CEO Lovins to present oil plan for future

CEO Lovins to present oil plan for future

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

Amory Lovins has a plan for how the United States can eliminate oil use within a few decades.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Lovins will present his plan at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at 5 p.m. March 30 when he discusses his most recent book, ”Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security.”

The plan outlines how American industry can restore competitiveness and increase profits by mobilizing modern technologies and business strategies to displace oil more cheaply than buying it.

Lovins figures that at an average cost of $12 per barrel (in 2000 dollars), the United States can save half its oil usage through efficiency, tapping the enabling technology of ultra-light vehicle design..

Lovins believes that through a combination of new efficient technologies in the transportation and electricity sectors and the development of an innovative domestic biofuels industry, by 2015 the United States can save more oil than it gets from the Persian Gulf; by 2025 the United States can use less oil than in 1970; by 2040 it can avoid importing oil, and by 2050 use no oil at all.

Lovins noted that his business-for-profit approach differs from previous attempts to force oil savings through government policy.

”Our recommendations are market-based, innovation-driven without mandates, and designed to support, not distort, business logic,” he said in a news release. ”They’re self-financing and would cause the federal deficit to go down, not up.”

The peer-reviewed RMI study on which Lovins’ book is based was funded by the Pentagon, foundations and private donors.

The report is available at <http://www.oilendgame.com/>. RMI, located in Old Snowmass, Colo., is an independent, entrepreneurial, nonprofit research and consulting organization.

Lovins will sign copies of his book after his talk at the Baker Institute. Rice students, faculty and staff who want to attend the program should R.S.V.P. to <BIPPRSVP@rice.edu>.