| Description | CHAPTER 4 FOSSIL ENERGY …everything comes back to energy: our global environmental strategies, our national economy, local and regional air pollution, the notion of moving toward a more resource-efficient society, national security in terms of the Middle East, the burgeoning requirements of the Third World, especially the Asian Rim-everything comes back to energy. John H. Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology 1 Fossil fuels will likely remain the principal energy sources for most of the world, including the United States, well into the middle of the next century. They are plentiful, widely dispersed, and easy to transform, transport, and use. Technologies for extracting and converting fossil fuels continue to improve. In fact, the promise of DOE/industry supported R&D is technology that can lead to continued affordable use of fossil fuels (including coal) even in a greenhouse-constrained society and moderation of oil imports and the cost to the economy of future oil price shocks. 2 |
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