7am News, Sports and Obits
Latest WGIL news
Click to play or
Right click and "Save Target As" to download
Click for Galesburg, Illinois Forecast
Home - Cancellations - Community Events - Contact Us - Mornings - News - Obituaries - Pictures - Programs - Special Events Audio - Sports - Weather
Expert: Energy Problem Also Economic Problem
America is part of the way there in determining how it will supply energy to itself in the future, but a Peoria economist says there is still much work to be done. Bob Scott, the chairman of the Economics Department at Bradley University, says, for example, having an electric car sounds great until you consider how much coal, gas, and nuclear energy went into generating the electricity for the car. "Before we can say it really cleans up the whole environment, we need to clean up the sources that feed into that car," Scott says.

The old principle of supply and demand is part of the energy-economics equation. "The demand is growing," Scott says. "We have to find ways to grow the supply, but we're going to do it now in ways we didn’t do 50 or 100 years ago. They have to be cleaner and safer. A lot of it will require some technological improvements, and it's going to cost hundreds of billions for some of the things we need to develop in nuclear areas and wind power areas."

Scott says we can expect oil prices to remain volatile until, he predicts, they settle at about $70 per barrel in about five years.

Scott was a presented at this fall's Midwest Energy Solutions conference in Peoria.

(Illinois Radio Network)
11 18 08 by Newsroom
News management powered by Xpression News

Click here for the WGIL News Archive

Click here for national news

The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.