Are Fossil Fuels sustainable?
Sustainable Fossil Fuels : The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy, Mark Jaccard, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 2005. [OK, its not new, but even though its been around for over two years, I wanted to bring this book to your attention because it has helped me to seperate what belongs in this blog and what doesn’t. It addresses some good questions about what we mean by sustainable and what that mean in a practical sense.] There is no doubt that renewable power, energy efficiency and (most) biofuels fit within the scope of sustainable energy as defined for this blog. However, do fossil fuels and fossil fuel providers also belong? Do they belong in any definition of sustainable energy? In his 2005 book Dr. Mark Jaccard focuses squarely on this question. And he concludes that fossil fuels should be a key part of our future clean, sustainable energy system …. but with strong caveats on their production and consumption. In doing so he provides some usef
