The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy Book

The things we think we know about energy are mostly myths. A better understanding will radically change our views and policies on a number of very controversial issues.

KLIATT

This book would be useful to any class that wants to look at both sides of US energy policy, since it presents the contrarian case that using more energy is a good thing. The basic premise is that using more energy increases our ability to find more energy and to invent new ways to improve energy efficiency, and that restricting energy use actually boosts energy demand. Filled with charts and illustrations, the authors present their case well, but they give short shrift to some of the problems with increased energy use, including global warming and the destruction of habitat. Understand that the two authors, a conservative think tank pundit and a Reaganite venture capitalist, come from the extreme right politically. They did feel the need to write a preface to the paperback edition that points out that gasoline had not been priced at $3 a gallon when they wrote the book. This book sometimes reads like a neo-conservative bible rather than a purely scientific text and will be used as justification for the US's consumption of 25% of most sources of energy in the world (gasoline use tops 43%), but its main use will be by debate teams or for Socratic discussions.