(Note: Commentaries do not necessarily represent ASPO-USA's positions; they are personal statements and observations by informed commentators.)

While energy jitters continue to rattle the global economy, China’s regional alliances are being solidified to ensure that China’s economy will remain viable and growing as oil depletion becomes a permanent fixture of our daily lives. As cheap trans-oceanic shipping of non-essential goods eventually becomes less viable, these new partnerships will help realign global trade, and as a result, regional diplomacy.

“Fossil fuels resemble capital in the bank. A responsible parent will use his capital sparingly in order to pass on to his children as much as possible of his inheritance. A selfish parent will squander it in riotous living and care not one whit how his offspring will fare.”
       —Admiral Hyman Rickover, U.S. Navy

Coloradans pride themselves on being fiscally conservative. In this cash-strapped state, legislators squabble over quarters and governors take deficits for granted. But there’s a paradox here: Even as we suffer migraines over how to fund education, transportation, and health care, Colorado has, in effect, left more than one billion dollars on the table since 2002. How is that possible?

(Note: Commentaries do not necessarily represent ASPO-USA’s positions; they are personal statements and observations by informed commentators.)

Our future is highly dependent on the way in which worldwide crude oil production is going to decline. If it goes rapidly, declining with a few percent or more each year, then it will be very difficult to complete the energy transition without severe economical consequences. If production stabilizes and plateaus for a decade or longer, after which the period of long decline begins, it would provide much greater means to sustain the present economy. Stability is needed to scale up alternative sources of energy sufficiently to replace crude oil during a transition period of decades.