Winning the Oil Endgame

by Amory B. Lovins, E. Kyle Datta, Odd-Even Bustnes

Enough about the oil problem. Here?s the solution. Over a few decades, starting now, a vibrant US economy (then others) can completely phase out oil. This will save a net $70 billion a year, revitalize key industries and rural America, create a million jobs, and enhance security. Here?s the roadmap ? independent, peer-reviewed, co-sponsored by the Pentagon ? for the transition beyond oil, led by business and profit.

Genres: Climate Change

Paperback

Published September 1, 2004

About the author

Amory Bloch Lovins is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman/chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has written on energy policy and related areas for four decades, and served on the US National Petroleum Council, an oil industry lobbying group, from 2011 to 2018.
Lovins has promoted energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy sources, and the generation of energy at or near the site where the energy is actually used. Lovins has also advocated a "negawatt revolution" arguing that utility customers don't want kilowatt-hours of electricity; they want energy services. In the 1990s, his work with Rocky Mountain Institute included the design of an ultra-efficient automobile, the Hypercar. He has provided expert testimony and published 31 books, including Reinventing Fire, Winning the Oil Endgame, Small is Profitable, Brittle Power, and Natural Capitalism.

Reviews

[Nora]

Available for free as a PDF! Everyone should read this. A little dense, yes, but it constructs an arguably viable plan for restructuring an economy without oil.
Is it the ultimate answer to global climate change? Absolutely not.
The reason it's required reading is that it proves that climate change is not a technically insurmountable problem- we have the technology right now. Not easy, but POSSIBLE. Those who would like to wait for "the golden bullet" technology that will supposedly singlehandedly solve the myriad of economic and technical problems are betting on a strategy 100% guaranteed for failure. The only "golden bullet" is the political will to take action.

[Alex]

lovins does a disservice to the environmental movement once again, this time in a pentagon-funded book trying to sell the idea of energy efficiency to large corporations from the energy and car industries.

utterly ignores the scarcity of oil and energy, by the way, don't be fooled by the title.

[John]

Ok, I'm never going to finish this. I expected Wonky, but there is a ton of repetition and little I didn't already know.

My big take away: Light-weighting cars is important. Make them lighter, they get better gas mileage. Use advanced lightweight materials, and they can be as strong as heavy steel cars.

[Jerzy]

Haven't read it yet, but note that it's also available for free download from the authors' website: http://www.oilendgame.com/ReadTheBook...