Here are some articles written about Winning the Oil Endgame...

Legislative Options to Improve Transportation Efficiency
(www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid175.php#T05-03)

RMI's latest report, Legislative Options to Improve Transportation Efficiency (T05-03), provides state legislatures with options to improve vehicle transportation efficiency within the state. Vehicles account for the majority of oil use in the United States. Traditional policy prescriptions that rely on prices, taxes, or quotas are well known, but politically fraught, and have led to gridlock at the federal level. Many of the ideas outlined in this paper originate from RMI's most recent study, Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security.
By E. Kyle Datta and Natalie Mims for Rocky Mountain Institute (22 April 2005).

Ending Our Oil Dependence
(www.riponsoc.org/forum.shtml)

The United States has the world s mightiest economy and most mobile society. Yet the oil that fueled its strength has become its greatest weakness. The United States can eliminate its oil dependence and revitalize its economy—not by passing federal laws, taxing fuels, biasing markets, subsidizing favorites, mandating technologies, limiting choices, or crimping lifestyles, but by adopting smart business strategies. If government steers, not rows, then competitive enterprise, supported by judicious policy and vibrant civil society, can turn the oil challenge into an unprecedented opportunity for wealth creation and common security.
By Amory Lovins for The Ripon Forum (March/April 2005).

America Must Kick Oil Addiction
(www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/11292975.htm)

Maybe not today or tomorrow, but a movement's afoot that could eventually change Americans' relationship with oil. Business leaders, national security experts and environmentalists are coming together to finally wean America from foreign oil. Amory Lovins, co-author of Winning the Oil Endgame (www.oilendgame.org), says America can become more energy savvy right away. He told us yesterday about several changes businesses have made themselves. They include Texas Instruments using designs for its new Richardson plant to sharply cut the plant's costs. Equally significant, Lovins says, the Pentagon is looking at strategies outlined in his book.
Editorial for Lexington Herald Leader (02 April 2005).

Book Review—Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security
(www.foreignaffairs.org/20050301fabook84221/amory-b-lovins/
winning-the-oil-endgame-innovation-for-profits-jobs-and-security.html)

High oil prices in 2004 reminded everyone of growing U.S. dependence on the rest of the world for a critical input into its economy. Lovins and his colleagues here outline concrete proposals for reducing U.S. oil imports from a projected 20 million barrels a day by 2025 to 5 million or less: by encouraging more efficient use of oil and by substituting biofuels and wasted natural gas for oil (which would reduce dependence on oil even further in subsequent years). Financed partly by the Defense Department and the Office of Naval Research, this fact-filled study draws on existing technology and is attentive to economic considerations. Part technology handbook, part cool-headed advocacy, it argues that a dramatic reduction in oil dependency is both possible and desirable during the next two decades, at economic savings compared with business as usual. Much of the change will occur thanks to normal competitive pressures, but it can be accelerated by well-targeted public leadership, at the state as well as federal level, and by modest incentives and regulatory changes (such as introducing pay-at-the-pump basic compulsory liability insurance).
Reviewed by Richard N. Cooper for Foreign Affairs (March/April 2005).

Oil Could Become Obsolete
(http://www.dallasnews.com)

Nearly 30 years ago, Amory Lovins took on the utility industry. The industry was predicting a high-energy future filled with nuclear power plants. Mr. Lovins called the forecasts "the hard path" because they committed us to producing ever more energy. He suggested an alternative, "Soft Energy Paths." He pointed out that the least expensive, safest and most secure energy we could acquire wouldn't come from more drilling and more nuclear power plants. It would come from using energy more efficiently. Amory Lovins—ridiculed as a dreamer at the time—was right. The conventional wisdom was wrong. Energy efficiency in the next decade reduced our oil consumption so fast it broke the pricing power of OPEC and crushed oil prices. Now working with a team from his Rocky Mountain Institute and with the support of the Department of Defense, he has a bolder idea—apply energy efficiency to end our dependence on oil. Not just foreign oil. All oil.
By Scott Burns for The Dallas Morning News (28 March 2005).

