THE problem is not that there is not enough coal left underground; there is. But the task of lifting it, transporting it and using it depends on many other factors, most importantly on the continued availability of oil as a lubricant for all the machines involved in the supply chain, and as a fuel for transportation. It is reckoned that there are some 109 years of coal left under current consumption assumptions according to a new report by BP, an energy producer. Broadly that is in line with forecasts by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris which also predicts the availability of other fuels. Discussions about fossil fuel reserves start by aggregating firm and expected supplies from known and almost unknown sources, equating the resulting volume against fairly loose forecasts of economic activity including the assumption that rising costs will be accepted by consumers. While the EROEI (Energy […]