High Noon For Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis. Julian Darley. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004. 

The image which this book plays on is the Gary Cooper film "High Noon" in which the hero confronts evil all alone. After hearing him speak at the recent ASPO-USA conference in Denver, I can also say that Darley is really one of the best speakers in the use-less-energy movement — what in the old days we would have called an "orator." 

Darley points out that both the analogies and the dissimilarities between the "high noon" of natural gas and the fictional "high noon" which Gary Cooper embodied. Most notably, there can be no single hero of the "high noon" for natural gas; it will have to be a group effort.

His book is not quite as incendiary as either his speaking style or the image of "High Noon" might seem to imply. Some of the book, in fact, is a bit on the pedantic side, which may actually be a relief to all the Republicans in the "peak oil" crowd (Roscoe Bartlett, Matthew Simmons). He goes over the facts of natural gas in a good way, discussing the possibilities of using liquified natural gas (LNG) to cover the shortfalls in natural gas which are now inevitable — U. S. natural gas production peaked about the same time that U. S. oil production peaked, in the early 1970's. 

Most importantly, natural gas is harder to ship than oil, so the negatives associated with importing natural gas go much beyond just the balance of payments question.  To import natural gas, you have to ship it (undersea gas pipelines don't seem to be feasible).  To ship it manageably, you have to cool the gas to extremely low temperatures until it turns into a liquid and condenses considerably. This requires special tankers and moreover special technology on the receiving end; there are currently only four places in the United States capable of receiving LNG ("liquid natural gas") ships and converting the super-cooled LNG to normal natural gas in the pipeline. But even overland, gas transportation can be problematic.  For one thing, natural gas pipelines are susceptible to sabotage in ways that oil transportation is not.

Unlike virtually every other author in the "peak oil" sector, Darley points out vegetarianism and veganism as alternatives to the energy crisis. He doesn’t actually use the "V" word, but what he says is clear enough. "A plant-centered diet uses less energy to supply a given amount of caloric value. Vegetables, nuts, beans, grains, roots, and fruits are much easier to store than meat and fish and do not require refrigeration . . . . It amounts to this: reduce or remove flesh from your diet as much as possible" (p. 189). Our food system is terribly energy intensive and it is animal products that are the worst offenders here. He also advocates local currencies and in general what he calls "re-localization." He is quite the activist — he has founded Global Public Media and the Post-Carbon Institute.

To some, Darley may come across as a "radical," though certainly most of his book does not come across that way.  A lot of his suggestions are common sense and are addressed more generally to reducing all carbon consumption, not just natural gas.  Use less, insulate your house, and so forth.  

When he does get "radical," it comes at the end, does not get that much space, and is made almost as an afterthought.  The most radical suggestion to me (since I'm already a vegetarian) is the suggestion to "sell your car" and return to a "foot economy."  There's no mention of the "new urbanism" here —  the traditional neighborhood development which put most of life's activities such as shopping, housing, and jobs, within about 1/2 mile.  Realistically, we cannot achieve a foot economy by individual effort alone; the entire society (or at least the local economy) must come to a consensus that traditional neighborhood development is the way to go, and start to implement it.  As we move into discussion of what, in practical terms, we should do, we perhaps  could have just a bit more discussion of what precisely this "foot economy" entails.

Let's hear it for making the "radical" point of view more understandable and respectable.  Julian Darley is surely the person to do it.  What today is thought radical, will tomorrow likely be simply considered honest and "to the point."