Climate protection would actually reduce costs, not raise them … because saving fossil fuel is a lot cheaper than buying it.

—Amory Lovins, Scientific American, 2005

If peak-oil proponents are the pessimists of the energy world, physicists are the optimists. Peak-oil buffs believe that having less oil will “end civilization as we know it,” while energy guru Amory Lovins tells us that “oil problems will fade away” and that “displacing most, probably all, of our oil … makes money.” Lovins thinks oil production will peak because we’ll realize it’s a waste of money and largely stop using it. Is he right about this? ...