TRANSPORTATION AND AMERICA'S "OIL ADDICTION"
TIME: September 6th, 2006; 5:45 pm - 7:30 pm
LOCATION: UNC Campus, Johnston Center in Graham Memorial building (directions here, note that the Robertson Program free student bus between UNC and Duke stops right beside Graham Memorial. Its schedule is here)
SPEAKER: David Greene, PhD Corporate Fellow of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
link to bio >

Transportation is the heart blood of our economy and a core component of our way of life. Modern transportation systems require vast amounts of energy. Today, transportation faces daunting energy challenges. Our transportation system's nearly complete dependence on petroleum costs our economy hundreds of billions of dollars each year, enormously complicates our foreign policy and significantly undermines our national security. The peaking of oil production in a growing number of regions will strengthen the OPEC cartel's market power at a time when the motorization of transport in Asia is fueling rapid growth of oil demand. To fill the growing gap between conventional petroleum demand and supply the world has already begun to tap into vast resources of unconventional fossil fuels. Unfortunately, unconventional petroleum sources produce even more carbon dioxide emissions than conventional petroleum and are likely to magnify transportation's large and growing impact on the global climate. Solving transportation's energy problems requires first that we understand their nature and second that we implement comprehensive and robust policies.

You can see and hear the presentation here (95 MB Flash).