Notes & Sources

3. Oil's Well That Ends Well

The oil industry tells you exactly what everyday products are derived from oil on their company Web sites. The American Petroleum Institute, www.api.org, which is the industry's largest trade and lobby group, and Arctic Power, www.anwr.com, a front group that sounds "green," but actually promotes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, are two places to go for that information. Before you log off, learn more about what you can do to promote energy awareness and alternatives to oil by visiting Greenpeace, www.greenpeaceusa.org, and the Sierra Club, www.sierraclub.org.

"How Fuel Cells Work," a technical report by Karim Nice, explains the ABCs of fuel cells at www.howstuffworks.com. Additional information about the feasibility of hydrogen fuel cells is provided by Philip Ball, "Hydrogen fuel could widen ozone hole," Nature, June 13, 2003; David Adam, "Hydrogen: Fire and Ice," Nature, March 24, 2000. For more on the use of fossil fuels to create hydrogen energy, see "These Fuelish Things," The Economist, August 16, 2003.

In "Oil as a finite resource: When is global production likely to peak?" a study prepared for the World Resources Institute in 2000, Dr. James McKenzie projected that oil production could begin to decline as early as 2007, and as late as 2019. Other industry experts have drawn similar conclusions, as reported by David Robinson in "A new era for oil," Buffalo News, October 8, 2002, and Jim Motavalli in "Running on EMPTY," E, July 1, 2000.

For more on the Bush Administration's plan to expand nuclear energy production, see Dan Roberts's article, "Hydrogen: clean, safer than in the past and popular with politicians," Financial Times, May 13, 2003; and "Energy Policy," NPR: Talk of the Nation, June 13, 2003. Vice President Dick Cheney put it in his own words in an address to the Nuclear Energy Institute May 22, 2001.

Visit these sites to TAKE ACTION NOW and join the fight for sustainable energy:

Climate Action Network: www.climatenetwork.org
Friends of the Earth: www.foe.org/act/takeaction/index.html
Greenpeace: www.greenpeaceusa.org/takeaction/
Natural Resources Defense Council: www.nrdc.org/action/default.asp
Physicians for Social Responsibility: www.capwiz.com/physicians/home/
Project Underground: www.moles.org
Sierra Club: www.sierraclub.org/energy
Sustainable Energy and Economy Network: www.seen.org
Union of Concerned Scientists: www.ucsaction.org
U.S. Public Interest Research Group: www.newenergyfuture.com
World Wildlife Fund: www.takeaction.worldwildlife.org