THE ACCESS TO ENERGY

The name of our publication derives from our belief that energy is in unlimited supply, but that the access to it is blocked by government interference in free markets and by environmentalist anti-technology sentiment. Of late we have heard new cries of anguish that in spite of the oil glut energy is again running out. They may have been triggered by World Energy Outlook, a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the organization established by the Western industrialized countries in 1974 to cooperate in decreasing their dependence on oil.

The report worries that the oil glut will lull governments into complacency, so that they may be caught unprepared when economic recovery runs out of presently available energy sources and facilities.

Of course they will: When have democratic governments not been caught unprepared, especially in fields in which they have no business? The oil glut itself was not brought about by any government, let alone by IEA cooperation, but by the substitution of coal and uranium for oil after OPEC, in 1979, priced its oil out of the market.

There may, of course be disruptions, such as wars in the Middle East (see "How Israel saved America's oil supplies" by M. Tapscott, Conservative Digest Aug. 82); but they can only briefly interrupt oils declining trend.

More interesting in the report are the figures on "alternative," energy sources, for whose development the IEA was largely established. By the year 2000, their maximum contribution is estimated at 9% of the total, and most of that is hydro. Which leaves coal and nuclear, plus some natural gas. (Yawn.)

In a recent interview, IEA Director Ulf Lantzke states his belief that the peak of public resistance to nuclear power in Europe was passed two or three years ago. In the US, the situation is different. "In the US, the utilities have become reluctant to invest in large-scale power plants, not only nuclear, but others as well, due to overly long lead times... The basic problem in the US will be to re-establish the economic soundness of the utility industry."

[World Energy Outlook, IEA, Paris, 1982; available through OECD Publ. & Info. Cntr., 1750 Pennsylvania Ave NW/#1207, Washington, DC 20006; "World Energy Outlook: Interview with Ulf Lantzke," OECD Observer, Nov. 1982.]