Good Reads for Executives

There are a variety of ways to dissect why alternative fuels matter.  Connecting the dots is complicated because the need to move away from fossil fuels is rooted in many areas.  In “Risks of the Oil Transition,” authors AE Farrell and AR Brandt discuss the challenge of identifying energy solutions that equally weigh economic, strategic, and environmental risks.  They offer some of the considerations required to end up with the desired result.  National security challenges tied to our need for oil imports are thoughtfully reviewed by five faculty members from Stanford.  Normal market principles don’t apply to oil exporters because of the huge profits that land in the hands of unstable governments.  As a result, the scholars generally concur that an emphasis on energy independence is the wrong emphasis.  The perspective of the Pacific Institute in California is that the health costs resulting from the growing freight transport market must be covered by those profiting.  The good news is that the economics can result in a win-win for everyone. 

The complexity of our conspicuous consumption is difficult to understand much less solve.  Recently Victor Davis Hanson of the Washington Times made a pretty compelling point about the price we pay for our addiction.  He observed that during WWII, when the United States was an energy independent nation, we bombed the oil fields controlled by the Third Reich to stop Hitler’s killing spree.  You have to wonder what the oil exporting countries that actively work against U.S. interests would have to do today for us to even ponder such an action.   

“Risks of the Oil Transition,” by AE Farrell and AR Brandt, Energy and Resources Group, University of California at Berkeley, Published October 30, 2006 Click here. (pdf)

“Paying With Our Health:  The Real Cost of Freight Transport in California,”  Pacific Institute, November 2006
Click here. (pdf)

“A Crude Awakening,”  Stanford Magazine, November/December 2006 Click here. (weblink)

“Good Reads For Executives” will be a regular newsletter feature.  The intent is to provide provocative information that offers a context broader than sound bites for understanding how fleets and the alternative fuels industry fit into the bigger picture.  Comments and report/article/book suggestions are more than welcome at ktaylor@afvi.org