Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group, 2005.

 The following review was contributed by: John Walsh & CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's Reviews

Oil will run out in somewhere between 100 and 120 years from now. Peak production of oil may have already occurred or else will occur within the next decade. Recent events which have temporarily restricted the supply of oil show how quickly consumer panic can arise and the problems face when their lifestyles and businesses are based so strongly on extremely cheap energy. In the future, with greater demand and lower supply, changes in society are not just inevitable but long overdue. Principal among them, perhaps, is the need to establish exactly which one or more than one forms of alternative energy can be used to replace oil. This is the context of Tom Mast’s neat and tidy explanation of the future of the oil industry. An engineer by training, he explains the purpose and nature of oil and of energy in the modern world in, as the book proclaims, a simple guide.

Clear and cogent, Mast describes in minimalist style the need for societal change and for enhanced research and development to establish alternative energy sources. Americans in particular will need to confront the reality of change. Low tax, low energy cost policies have led to a situation in which public transportation is woefully inadequate, houses and estates are too large and too far from each other and in which personal mobility is considered a right. It is unlikely that any of these circumstances will be allowed to persist beyond the next generation. Mast provides a few clues about the political-economy of the global oil industry but does not really spell out the need for the USA to reconsider its foreign policy if it wants to have access to future oil supplies. Contracts for supplies are increasingly managed on a long-term basis and, once China and India negotiate theirs in addition to those carrying substantial amounts to other oil-importers such as South Korea, Japan and Western Europe, Americans (whether viewed as imperialists or not) may well find themselves, well, over a barrel.

This nicely produced, presented and written book deserves a wide audience. Most people will read ti in a little over an hour but the message may last rather longer.

John Walsh, Shinawatra University, September2005