With Oil or Without it?
(www.geotimes.org/mar05/printTOC.html)

Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Institute do not dwell much on predictions and speculations, but rather suggest what practical steps and specific investments need to be made to create a better energy future for the world. In their new book, Winning the Oil Endgame (www.oilendgame.org), the authors propose to gain oil independence by 2025 via energy conservation and by gradually substituting oil with biofuels and natural gas. The idea of oil independence has become a quite fashionable slogan these days, and there are two issues here: first, reducing dependency on oil, and second, reducing dependency on foreign oil. I think it is unlikely to achieve the second without achieving the first, and this is also an important path these authors have taken. Essentially, Amory and colleagues suggest going beyond the oil age with oil (not without it), and this practical idea may carry us through a new energy future.
By Rasoul Sorkhabi for American Geological Institute's Geotimes (March 2005).

Energy Non-Policy
(www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-anwar16mar16,1,6052618.story)

The administration's energy policy has consisted of "dig, drill, explore." Because most of that expected exploration would be in Western wild lands and the oceans, this makes for sad environmental news. Moreover, putting all our energy expectations into an ever-drier store of domestic oil sets the stage for more dependence on volatile foreign sources later. A study published last year says such policy rests future prosperity on ever-shakier ground. Instead, the country could largely wean itself of foreign oil dependence within a few decades through conservation and new technologies, including ultralight hybrid vehicles and more efficiently made ethanol and similar fuel sources. The report—conducted by the respected Rocky Mountain Institute, funded in part by the Pentagon and written for business and military leaders—predicts that prosperity will belong to businesses that dare to create new markets instead of catering to existing ones.
By Los Angeles Times Staff for Los Angeles Times (16 March 2005).

Wishful Thinking
(www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-wishlist1jan01,1,954663.story?
coll=la-news-comment-editorials)

We wish members of Congress would pick up a copy of the Rocky Mountain Institute's Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security (available at: www.oilendgame.org) and use it as the model for a long-term national energy policy. We'd settle for an energy bill that doesn't promise to subsidize a Hooters restaurant in Shreveport, La.
Editorial for The Los Angeles Times (01 January 2005).

A Declaration of Energy Independence
(http://online.wsj.com/public/page/0,,public_home_search,00.html#SB110350663319704480)

In the 30 years since the oil shocks of the 1970s, our original hopes to achieve energy independence have given way to the less ambitious goal of achieving energy security, defined as "secure access to adequate supplies of primary energy at affordable cost." Perhaps the most rigorous and surely the most dramatic analysis of what it will take to wean us from foreign oil was tasked by the Pentagon and carried out by the Rocky Mountain Institute, a respected center of hard-headed, market-based research. The report, Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security, is now out in book form and has received positive reviews.
By Robert McFarlane for The Wall Street Journal; Page A15 (20 December 2004).

Making Light Work
(www.telegraph.co.uk)

Amory Lovins lives 2,200 metres up in the often-snowbound Rocky Mountains, yet his conservatory is home to many tropical plants. There is no conventional heating system in the house, which actually produces more energy than it consumes. Amory is a physicist, the youngest Oxford don in recent years, who holds six honorary doctorates. He is the founder and chief executive officer of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), an independent, non-profit research centre for sustainable living. His most recent book, Winning the Oil Endgame, argues that weaning the US off oil can be achieved sooner rather than later, and could even be profitable. But Amory points out that merely putting hybrid power or improved components in an existing vehicle will produce only small improvements in consumption and emissions. Much more could be achieved by redesigning the whole vehicle and its supporting infrastructure with an environmental (natural system) intent.
By John Whitmore for The Daily Telegraph; Motoring, Pg. 07 (04 December 2004).

