Despite persistently high oil prices, global energy demand will grow by 50 percent over the next two decades with continued heavy reliance on environmentally troublesome fossil fuels...
Despite persistently high oil prices, global energy demand will grow by 50 percent over the next two decades with continued heavy reliance on environmentally troublesome fossil fuels, especially coal and oil, the U.S. Energy Department predicted today.
In the short term, however, a separate report by the department showing that inventories rose for the first time in six weeks sent crude futures down more than $4 a barrel.
The projections by the Energy Department's statistical agency said that without mandatory actions to address global warming, the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide flowing into the atmosphere each year from energy use will be 51 percent greater in 2030 than it was three years ago.
"Global energy demand grows despite the sustained high world oil prices that are project to persist over the long term," said the report. Oil could cost as little as $113 a barrel or as much as $186 a barrel in 2030, the analysis concluded.
The report provided both high and low price scenarios because of the uncertainties of projecting future long-term energy prices. Given current oil prices, the report says world oil prices appear on a path that more closely resembles the higher price scenario of $183 a barrel oil in 22 years.
