New Site: The Cost of Energy

30 March 2005

A new site, The Cost of Energy, is  taking on the ambitious project of helping non-experts learn about the issues and policies surrounding energy across a very broad array of applications.

From the overview:

We live in a time of unprecedented technological, environmental, and social change. From quickly rising fears of global warming to phenomenal advances in engineering and medicine, it’s getting harder by the day to keep up with the headlines.

But one of the biggest and potentially most terrifying changes has crept upon us with surprisingly few people noticing: The age of cheap oil is about to come to an end. Of the three fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas), oil is the hardest to replace, thanks largely to its use in transportation, and therefore the one that will impact industrialized countries the most when it becomes scarce.

The problem is that this is far more than a question of simply paying for at the gas pump; you can’t understand the ramifications of permanently high (and rising) oil prices without also looking at how all energy sources relate to one another, plus economics, politics, and even cultural issues.

That was the impetus behind this project.

Ambitious—and necessary. Read and contribute.