Energy Guru Amory Lovins Sees a World Without Petroleum
(www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/11/13/business/news/16_34_4711_13_04.txt)

"Right now, the world supply/demand balance for oil is so terribly tight that any little thing just throws the market into a tizzy," Lovins said in an interview at the Bioneers environmental conference in San Rafael, where he was a keynote speaker. "We're not going to drill our way out of this one." Many experts agree that the country's oil dependency is unsustainable and leads to economic volatility, global warming and geopolitical instability. Automakers are already developing more fuel-efficient vehicles that run on hybrid-electric engines, clean diesel, biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells.
By Terence Chea for Associated Press (13 November 2004).

Versions Also Moved in Advance; Nationally, the Story is Slugged BC-Clean Energy Evangelist and Advanced for Tuesday
(www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/10168013.htm)

Crude prices have hit record highs this year as haggard U.S. soldiers daily meet death in the country with the world's second-largest oil reserves, casualties in an expensive war Lovins would argue it's folly to fight if—as some Bush administration critics charge—it's really all about fossil fuel. "The United States can get completely off oil and revitalize its economy led by business for profit," says Lovins, who runs the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo. "Saving and substituting for oil costs less than buying oil. Getting completely off oil makes sense and makes money." A new book by Lovins and his think-tank colleagues, "Winning the Oil Endgame," offers a technology-driven blueprint to wean the country off petroleum within a few decades: first, double the fuel efficiency of cars, trucks and airplanes; then replace gasoline with alternative fuels such as ethanol and hydrogen.
By Terence Chea for Associated Press (12 November 2004).

5 Ways The Next President Can Make His Own Luck
(www.moneycentral.msn.com/content/P97106.asp)

So far, the United States has been lucky: Today, America wrings twice as many dollars out of GDP from each barrel of oil as it did in 1975. But the U.S. economy still lags well behind behind Japan (which uses about 1/3 as much oil per dollar of GDP), Germany and the United Kingdom. Doubling the efficiency of the U.S. economy all over again by 2025 would save about $70 billion a year, calculates a study produced by Amory Lovins for those wild-eyed radicals in the Pentagon. One eye-catching projection by Lovins: It would cost about $12 in efficiency investments to save a barrel of oil. (Go to the "Winning the Oil Endgame" Web site to read more about this study or to buy a copy.)
By Jim Jubak for MSN Money (29 October 2004).

Candidates Preach Oil Independence to Unconverted Public
(www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/politics/campaign/25energy.html)

Independence from imports, or even self-sufficiency, is not enough, some experts say. "The problem is oil use, not imports," said Amory B. Lovins, chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a consultant on energy efficiency. Mr. Lovins is a co-author of a new book, Winning the Oil Endgame, which describes technologies to reduce oil use in transportation. He has for years been predicting that a wave of new energy-efficient technologies will displace conventional fuel sources and thus lower demand. He said that eventually the United States would turn to strategies that would minimize oil use, and quoted Winston Churchill's adage that America could always be relied upon to do the right thing after it had exhausted all the alternatives. As for alternatives, he said, "We've worked our way pretty well down the list by now."
By Matthew L. Wald for The New York Times (25 October 2004).

Campaigns Fail to Focus on Energy
(www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/24/ENERGY.TMP)

Although many advocates of conservation and new energy technology prefer Kerry to Bush, some say both candidates are taking the wrong tack. "Their energy plans are simply constituency wish lists that balance votes and hand out goodies," said Amory Lovins, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo. "It's a process of hogs at the trough, jostling for subsidies. That's a lousy way to make policy." In a Pentagon-sponsored study released last month, Lovins proposed a detailed plan to cut U.S. oil consumption by 50 percent by 2025, at a net savings of $70 billion a year. The study, Winning the Oil Endgame, has been praised by some Republicans, including former Secretary of State George Shultz and corporate leaders, including the former chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell, as well as by environmentalists. Lovins' plan would combine corporate initiatives with federal regulations—but no extra net government spending—to eliminate U.S. oil use altogether through improved vehicle fuel efficiency and the use of bio-fuels and natural gas. The plan calls for federal loan guarantees to help U.S. automakers and suppliers invest tens of billions of dollars to make advanced-technology vehicles, especially those using new, ultralight materials such as carbon fiber combined with lightweight steel. Under a "feebate" scheme, the federal government would impose fees on the purchase of gas-guzzling vehicles and grant rebates to customers buying energy-saving models. While these futuristic ideas may seem pie in the sky, they are likely to get broader attention if energy prices continue rising.
By Robert Collier, staff writer for The San Francisco Chronicle (24 October 2004).

