Power Hungry (51 page)

14
Global gas consumption is about 3 trillion cubic meters per year. See BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2009,
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/reports_and_publications/statistical_energy_review_2008/STAGING/local_assets/2009_downloads/renewables_section_2009.pdf
.

15
White House, “Remarks by President Barack Obama,” Prague, Czech Republic, April 5, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-President-Barack-Obama-In-Prague-As-Delivered/
.

16
“Environmental Statement on Nuclear Energy and Global Warming,” June 2005,
http://www.citizen.org/documents/GroupNuclearStmt.pdf
.

17
Jim Collins,
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ...­ and Others Don't
(New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 65.

18
Ibid., 69.

1
Areva,
All About Nuclear Energy: From Atom to Zirconium
(Paris: Areva, 2008), 8.

2
For Hannibal, see John Noble Wilford, “The Mystery of Hannibal's Elephants,”
New York Times
, September 18, 1984,
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/18/science/the-mystery-of-hannibal-s-elephants.html?sec=health
. For Saturn V, see Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, “Apollo 11 Factoids,” n.d.,
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/apollo11/factoids.html
.

3
BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2009,
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/reports_and_publications/statistical_energy_review_2008/STAGING/local_assets/2009_downloads/renewables_section_2009.pdf
. Hydrocarbons provide about 89 percent of all the commercial energy consumed in the United States. Globally, it's 88 percent.

4
TED.com
, “Stewart Brand Proclaims 4 Environmental Heresies,” June 2009. Video available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUxwiVFgghE
.

5
For Romm's rantings, see
Climateprogress.org
.

6
Set America Free, “Set America Free Update E-mail,” January 29, 2007,
www.setamericafree.org/safupdate012907.htm
.

7
Environment New Jersey, “Report Says Fossil Fuels Status Quo Will Cost New Jersey Billions; Urges Clean Energy Solutions,” June 30, 2009,
http://www.environmentnewjersey.org/newsroom/energy/energy-program-news/report-says-fossil-fuels-status-quo-will-cost-new-jersey-billions-urges-clean-energy-solutions
.

8
These issues are fully discussed in my last book,
Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence”
(New York: PublicAffairs, 2008).

9
Energy Information Administration, “Petroleum Navigator,”
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mttexus2M.htm
.

10
Energy Information Administration, “Country Energy Profiles,”
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/country/index.cfm
.

11
Keith Crane, Andreas Goldthau, Michael Toman, Thomas Light, Stuart E. Johnson, Alireza Nader, Angel Rabasa, and Harun Dogo, “Imported Oil and US National Security,” Rand Corporation, May 11, 2009,
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_MG838.pdf
, xvi.

12
Edward Gismatullin, “BP Makes ‘Giant' Oil Discovery in Gulf of Mexico,” Bloomberg, September 2, 2009,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=adF31W9._rik
.

13
BP press release, September 2, 2009,
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7055818
. The other participants in the well are Petrobras, with a 20 percent stake, and ConocoPhillips, with 18 percent.

14
Steven Bodzin and Daniel Cancel, “Spain's Repsol Says It Makes Venezuela's Biggest Gas Discovery,” Bloomberg, September 12, 2009,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aHpa4d9ORrz0
. See also Repsol, “Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Announces Repsol's Largest Ever Gas Find,” September 22, 2009,
http://www.repsol.com/es_en/todo_sobre_repsol_ypf/sala_de_prensa/noticias/ultimas_noticias/bloque-cardon.aspx
.

15
Anadarko Petroleum, “Anadarko Announces Discovery Offshore Sierra Leone,” September 16, 2009,
http://www.anadarko.com/Investor/Pages/NewsReleases/NewsReleases.aspx?release-id=1332358
.

16
Petrobras, “New Discover [
sic
] in the Santos Basin Pre-Salt,” September 14, 2009,
http://www2.petrobras.com.br/portal/frame_ri.asp?pagina=/ri/ing/index.asp&lang=en&area=ri
.

17
BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2009.

18
Andrew C. Revkin, “Campaign Against Emissions Picks Number,”
New York Times
, October 24, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/science/earth/25threefifty.html
.

19
Climate Progress, “Rajendra Pachauri Endorses 350 ppm, Not as IPCC Chair but ‘as a Human Being,'” August 25, 2009,
http://climateprogress.org/2009/08/25/ipcc-chair-rajendra-pachauri-350-ppm-bill-mckibben/
.

20
Late Show with David Letterman
, November 3, 2009,
http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=Pvb2AfVeGFHFfegRj7cbeENTolRNrecs&vs=Big%20Show%20Highlights&play=true
.

21
Nanet Poulsen, “192 Nations at UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen,” Associated Press, December 7, 2009,
http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2855
.

22
Andrew C. Revkin and John M. Broder, “A Grudging Accord in Climate Talks,”
New York Times
, December 19, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/science/earth/20accord.html?scp=1&sq=copenhagen%20and%20broder&st=cse
.

23
Vaclav Smil, “Moore's Curse and the Great Energy Delusion,”
The American
, November 19, 2008,
http://www.american.com/archive/2008/november-december-magazine/moore2019s-curse-and-the-great-energy-delusion
.

24
Ibid.

25
According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2009, global primary energy consumption in 2008 was about 11.3 billion tons of oil equivalent, or about 82.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent per year. Multiplying that figure by $60 per barrel gives us about $4.9 trillion.

1
Amory Lovins, “Saving the Climate for Fun and Profit,” Yahoo! Green, June 7, 2007,
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/amorylovins/1/saving-the-climate-for-fun-and-profit.html
.

2
Michael Mechanic, “Power Q&A: Amory Lovins,”
Mother Jones
, May/June 2008,
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/05/power-qa-amory-lovins
.

