Expert Matt Simmons:Biofuels Terrific but won’t Significantly add to Supply
Posted: July 11, 2007
Matthew R. Simmons, head of Simmons & Company International, a Houston-based energy investment bank, is a big believer in biofuels.
But even though he thinks the new biofuel technologies are “terrific,” he told EnergyTechStocks.com that nobody should think of biofuels as a panacea for America’s worsening transportation fuel problems.
“Biofuels are going to stay at the margin,” Simmons predicted, explaining that given the food vs. fuel debate and other issues surrounding biofuels, biofuel production will never be high enough to displace the bulk of the millions of barrels of oil per day that Americans pour into their tanks as refined gasoline.
But if, as Simmons has also predicted, the U.S. could be in for gas shortages as early as this summer, how are Americans going to continue traveling as much as they are today?
They’re not, Simmons told EnergyTechStocks.com. Both people and goods are going to travel highways less, he said. More people are going to work when and where they want to, thus alleviating rush-hour congestion. More goods are going to have to go by water instead of road for the longest distance possible.
Simmons added that more manufacturing is going to have to take place closer to where the goods are consumed, which, if he’s right, would put a real kink in global trade |