Breaking Free—New Plans Would Use New Technology to Make the United States Energy Independent
(www.csmonitor.com/2004/1021/p13s02-stct.html)

One of the most radical energy independence plans may also be among the most conservative in its assumptions. Winning the Oil Endgame is a Pentagon-funded study by the Rocky Mountain Institute, an energy think tank. The idea is to take carbon-fiber material used to create fighter jets and bring it to the mainstream of car manufacturing. The plan envisions that by 2025, most cars will be made of carbon-composites so light that they require little energy to move down the highway—but so strong that steel vehicles would be easy losers in crash-test comparisons. Nobody has to give up their SUV, according to this plan. Just build it with carbon fiber instead.
By Mark Clayton, staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor (21 October 2004).

US Election Brings Energy Rhetoric–Not Energy Action
(www.energyintel.com/PublicationHomePage.asp)

The release of a 329-page report from the Rocky Mountain Institute headed by environmentalist-favorite Amory Lovins–funded jointly with the US Defense Department–that suggests the US could phase out oil imports by 2040 and wean itself off oil altogether by 2050. Not surprisingly, transportation fuel is again at the center of the proposals.
World Gas Intelligence; No. 42, Vol. 15; Pg. 7 (20 October 2004).

Lemonade From Lemons
(www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/content/projo_20041011_edoil.15268e.html)

The new study, conducted by the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute (funded partly by the Defense Department), suggests that we respond to high oil prices by retooling for alternative energy sources and by more efficiently using oil. Entitled "Winning the Oil Endgame: American Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security," the study's report says that in two decades we can halve our fossil-fuel use, through such alternatives as biofuels and hydrogen. The report even asserts that by 2050 the United States can be oil-free, save for some oil used as fuel to produce hydrogen. The Pentagon is interested because it is the world's biggest oil buyer. A little efficiency goes a long way in the defense budget. Military planners also think that fuel-efficiency could make the military more effective, as well as removing oil as a source of global conflicts. Says Mr. Lovins: "Imagine, too, our moral clarity if other nations no longer assume everything the United States does is about oil."
Providence Journal (11 October 2004).

Crude Arguments—The Problem With Oil is Not Its Shortage, But Rather Its Concentration
(www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3262246)

Given that America consumes a quarter of the world's oil but has barely 3% of its proven reserves, it will never be energy-independent until the day it stops using oil altogether. How to get there? Amory Lovins has some sharp and sensible ideas. In Winning the Oil Endgame, a new book funded partly by America's Defence Department, this sparky guru sketches out the mix of market-based policies that he thinks will lead to a good life after oil.
The Economist (07 October 2004).

In 50 years, We Could Cure Our Oil Addiction
(www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996481)

In a detailed 335-page report it sets out a step-by-step programme for change that it says would allow the US to cease oil imports by 2040 and virtually eliminate all oil use by 2050. The net cost would be zero—a far cry from claims that such a move would cripple big business. Though the research was carried out by the pro-environment Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, it was funded in part by the US Department of Defense, a large and inefficient user of energy. That suggests that despite the current administration's rhetoric that such measures are impractical, some branches of government are taking clean energy more seriously than it sometimes seems.
By David L. Chandler for New Scientist (06 October 2004).

