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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (104313)	4/11/2007 11:09:22 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 361375

Businesses must look beyond oil, analyst warns By RANDOLPH HEASTER The Kansas City Star With the era of cheap oil ending, Chuck Taylor believes businesses that rely on the movement of freight must begin thinking in terms of alternatives to the current system. The logistics expert said the country can start by lowering speed limits and rebuilding railroads to move more freight and people. But the long-term solutions are going to require a different mindset than the way companies currently think about the supply chain. He even believes the trend of having goods and parts made in Asia and shipped to the U.S. will be short-lived because of rising oil prices. Companies like Toyota, he said, have already figured this out and are building assembly plants in the U.S. and having suppliers build facilities on those sites. “What’s the impact on the 12,000-mile supply chain between here and Asia when petroleum becomes more expensive and supply less certain?” he asked. “We’ve got to become more constructive in dealing with the petroleum issue.” Taylor, whose firm is called Awake!, will be one of the speakers Thursday morning at the local seminar of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. The event begins at 8 a.m. at the Ritz Charles in Overland Park. After more than 35 years in various facets of the transportation industry, Taylor has made it his personal mission to make his peers aware of the idea of “peak oil” and its imminent effect on the economy. “I’ve made it my goal to make people aware how this could affect their supply-chain strategy, not to mention their whole career as well as their personal lives,” Taylor said in an interview last week from his home in Smithville, Texas. Taylor and other researchers believe that the world’s production of oil has peaked and ultimately will be depleted, forcing the U.S. and other countries to find other resources to fuel economic activity. “We really don’t have a gauge as to how much oil is left, particularly with state-owned industries in the Middle East that don’t disclose those things,” he said. The U.S. can begin to prepare for the transformation from an oil-based economy, and Taylor hopes business and political leaders will begin to address the topic. He said he avoids trying to be an alarmist in his presentations. “But some of this stuff is really depressing when you get into it,” he admitted. kansascity.com