European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 30, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse by Stan Benjamin associated press . Easily spent less easily found. The uder they re spent the sooner is All course you never heard it explained quite like that before usually the experts in or out of government an Industry confuse you and each other by arguing Over the historic Impact of government Price controls impart quotas depletion allowances and the foreign Oil Cartel forget All that for the moment instead imagine Yob were � Yean old to us and a Rich eccentric Node left Yoa All his Money scattered a Banks and Over the country and hid the Bank searching hard you quickly find and claim $1.5 Mil you surtout spending $34.000 a year on your self living in luxury on your new Fortune at first that s enough but then it in t and five years later you be raised your allowance to $,000a year. Another 10 years and you re married with few Chil Dren easily spending $53.000 a year and since we redrearnirirruigineth�re-3no"inflation" eight years later in 1973, the kids Are in College and to True spending $75,01 0 a year but the old Bank books Don t look so those 23 years you be spent almost half your inheritance and you figure out your spending rate has beenrisir4.8 per Lert a year compounded. You try cutting Back a couple of years but that s nofun.sobyl976yourspendingisonthewayupagain. That s Bow the United states has spent Oil and natural Gas since 1950 every $1,000 in our fairytale represents one quadrillion Standard Energy units Btu of Oil and natural Gas in real 1850, . Oil and Gas reserves May have totalled around 1.500 quadrillion Btu. Or Btu in Energy talk. We burned it at the rate of 34 Btu a year then me to nearly 75 Btu a year in w73, according .bureau of mine. Hating Adby that Fanette Fri a i ii a see Kos it ititrjrfffmffi1 i " the Energy crisis Why of then president Richard m. Nixon ended the import Oil hooded into the United states and then the Middle East producers shut off the Supply applying Polit ical pressure in a bid to gain some . Support in their chronic conflict with Israel at the same time they tripled their Oil prices knowing we had Little alternative but to pay. That Arab of embargo of u7i-7i finally sex Pond to americans the . Been growing All aloof. A rat Energy crisis that had Oil and natural Gas were providing nearly 75 per cent of All the nation s Energy but Mother nature was not making these fuels any More not fast enough to matter and our once huge inheritance was running Down rapidly. Through 1974 and 1975, scared by the embargo an slowed Down by an economic slump the United states Cut Back a Little on its use of Oil natural Gas and Energy in , in 1976, the Economy and morale were up and so was Energy consumption rising once More at the old rate of 4.8 per cent a year. At that rate the original inheritance would not last go Backoo our fairytale for a minute i took 23 years to run through nearly half your original 1.5 million. But you Are Spe a couple of one third of your f. If you started spending again at 4.8 per cent a year. You would be oat broke Only eight years from now in 1985. And that s when the United states following a similar Patten a Fol no ont of Oil and natural Gas unless it can and More and to certainly will Bat How Mack More and Bow Long will that tast again suppose in imagination that you scrambled around and found More hidden Bank books enough to double the half of your Fortune that was left in 1973. If you kept on increasing your spending As usual you would be broke by 1993.in our fairytale you would have spent nearly $2.3 Mil lion in 41 years and had a lot of fun doing it but at the age Oug ending heavily and even though you levelled off f years by now you would have left Only about f your Fortune. Of s3 you and your children and grandchildren would Sud Denly have to find some Brand new Way of earning $123, 000 a year to keep up your life style became the inheritance would be gone for Good. Translated into reality this financial fairytale Means the United states could double its 1973 Oil and Gas re serves and still run dry by 1993, if demand kept rising 4.8 per cent a year. That in turn Means the nation would have maybe eight to 16 years to replace natural Oil and Gas 75 per cent of its present Energy with some other kind of Energy is the real Energy crisis not what the arabs did in 1973.eight to 16 years is an awful Short time to replace 75 per cent of the fundamental basis of your Economy. That the Brief time Mot be stretched eat. By Stow ing the growth of Energy demand and making the remaining of last longer is apparent Coal can be substituted but it takes time to build or convert Coal burning Power plants and Coal won t work i automobiles it takes about 10 years to build each new nuclear Power Plant it will take a Long time to develop such new resources As synthetic Oil and Gas solar or nuclear . Fuels could be stretched by increasing Oil imports. But that is very expensive and could make any future Arab Oil embargo far , the a estimates worldwide Oil production could not fill rising . Demand for More than another six or seven years. Then again we can search like crazy in Hopes of find ing not double but three or four dimes As much of As the nation has now. Some people think that s Pouble. But it would be like spending the family Fortune and then telling the kids to go oat and find some hidden Bank books like 3 did when i was your Mayoe our children will find hidden new fortunes of Oil and natural Gas far beyond our present expectations. But would you bet your future on it