Change in the Chinese Wind
(www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,65139,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4)

The world's largest wind power project will begin construction this month near Beijing, bringing green energy and cleaner air to the 2008 Summer Olympics and city residents coping with some of the worst air pollution in the world. Another reason China is looking to wind is because it is now as cheap as coal, said Kyle Datta, managing director at Colorado's Rocky Mountain Institute, a leading independent energy research center. And if the health costs associated with coal burning are considered, wind is actually a lot cheaper, said Datta, who researched the Chinese energy market while co-authoring a book, Winning the Oil Endgame: American Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security.
By Stephen Leahy for Wired Magazine (04 October 2004).

Rep. Pombo Turns Spotlight on Unconventional Oil
(www.energyintel.com/PublicationHomePage.asp?publication_id=5)

"I would like to encourage your offices to consider conducting another study, focusing on the benefits to our nation of increased North American energy production," Pombo said in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday. A recent study by the Rocky Mountain Institute that was co-funded by the Pentagon called for $180 billion investment over 10 years to curb oil demand (OD Sep.22,p2).
By Manimoli Dinesh for Oil Daily (04 October 2004).

RMI: Winning the Oil Endgame
(www.greencarcongress.com/2004/10/rmi_winning_the.html)

Amory Lovins and his team at the Rocky Mountain Institute recently published their strategy for ending US oil dependence, Winning the Oil Endgame. As with any comprehensive approach, not everyone will agree with everything proposed. What we should not disagree with is this: "Our energy future is choice, not fate. Oil dependence is a problem we need no longer have-and it's cheaper not to. U.S. oil dependence can be eliminated by proven and attractive technologies that create wealth, enhance choice, and strengthen common security. This could be achieved only about as far in the future as the 1973 Arab oil embargo is in the past. When the U.S. last paid attention to oil, in 1977–85, it cut its oil use 17% while GDP grew 27%. Oil imports fell 50%, and imports from the Persian Gulf by 87%, in just eight years. That exercise of dominant market power-from the demand side-broke OPEC's ability to set world oil prices for a decade. Today we can rerun that play, only better. The obstacles are less important than the opportunities if we replace ignorance with insight, inattention with foresight, and inaction with mobilization. American business can lead the nation and the world into the post-petroleum era, a vibrant economy, and lasting security—if we just realize that we are the people we have been waiting for."
Green Car Congress (04 October 2004).

National Security Think Tanks Call for Shift from Oil
(www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=12041)

Until now, the alternative fuel message has largely been the territory of environmentalists. Now, a coalition of national security/policy think tanks is coming together to promote a shift away from oil, as the best guarantor of global security, prosperity and freedom. These groups are not the only think tanks to call for a shift against oil. This past week the Rocky Mountain Institute authored their own report, Winning the Oil Endgame, calling for decreased dependence on oil.
Renewable Energy Access (01 October 2004).

Weight Limits Needed for Better Gas Mileage
(www.jhunewsletter.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/01/415cb4e894d1c)

Ahhh, SUVs. Here we go; the environmentalists are at it again. Is it really necessary to write yet an other column asking us to buy smaller cars, consume less energy, and start hugging trees? If that was your first reaction to an article about SUVs, personally, I think you should keep reading anyway...The authors of Winning the Oil Endgame advocate not the banning of SUVs, but simply reducing the weight of all cars, thereby increasing their fuel efficiency and also making possible the introduction of hybrid engines. Economically, politically and environmentally, the United States needs to reduce its dependence on oil.
By Alex Skinner for The John Hopkins News-Letter (01 October 2004).

Some Burning Questions on Moving Beyond Fossil Fuels
(www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E115%257E,00.html)

Last week, just before oil prices hit a record high of $50 a barrel and just after the death toll for American soldiers in Iraq (home of the world's third-largest oil reserves) surpassed 1,000, the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) revealed its proposed strategy to save more oil than the U.S. imports from the Persian Gulf by 2015 and to eliminate the need for oil entirely by 2050. The reason you probably didn't hear about it is because it calls for almost no action from government, so the gasbags in Washington who have filibustered energy policy into oblivion for 30 years were rendered speechless. RMI's plan, outlined in Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security, is all about capitalism—not regulation, not even altruism.
By Diane Carman, columnist for The Denver Post (30 September 2004).

