current and future supply of and demand for energy; new and existing technologies to meet those demands; their associated impacts; and their projected costs. The National Academies Summit on America's Energy Future: Summary of a Meeting is an essential base for anyone with an interest in strategic, tactical, and policy issues. Federal and state policy makers will find this book invaluable, as will industry leaders, investors, and others willing to convert concern into action to solve the energy problem."

Comment: The United States has to cut back on the use of fossil fuels to reduce climate change. It has to reduce use of oil for economic reasons, not to mention the fact that oil will eventually run out. One aspect of the effort will be to make the economy more energy efficient. We should try to cut the use of energy, and especially oil per dollar GDP faster than the long term average growth of GDP. Thus energy conservation and substitution of energy sources are both to be used, although there will be necessary programs for the expansion of supplies of some forms of energy, including both production and distribution.

Clearly we should focus on renewables, but it may also be important to focus on substitution of natural gas for oil. We should also be finding clean fossil fuel technologies.

I still think that a major effort to develop fusion energy is urgent, because it continues to be a difficult technological problem but looks like a necessary element of a long term solution, leading to a hydrogen economy. JAD