Robert Rapier - Power Plays: Energy Options in the Age of Peak Oil

Writing for an audience is rarely a solo event. It certainly was not for this book, and I would like to acknowledge some of the people whose help and support made this book possible.

I want to acknowledge the patience and support of my family as I wrote, isolated from them for long stretches at a time. To my wife Sandy, daughter Courtney, and sons Peyton and Lukenow we can go on a vacation.

I want to thank my publisher Apress, and my editor Jeff Olson, for believing in me enough to seek me out to write this book. I had long considered writing a book about energy, and Jeff's encouragement and confidence in me was a strong motivator in helping me to complete it. The valuable feedback that he and other editors at Apress provided on the text has made this a much stronger book, and has helped me become a better writer.

Nobody has helped improve my writing in recent years more than Sam Avro, the founder and editor in chief of Consumer Energy Report, where my regular energy columnR-Squared Energyis hosted. Besides offering critical feedback on my weekly column, Sam puts in long hours to make sure the site is running smoothly. In addition, Sam made many helpful suggestions on the topics and text covered by this book.

I am grateful to Greg Geyer for reaching out to his network of contacts on my behalf. I received valuable input from several people as a result of Greg's efforts, including Jeremy Gilbert on the Peak Oil and Energy Production chapters, and Steve Andrews, who jogged my memory on California's attempts to roll out methanol as a gasoline alternative.

Thank you to Alan Drake for the valuable contributions toward the chapter on oil-free transportation. His passion for electric rail inspires hope in a future that enables mobility with a fraction of today's fossil fuel consumption.

A special thanks to my good friend Jerry Unruh, who reviewed the chapter on global warming and made a number of helpful comments and suggestions. I know that Jerry would have preferred that I make a strong case for the need to urgently combat global warming, but the purpose of the chapter is really to help readers on both sides of the issue better understand the controversy.

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1www.consumerenergyreport.com/columns/rsquared/

The constructive feedback is what has kept me writing all of these years. I solicited feedback from both sets of readers at various points during the process of writing this book, and the comments were invaluable in ensuring that major topics weren't overlooked, and that many minor details were clear and technically accurate. But the feedback also made me realize that I could not cover all topics to everyone's satisfaction. My apologies if there is something that you strongly feel should have been covered but is not.

A big thank you goes to all my friends and family back in my hometown of Hugo, Oklahoma. So many of you have been very supportive throughout this process, and provided inspiration when I was feeling drained. Now that the book is published, I can break free for a visit back home.

Finally, thanks to all of my colleagues at Merica International for providing a sounding board, and for helping me with a specific word or phrase when I was struggling. I want to especially thank Michael and Jeannette Saalfeld for convincing me to come to Hawaii to work in 2009. You have done so much for my family and me, and this book would not have been possible without your support.

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2www.theoildrum.com/

At various times over the past five years, I have seriously considered writing a comprehensive book about energy. My primary motivation for writing about energy is a sincere belief that many of our current global energy policies entail unacceptable trade-offs and threaten future generations. As a result, I feel compelled to engage people on the topic of energy, with the hope that these discussions can gradually help influence energy policy in a positive way.

To be clear, this is not a book about peak oil. There are plenty of those that cover both sides of that issue. This book is about the many energy options we have, and the many trade-offs we make as a result of our energy choices. The topic of peak oil is certainly covered, but I think my take on peak oil is a bit different from that of most people.