Study Finds U.S. Can Wean Self from Oil
(www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1374)

A Pentagon-funded report released last week finds that the United States can eliminate the need for Middle Eastern oil by 2015 and eliminate oil use altogether by 2050, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). The plan, Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security, achieves a net cost savings for the United States and does not require more taxes. The proposal would eliminate half of U.S. oil use through improved efficiency, and the other half through the use of bio-fuels and natural gas. "Because saving and substituting oil costs less than buying it, our study finds a net savings of $70 billion a year," said RMI CEO Amory Lovins.
Compiled by Brian Kaller for Pulse of the Twin Cities (30 September 2004).

Winning the Oil Endgame
(www.evworld.com/syndicated.cfm?hotlink=1432)

332-page PDF-based book on strategy for ending oil dependence.
EV World (29 September 2004).

Foreign Oil Paves Our Slippery Slope
(www.ajc.com/news/content/opinion/0904/26edoil.html)

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) recently released its plan, Winning the Oil Endgame, for weaning the U.S. economy off of oil in the coming decades (Greenwire, September 20). The RMI study, co-authored by Amory Lovins, calls for the adoption of ultralight vehicle designs as a key step toward reducing oil demand. Lovins remains skeptical, however, of calls for significantly increasing use of hybrid vehicles because batteries are heavy. "The primary emphasis has to be on getting the weight down, not increasing it," he said.
By Ben Geman for Greenwire (27 September 2004).

The United States Must Veer Away from Reliance on Crude
(www.ajc.com/print/content/epaper/editions/sunday/opinion_14654417128002011051.html)

The authors of a new book, Winning the Oil Endgame, aren't shouting alarms that the end is near. Even if it is, Americans are by now so accustomed to dire that we've grown numb. However, there's no point in ignoring the discomforting reality that the more oil we consume, the more it consumes us. Our foreign policy is driven to distraction by the need to protect oil supplies in parts of the world that remain irredeemably brutish and undemocratic. Back home, rising gasoline prices are burning bigger holes in household budgets while our petroleum-addled lifestyles are playing havoc with the environment and human health. But "Endgame," which was funded by the Pentagon and authored by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Rocky Mountain Institute, doesn't indulge in useless hand-wringing or finger-pointing. Instead, it's a pragmatic call to the U.S. automobile and energy industries to address the coming technical challenges while embracing the myriad of opportunities to expand their markets.
By editorial board of the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (26 September 2004).

Pentagon Calls on RMI to Win 'Oil Endgame'
(www.aspendailynews.com)

The Rocky Mountain Institute has gained an unlikely ally in its quest for energy efficiency. Its latest report was funded largely by the Pentagon, the world's top oil buyer. RMI officials say the military was partly interested as a consumer. Consuming 5 billion gallons of fuel a year, it needs to run everything from Abrams tanks, which run at a half-mile per gallon, to Apache helicopters, the Army's 10th biggest fuel guzzler. The military was also interested as a military power, RMI said, eyeing a safer country less reliant on oil from an unstable Middle East.
By David Frey, News Correspondent for The Aspen Daily News (25 September 2004).

United States: Seeking Alternatives to Oil
(www.energyintel.com/PublicationHomePage.asp?publication_id=1)

Persistently high oil prices have a tendency to focus consumers' minds on alternative forms of energy, particularly when combined with concerns about the environment and the geopolitical costs of dependence on Middle East oil. And when the consumer doing the focusing is the US, which accounts for a quarter of global oil demand, producers should take note. A 329-page report out this week from the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado think tank—funded jointly with the US Defense Department—suggests ways the US could phase out oil imports by 2040 and wean itself off oil altogether by 2050. Winning the Oil Endgame claims that Americans could halve oil use through efficiency, and then substitute competitive biofuels—based on the conversion of wood into ethanol—and saved natural gas for the rest.
By Energy Compass staff for Energy Compass (24 September 2004).

