Once, many years ago, in a distant land, Yamani the Enigmatic launched his great energy experiment. Without warning, he sent to every corner of the earth two proclamations declaring the need for increased energy conservation. At first, little energy was conserved, but gradually the pace picked up, then slackened. But below the surface, things were changing. After six years, a doubly emphatic proclamation was issued. This time the reaction was dramatic. For the next six years, while the earth's population grew larger and richer, its use of oil declined—something the world had never seen before nor since. After 12 years, the experimenters, duly impressed with the power of their methods, largely withdrew their proclamations, and there matters rested for another 18 years. Surprisingly, much of the effect lingered, and by the end of the thirty-year experiment, the world had saved, by a most conservative estimate, eight times as much oil as it used in 2006.

The story is true, and its lessons are the keys to a secure and sustainable energy future.

Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani was Saudi Arabia's oil minister, when OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, conducted its "great energy experiment."

OPEC’s experiment, or the first "proclamation," led to the October 1973 oil shock, which tripled the price of oil. The second experiment led to the 1979 oil shock which doubled the price again. While the world-wide response was enormous, the US response was, if anything, more dramatic. US addiction to oil actually decreased over a thirteen-year period, as did its CO2 emissions. The US conserved not just oil, but all kinds of energy. During the 30 years from 1973 until the start of the current OPEC price spike, that totaled an amount of saved energy equivalent to 20 years of US oil consumption at the 2006 rate. Carbonomics explains not only such an astounding success, but also how to repeat it without paying OPEC another trillion dollars of tribute.