Unlike Colonel Gaddaffi or Ralph Nader, we believe that the present energy shortage is real, not a trick contrived by the oil corporations. In the absence of a national energy policy, and in the presence of bureaucratic controls, environmental hysteria and widespread anti technology sentiment, the energy shortage was to be expected and, indeed, was forecast years ago by a host of experts.

But it is too late to cry over spilled milk. More and better science and technology, not less, will provide that answers in the long run, though they cannot cure overnight what has been neglected for years. In the present bottleneck. energy conservation and elimination of waste is important, but it is not a permanent solution. and it will not be achieved by sentimental appeals or government decrees. No one has yet discovered a more efficient way of distributing scarce goods than a free market.

But just how scarce is energy? The sun will shine for another 50 billion years; geothermal energy will be harness able for the remaining life of the earth; hydrogen fuel is as plentiful as the water of the oceans, and nuclear breeders can never run out of fuel.

Which makes nonsense of the bottom of the barrel attitude taken by the doomsday prophets, no growth crusaders and even high government spokesmen. Right now the difference may seem philosophical. But for the future, it is the difference between a stunted economy draining its dwindling resources, and a society in which there is plenty of cheap and clean energy for everybody.

Vol. 1, No. 2 Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Volume 1 Issue/No.: Vol. 1, No. 2 Date: October 01, 1973 04:59 PM Title: Bottleneck or "bottom of the barrel"? Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive All rights reserved.