Peak Oil: Corporations start to wake up, will the Government?
Chris | 06.11.2008 10:44 | Analysis | Energy Crisis | Sheffield | World
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UK Industry Taskforce Sounds Alarm on Peak Oil
Posted by Chris Vernon on November 5, 2008 - 9:59pm in The Oil Drum: Europe
On Wednesday 29th October 2008 I attended a press conference at the London Stock Exchange. The meeting was convened by the "Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil & Energy Security" (
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September last year, former US Energy Secretary Dr James Schlesinger addressed the ASPO6 conference in Cork, Ireland with these words:
"The peakists have won ... to the peakists I say, you can declare victory. You are no longer the beleaguered small minority of voices crying in the wilderness. You are now mainstream. You must learn to take yes for an answer and be gracious in victory."
The taskforce behind this report formed around 18 months ago.
Wednesday's meeting proved Schlesinger right. A group of serious, respectable organisations, had just published a serious and respectable report, in a serious and respectable venue stating:
"The effects of peak oil will be felt in the next five years."
"The risks to UK society from peak oil are far greater than those that tend to occupy the Government's risk-thinking, including terrorism."
"The UK Government needs to re-prioritise peak oil – as the impacts are more likely to arrive first – before climate change."
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Chris