Peak oil in Boston

September 8, 2006

Boston – The Association for the Study of Peak Oil-USA (ASPO-USA) and Boston University (BU) will co-sponsor the 2006 World Oil Conference, Time for Action: A Midnight Ride for Peak Oil, on the BU campus October 25-27, 2006.

The Conference will bring energy experts from around the world to discuss the likely timing, impacts, and intelligent responses to the growing Peak Oil challenge. Virtually every sector of our society and economy will be affected by Peak Oil, from transportation, manufacturing, airfreight, and agriculture, to homebuilding, city planning, and finance.

“What better place than Boston to hold A Midnight Ride for Peak Oil?” asks Matthew Simmons, Chair of ASPO-USA’s Advisory Board. “We are recruiting the best minds in the business – geologists, industry experts, academics, and environmentalists – to take up arms with scientific data to meet the historic challenge of Peak Oil.” Simmons is author of the WSJ-listed best seller, Twilight in the Desert – The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy.

For Conference details, please see: www.aspousa.org/fall2006/index.cfm

In addition to Matthew Simmons and Robert Kaufmann, conference speakers will include Ali Samsam Bakhtiari of the National Iranian Oil Company (retired); Roscoe Bartlett US Congress Rep from Md., and more than 20 others. Peak oil writers Richard Heinberg and Michael Klare will also be speaking. The full list of speakers may be viewed at the Conference Website.

Conference topics include:

  • Oil & Gas Depletion (What’s the evidence on Peak Oil? What geologic, political, economic and technical constraints limit oil production? Why is forecasting a date for Peak Oil an inexact science?)
  • Mitigation (What responses are available and when can they be implemented?)
  • Alternative Energy (What unconventional petroleum and non-petroleum energy sources are available, and can they fill the depletion gap?)
  • Economics (What economic challenges do decreasing energy supplies present?)
  • Transportation (What is the future direction of personal transportation, its limitations and prospects, and how should planners and fleet managers respond?)
  • Net Energy (What’s the meaning of energy return on energy invested (ERoEI), and why is it critical to intelligent responses to the Peak Oil dilemma?)
  • Energy Security (Can we achieve energy security in a world of escalating competition for a finite resource?)
  • Government Policy (What is the direction of energy policy at the local, state, and federal levels? Do these policies need obvious tweaks, or a massive overhaul?)

ASPO-USA (www.aspo-usa.com/ ) is a broad-based, non-profit, non-partisan coalition of energy experts, scientists, educators, and members of environmental, business and non-profit organizations. The Boston Conference is part of ASPO-USA’s mission to support research and public education initiatives aimed at mitigating the impact of Peak Oil on our society and economy.


Tags: Education