Excellent Resource!

Simmons & Company International provides excellent presentations about our probable future, based on our addiction to (cheap) oil - if we do not rise to the occasion very soon. Please visit their website, and take time to read Mr. Simmon's insightful & educational information provided in "Speeches & Papers" as well as "Current Research Reports" located under the menu-tabs.

What can compete with oil?

We may want to consider that full replacement of oil will require some serious “original thinking”! Especially in light of the fact that whatever replaces oil will need to have its source be “free.” What do I mean by that? Oil is essentially free. The “stuff” is in the ground. It costs to buy mineral rights, extract, refine and distribute it. Other than that, the “goes-into” is free! What else is free? Solar, hydro, wind, wave, tide energy all have their “source energy” as free! Although energy efficiency and substitutes like bio-fuels are extremely important, we must seriously consider the issues of the base costs of energy. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, “It would take about 300 million gallons of water for processing the product and cooling equipment to make 100 million gallons of ethanol each year.” We need to think WAY outside the box! We need an Energy Independence Fund ASAP!

50% by 2050? VCs are stepping up to the plate!

From the St. Louis Business Journal: U.S.-based venture capital firms invested $917 million in energy technologies last year, a 28 percent increase over the previous year. This represented 4.2 percent of total VC investments. That may not sound like much, but six years ago, VCs invested less than 1 percent of their money in energy technology.

Time for an Energy-technology Incubator in Oregon?

With the Governor’s stated objectives (see entry, below) and no end in sight for demand-induced / turmoil-exacerbated price increases, now would be the time to create an Oregon-based energy-technology incubator! Of course, we need the following:

- policy support (almost)
- market-need (in place)
- technology-innovators (available)
- leaders (available)
- money (not being applied [sufficiently] in Oregon [yet])

Will anyone step up? I believe step one is the money & policy. The others will follow!

Post-scripts
[1] Please read Oregon Business Magazine’s interview with Nancy Floyd.
[2] Check out Pacific Northwest's Energy Venture blog!

What is really causing this gas-price run-up?

Supply & demand, nationalization and political turmoil is at the root of current price run-up. The graphics from a recent Business Week article tell a compelling story!

- Not just "Big Oil" anymore!
- Supply & demand: Peak oil!
- Nationalization
- Resulting in higher prices

Compared with the 1970s.

Oregon's Governor Supports BHAG!

March, 2006: Oregon's Governor Kulongoski encouraged the State of Oregon to focus more on renewable energy: Sustainable Industries Journal & Governor's Press Release (revising his proclamation). This would be a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).