As we move into June, we are still confronted with a pair of energy crises that have the potential to upset our way of life. At the global level, worldwide oil production has been stagnant for the last two years. This is true for all the various kinds of liquid fuels we now consume: ethanol, conventional crude, liquids separated from natural gas, synthetic crude from tar sands, as well as other flavors of hydrocarbons that can be converted to liquid fuels. Demand for oil from China, India, Russia, and the oil producing Gulf States is still increasing dramatically; demand from the developed countries is flat or increasing slowly; and as usual, the poor countries, who cannot afford $70 a barrel oil, are going without.
