Interesting webcast about energy from quirks and quarks. The better interview was with Vijay Vaitheeswaran, author of Power to the People. Here is another more in depth interview with the Author. And kicking the Oil habit on MITs website.
The major points that he makes
* Oil was forecasted to be $100 a barrel by 2002 by the US government and Exxon. What happened? Technology improved.
* 25% of world reserves are in Saudi Arabia. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates-each have about a tenth of the world's reserves. Taken together, then, this volatile corner of the world sits atop two-thirds of the world's oil.
* The government needs to cost in externalities into Oil prices
* Governments should stop subsidizing oil prices (Iraq)
* Number one cause of environmental damage is hydrocarbon usage
* Many of the other environmental problems we face (water etc) all are solvable with adequate energy
* The developing world all would like use more energy (transport, cooling, lighting etc).
* He is very pro Hydrogen
* Small is beautiful (Amory Lovins). Smaller distributed groups will drive the solution. Not government or large companies.