Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the nation's deadliest, and likely its costliest, natural disasters. We mourn the lives lost, homes destroyed and communities uprooted. And we applaud the recovery efforts underway to aid those directly affected by this unprecedented event. To learn how you can assist those in need, call the American Red Cross at 1-800-HELP NOW  or visit www.redcross.org.

 

If you've visited a gas station or opened a newspaper since Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, you're painfully aware of another effect of the hurricane's touchdown: skyrocketing gas prices. In a sight unseen since the 1970s, consumers briefly faced gas lines or even shortages. The hurricane's direct hit of America's primary energy center led to widespread power outages in affected states, swamped refineries and a temporary halt to oil and natural gas production. While oil and gas prices have fallen a bit from their dizzying heights, drivers must still pay around a previously-unimaginable $3.00/gallon for regular unleaded.

If anything, Hurricane Katrina should demolish once and for all the illusion that cheap oil will once again be ours. Past warnings of the end of easily-obtained oil, however, have fallen on deaf ears. In The End of Oil, Paul Roberts compellingly argues that "the real question is not whether oil will run out (it will) but whether we have the capacity, the political will, to see that outcome soon enough to prepare for it." 

I heard Roberts speak at the National Clean Cities Conference this past May. Another keynote speaker at the conference was T. Boone Pickens, founder of Clean Energy, the transportation sector's biggest supplier of natural gas. Pickens, the quintessential oilman, matter-of-factly said oil production has probably peaked. The implications of oil depletion are staggering, whether it happens today or decades from now. It's clear that a sustained public debate is sorely-needed to determine how we will make the transition from the oil economy to the next energy economy. I'll talk more about this needed debate in future letters.

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