3
Stone Phillips, “A Simple Solution to Pain at the Pump?”
Dateline NBC
, May 7, 2006,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12676374/
.

4
Dana Childs, “Cellulosic Ethanol to Be Cost-Competitive by 2009, Says Khosla,”
Cleantech.com
, March 23, 2007,
http://cleantech.com/news/928/cellulosic-ethanol-to-be-cost-competiti
.

5
National Public Radio, “Al Gore's Speech on Renewable Energy,” July 17, 2008,
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92638501
.

6
Al Gore, “The Climate for Change,”
New York Times
, November 9, 2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09gore.html
.

7
Ted McKenna, “New Al Gore Campaign Applies Ads, Media for Grassroots Effort,”
PR Week
, April 4, 2008.

8
Wecansolveit.org
, “Grassroots Partners,”
http://www.wecansolveit.org/pages/partners/
.

9
Jennifer Alsever, “Pickens' Natural Gas Idea Picking Up Steam,” MSNBC, October 21, 2008,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27052462/
.

10
Pickens Plan,
http://media.pickensplan.com/pdf/pickensplan.pdf
.

11
WorldPublicOpinion.org
, “World Publics Strongly Favor Requiring More Wind and Solar Energy, More Efficiency, Even If It Increases Costs,” November 19, 2008,
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/btenvironmentra/570.php
.

12
League of Conservation Voters, “Board of Directors,”
http://www.lcv.org/about-lcv/board-of-directors/
(accessed December 29, 2008).

13
League of Conservation Voters, “Repower, Refuel, and Rebuild America,”
http://action.lcv.org/campaign/repower_d
(accessed December 29, 2008).

14
NBC Universal, “Company Overview,”
http://www.nbcuni.com/About_NBC_Universal/Company_Overview/
.

15
The Daily Beast
, “Top 9 Moments from Miss USA,” April 20, 2009,
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-20/the-best-and-worst-of-the-miss-usa-pageant/
.

16
U.S. Department of Energy, “Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy,”
http://www.energy.gov/organization/dr_steven_chu.htm
.

17
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
, “July 21, 2009: Steven Chu,” video available at
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-july-21-2009/steven-chu
.

18
CNN.com
, “Then & Now: Heidi Fleiss,” June 19, 2005,
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/28/cnn25.tan.fleiss/
.

19
Henry Brean, “Heidi Fleiss Gives Up on Plan for Brothel for Women,”
Las Vegas Review-Journal
, February 10, 2009,
http://www.lvrj.com/news/39357657.html
.

20
See the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery,
http://www.netaddiction.com/
.

21
Peter Tertzakian and Keith Hollihan,
The End of Energy Obesity: Breaking Today's Energy Addiction for a Prosperous and Secure Tomorrow
(New York: Wiley, 2009), 12.

22
CBS News, “Transcript of Barack Obama's Speech,” February 10, 2007,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/10/politics/main2458099.shtml
.

23
According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2009 (
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/reports_and_publications/statistical_energy_review_2008/STAGING/local_assets/2009_downloads/renewables_section_2009.pdf
), India's consumption is about 2.9 million barrels per day. The country has 1.1 billion people. See Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/IN.html
.

24
Jerome Taylor, “Ethical Travel Company Drops Carbon Offsetting,”
The Independent
, November 7, 2009,
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/ethical-travel-company-drops-carbon-offsetting-18165
54. html.

25
Louise Story, “FTC Asks If Carbon-Offset Money Is Well Spent,”
New York Times
, January 9, 2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/business/09offsets.html
; Christopher Joyce, “Carbon Offsets: Government Warns of Fraud Risk,” National Public Radio, January 3, 2008,
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17814838
.

26
Taylor, “Ethical Travel Company.”

27
See Ecorazzi website,
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2007/02/16/live-earth-to-be-carbon-neutral-model-of-sustainable-entertainment/
.

28
Jerd Smith, “Bet Made on Carbon Offsets,”
Rocky Mountain News
, July 26, 2008,
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/26/bet-made-on-carbon-offsets/
.

29
Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Vatican Seeks to Be Carbon Neutral,”
New York Times
, September 3, 2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/03/business/worldbusiness/03iht-carbon.4.7366547.html
.

30
For specs on the Toyota Sequoia, see
Cargurus.com
,
http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Overview-c21323-2009-Sequoia.html
.

31
Revenue data from Yahoo! Finance, “Income Statement,”
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=CVX&annual
.

32
See
http://www.willyoujoinus.com/commitment/mediagallery/
.

33
For an example, see
http://www.willyoujoinus.com/assets/downloads/media/Chevron_Iwill_use%20less%20energy.pdf
.

34
Karlyn Bowman, “The Federal Government: Losing Public Support,”
Roll Call
, October 5, 2006.

35
In 2008, Exxon Mobil paid about $116.2 billion in taxes. See Robert Bryce, “Exxon, Big Oil Profits Evil Only Until You Weigh Their Tax Bills,”
US News & World Report
, February 11, 2009,
http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2009/02/11/exxon-big-oil-profits-evil-only-until-you-weigh-their-tax-bills.html
.

36
Drew Thornley, “Energy & the Environment: Myths & Facts,” Manhattan Institute, 2009,
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/EnergyMyth_2ndEdition.pdf
, 35.

37
James Howard Kunstler,
The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century
(New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005), jacket flap.

38
California Progress Report, “President Clinton: Why I Support Proposition 87 and Why the Oil Companies are Wrong—The Complete Speech Delivered at UCLA,” October 14, 2006,
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2006/10/first-_thank_y.html
.

39
Michael Moore, “Goodbye, GM,”
The Daily Beast
, June 1, 2009,
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-06-01/goodbye-gm/full/
.