Quotable

Posted By Jai Singh Thursday, May 4, 2006 - 6:53 PM Share

J. Robinson West, head of Petroleum Finance Corp. and a friend of Dick Cheney's, in Michael Hirsch's piece on energy in Newsweek:

Worldwide production will peak. The result will be skyrocketing prices, with a huge, sustained economic shock. Jobs will be lost. Without action, the crisis will certainly bring energy rivalries, if not energy wars. Vast wealth will be shifted, probably away from the U.S. For the last 20 years, U.S. policy has discouraged production and encouraged consumption. If we dither any more, we will pay a terrible price, the economic equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane. Katrina was Category 4.

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