To Boost US Security, an Energy Diet
(www.csmonitor.com/2004/0923/p13s02-sten.html)

Efficiency could be the cheapest and easiest way to wean America from foreign oil. "The United States is the Saudi Arabia of energy waste," says Amory Lovins, president of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), an energy think tank in Snowmass, Colo. "Fortunately, what this means is that we can save energy—save oil—far faster than OPEC can pump and sell oil. The last time we exercised that power and became much more efficient, it broke OPEC'S market power for a decade." How much help does efficiency offer? Just by "consolidating and accelerating" existing trends toward greater efficiency—at an estimated cost of $180 billion over a decade—the US could eliminate oil imports by 2040, according to an RMI report released Monday.
By Mark Clayton, staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor (23 September 2004).

US Could End Need for Oil Imports by 2040, Research Group Says
(www.energyintel.com/PublicationHomePage.asp?publication_id=5)

The US could end its need for oil imports by 2040 and phase out oil use altogether by 2050, according to a study published by the Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org). The Colorado-based research and consulting group said in report called Winning the Oil Endgame that its recommendations could deliver net annual savings to the US economy of $70 billion by 2025, create a million new jobs and eliminate oil as a source of geopolitical conflict. They would also cut US carbon dioxide emissions—widely viewed as a key source of global warming—by 25%.
By Andrew Kelly for Oil Daily (22 September 2004).

U.S. Can Eliminate Oil Use in a Few Decades
(www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/3534)

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) today released Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security, a Pentagon-cofunded blueprint for making the United States oil-free. The plan outlines how American industry can restore competitiveness and boost profits by mobilizing modern technologies and smart business strategies to displace oil more cheaply than buying it. Winning the Oil Endgame proves that at an average cost of $12 per barrel (in 2000 dollars), the United States can save half its oil usage through efficiency, then substitute competitive biofuels and saved natural gas for the rest—all this without taxation or new federal regulation. "Unlike previous proposals to force oil savings through government policy, our proposed transition beyond oil is led by business for profit," said RMI CEO Amory Lovins. "Our recommendations are market-based, innovation-driven without mandates, and designed to support, not distort, business logic. They're self-financing and would cause the federal deficit to go down, not up."
By InfoZine staff for InfoZine (22 September 2004).

U.S. Can Free Itself from Oil, Report Says
(http://online.wsj.com/public/page/0,,public_home_search,00.html#SB109571021996522603)

A prominent energy-efficiency advocate contends in a new report funded partly by the U.S. government that the U.S. can wean itself off of oil by 2050 and save money in the process. Some observers said energy-efficiency guru Amory Lovins, head of the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org), was being too optimistic in his report, Winning the Oil Endgame. Others said that, particularly amid today's relatively high oil prices, he might have a point. The report, funded partly by the Pentagon, says the U.S. can roll out enough energy-efficient technology to halve its oil use and then supplant the other half with plant-derived "biofuels" and a reduced use of natural gas, at a cost of just $12 a barrel of oil saved.
By Jefferey Ball, staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal (21 September 2004).

Full-page TIME Magazine Feature on Winning the Oil Endgame
(www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,995202,00.html)

The experts are calling for energy reforms. Why aren't the politicians?
On Sept. 11, 2001, the world was reminded that oil is a dangerous drug. The cheapest, most easily accessible oil reserves are in the Middle East, the most volatile region on earth. It makes sense to dream of a world that is far, far less dependent on oil than it is now. Winning the Oil Endgame: American Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security, written by a team led by Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado, is one of the best analyses of energy policy yet produced. Lovins, who has been preaching the need for fuel efficiency for some 30 years, thinks big. His aim is to promote a set of policies that over the next two decades would save half the oil the U.S. uses, before moving to a hydrogen-based economy that dispenses with oil altogether.
(Note: TIME's headline, "Kicking the Big-Car Habit," is the opposite of RMI's thesis, which shows how to make big cars light, safe, and efficient, not to punish their buyers. A request for correction has been submitted.)
By Michael Elliott for TIME Magazine (First posted on-line 20 September 2004; 27 September 2004 edition).

