Second Bartlett Speech on Peak Oil to be Covered Live by C-Span (Tonight)

[chlamor]

Second Bartlett Speech to Congress on Peak Oil to be Covered Live by C-SPAN

by Press Release

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett will discuss the challenge of global peak oil in a one-hour Special Order speech on Tuesday, April 19. The speech is scheduled for the third one-hour Special Order on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. It will be carried live by C-SPAN and is estimated to begin @9:00 pm – 9:30 pm EDT. Log on to watch it live at www.c-span.org/watch/ . Congressman Bartlett will discuss the economic and national security challenges that make it imperative for the U.S. to rapidly develop alternative energy sources in an environment of rising world demand and a growing consensus of declines in world oil production.

Congressman Bartlett previously discussed global peak oil in a one-hour Special Order speech on March 14, 2005. The text can be downloaded from Congressman Bartlett’s website at www.bartlett.house.gov/EnvironmentalProject.asp

Congressman Bartlett is one of three scientists in the Congress and had successful careers as a scientist, professor, engineer, farmer, and small business owner prior to his election to Congress. He designed and built his own solar-powered home and was the first member in Congress to take delivery of a gas-electric hybrid Prius.

Congressman Bartlett is currently the Chairman of the Projection Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee and Vice Chairman of the Small Business Committee. He served as Chairman of the Energy Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science in the 107th Congress and was a key author of the alternative and renewable provisions in the Energy bill.

http://www.energybulletin.net/5437.html

[truthisfreedom]

1. we need a president who is a scientist. soon. real soon. before it's

too late. is he a conservative? this is from his website:

A Message From Roscoe Bartlett

As I have done throughout my career, I will continue my consistent record of voting for lower taxes, less spending and fewer regulations to make our government more effective and efficient while upholding our Constitution. I will work to strengthen our military to win the war against terrorism without eroding Americans' civil liberties. I will fight for budget honesty and eliminating the deficit to reduce the transfer of debt to younger generations. I will work for energy policies that recognize oil won't last forever. I will fight for my bill to restore Americans' First Amendment political speech rights now restricted in the name of campaign reform.

[chlamor]

2. Bartlett is a Conservative

Rep. from Oklahoma.

We need people to take this matter into their hands and lead the way. People like you.

[tabasco]

3. He's my rep in Maryland.

If this is one area Bartlett is correct in, great. He's wrong in all others.

I figure Bartlett has a scheme he's pushing to make money, like putting windmills on top of all the ridgelines in Western Maryland.

I trust a rattlesnake more than Bartlett.

[seemslikeadream]

4. Here's the March 14 speech from the floor

Last night's is not up yet but I will post it when available

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, in just a few minutes, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett ) will address the House for some period of time talking about energy sources, oil in particular, and the fact that many experts say that oil production, especially in the United States, but actually throughout the world, oil production of conventional oil under current patterns is expected to grow at a rate much faster, that means the use of oil by the world community is supposed to grow much faster than oil discovery production.




What is clear, because we are not sure exactly when that peak will come in oil production, some say it is peaking right now, some say it will peak in 10 years, the amount of oil we get out of the ground will exceed the demand; but what is clear is that at some point in this century, world oil production will peak and then begin to decline. There is uncertainty about the date because many countries that produce oil do not provide credible data on how big their reserves are.

But more uncertainty calls for more caution, not less; and caution in this case means working to develop alternatives. When production of conventional oil peaks, we can expect a large increase in the price up to the price of the substitutes, whether so-called unconventional oil or renewable fuels. Although increasing domestic production may ease oil dependence slightly, the United States is only 3 percent of the world's estimated oil reserves and uses 25 percent of the world's oil.

I want to explain just from the perspective of the United States the huge increase in energy demand in the last century. I am going to use the word ``quadrillion.'' Quadrillion is a number. If I put 1 followed by 15 zeroes, I have the number quadrillion. To measure energy use in a country, we use BTUs, British thermal units. A new furnace, whether oil or natural gas, you see the BTU to determine how much energy it is going to use. When you use BTUs to determine how much energy a country uses, you use a short term for quadrillion called ``quads.''

In 1910, the United States used 7 quads of BTUs. That is 7 quadrillion BTUs. In 1950, the United States used 35 quadrillion BTUs. In 2005, the United States uses 100 quadrillion BTUs, and we are accelerating that. We are increasing demand for oil for our energy needs. The world right now, 2005, uses 345 quadrillion BTUs, an enormous amount of energy.

We know today that our appliances, whether a washing machine, a refrigerator or dishwasher, we know they are much more efficient than they ever were, certainly 20, 30, 40 years ago; and yet we are using more electricity, not less. We know that automobiles and trucks and our transportation is much more efficient than it was 20 years ago, and yet the demand is increasing. We burn more coal, more natural gas. Each home, as efficient as each home is today, burns much more oil and electricity because of the demand on energy needs. We are not decreasing by getting efficient. Because our demand is greater, we are using more and more.

The question is if we are increasing demand and production is going to peak now or in the next decade or two and our production goes down while the demand goes up, especially with oil reserves, are we at the early stages of the twilight for oil as an energy source? And if we are, what do we do?

Well, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett ) will speak on a number of aspects of oil production decline. We will talk much further about the details of the solution to the problems of

GPO's PDF
our energy decline, but I want to close with two last things: How do we harness a new alternative energy source and make it replace what we have been using for more than 2 centuries? How do we do that? We do it with initiative, ingenuity, intellect, vision, and leadership. Remember when I said quadrillion was one with 15 zeroes and talked about how much energy we use, and right now it is 100 quadrillion BTUs, we are not too far away from understanding how to separate hydrogen and oxygen; that is heavy hydrogen from oxygen in seawater.
If we can slow light down 186,000 miles a second to zero, we can stop light, we can put information in a molecule, we understand the human genome, we will be able to use our ingenuity to tap 10 trillion quadrillion quads of BTUs in seawater. Our energy demand is increasing; oil production is decreasing. With intellect and leadership, we can transition to a new fuel source.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?r109:24:./temp/~r109cdK0k0::