How America Can Free Itself of Oil—Profitably
(www.fortune.com/fortune/brainstorm/0,15704,698713,00.html)

On Sept. 20, my team of scientists, engineers, economists, and consultants at Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org) published a fully elaborated plan for an oil-free America—an independent peer-reviewed synthesis that the Pentagon co-sponsored. This is the first strategy for displacing the black stuff not incrementally but radically, not at a cost to the economy but at a net gain, and in ways that will appeal to diverse business and political leaders. If we use our heads to build the right playing field, the markets will do the rest. America's shift from oil can be led profitably by business at a net savings to the economy of $70 billion a year by 2025. By applying the past two decades of often unnoticed technological progress, it will cost less to displace all the oil that the U.S. will need than to buy that oil. Download the complete article "How America Can Free Itself of Oil—Profitably" from RMI's website (www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid171.php#FreeFromOil).
By Amory Lovins for FORTUNE Magazine (First posted on-line 20 September 2004; 04 October 2004 edition).

Pentagon-funded Study Calls for Shift Away from Oil Use
(http://online.wsj.com/public/page/0,,public_home_search,00.html#BT_CO_20040920_005638)

The U.S. needs to spend more money on oil alternatives, according to a new study funded by the Pentagon, foundations and private donors. The report, released Monday, says the U.S. will save money in the long run by investing in oil alternatives instead of buying more oil. New technologies and business models could help the U.S. wean itself off its oil dependence by 2050, the study said. The study finds a net savings of $70 billion each year from saving oil and substituting alternatives. This would act like "a giant tax cut," said AmoryÝ Lovins , study co-author and chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Insitute, a Colorado-based think tank. The study estimates that, by 2015, the U.S. could save more oil each year than it imports from the Persian Gulf.
By Rebecca Christie of Dow Jones Newswires for The Wall Street Journal (20 September 2004).

Pentagon-backed Study Offers Plan for Ending Dependence
(www.eenews.net/Greenwire/Backissues/092004/092004gw.htm#7)

The United States could effectively end its dependence on oil over the coming decades by developing ultralight vehicles for civilian and military use, increasing use of biofuels, and using natural gas far more efficiently, a new Pentagon-backed study states. The study, Winning the Oil Endgame, released today by the Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org), a Colorado-based think tank, claims to provide a new road map for reducing oil dependence via government and private investment in new fuels and emerging energy technologies. RMI's recommendations contrast those of other organizations calling for legislative and regulatory approaches to wean the United States from oil. "Our recommendations are market-based, innovation-driven without mandates, and designed to support, not distort, business logic," Rocky Mountain Institute Chief Executive Officer Amory Lovins, one of the study's co-authors, said in a statement. "They're self-financing and would cause the federal deficit to go down, not up."
By Ben Geman for Greenwire (20 September 2004).

Amory Lovins' Leaner, Greener World
(www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2004/nf20040823_9499_db_81.htm)

Energy efficiency shouldn't mean sacrificing the comforts of a high-wattage lifestyle, says the Rocky Mountain Institute physicist. Amory Lovins has a simple message: Saving energy is easier than finding more. It's a point that certainly resonates with environmentalists. And businesses increasingly are drawn to his mantra, since conserving energy saves money and improves competitiveness. Trained as a physicist at Harvard and Oxford, the 54-year-old head of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in Old Snowmass, Colo., is helping to spread the word that, with energy conservation, less truly can be more. And he believes that innovation in a range of energy and transportation technologies will help achieve these gains.
By Adam Aston for BusinessWeek online (23 August 2004).