The Sweeney Agency

About Robert Bryce - Journalist, Author and Speaker on Energy and the Global Economy:

Robert Bryce is a seasoned, engaging public speaker on international affairs and trends surrounding oil and energy as they pertain to the economy. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications including the Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, Slate, New York Times, Washington Post, American Conservative, The Nation, Counterpunch and The Guardian. His first book, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron, received rave reviews and was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2002 by Publishers Weekly. His second book, Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate, was published 2004. His third book, Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence, published in March 2008, was favorably reviewed by more than 20 media outlets. The American magazine called Gusher of Lies a strong and much-needed dose of reality. A review of Gusher by William Grimes of the New York Times said that Bryce reveals himself in the end as something of a visionary and perhaps even a revolutionary.

Bryce, who has been writing about the energy business since 1989, spent 12 years writing for the Austin Chronicle. He now works as the managing editor of Houston-based magazine Energy Tribune. He has appeared on dozens of TV and radio shows that have aired on variety of outlets including the BBC, MSNBC, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In addition, he's been on CNN's Inside Politics, PBS's The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and Talk of the Nation.

In May 2009, his essay on the corn ethanol scam was included in Food Inc., a book published in conjunction with the hit documentary by Eric Schlosser of the same name. Bryce's next book, Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy, and the Real Fuels of the Future, will be published by Public Affairs in April 2010.

What Robert Bryce Talks About:

Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future

• The fuels of the future can be described as N2N: natural gas to nuclear. Regardless of what you think about peak oil or global warming, natural gas and nuclear are the fuels of the future because they can provide significant quantities of the energy that the world needs and do so using a small environmental footprint. Further, they are the low-carbon alternative to coal.
• Although renewable energy sources are getting lots of hype, there is simply no way that they can provide the scale of energy that the global economy demands. Global energy demand now totals about 226 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Renewable energy sources may be growing fast, but they cannot, will not, replace a substantial portion of our hydrocarbon consumption during our lifetimes.
• Hydrocarbons are here to stay. Canada has built a $1.4 trillion-per-year economy (and the US a $14 trillion-per-year economy) that is based on hydrocarbons: coal, oil, and natural gas. We cannot - and will not - quit using carbon-based fuels for this simple reason: they provide the power that we crave. Nine out of every 10 units of energy we consume come from hydrocarbons.
• The Shale Gas Revolution has fundamentally changed how Canada, the US, and the rest of the world should be thinking about gas. And those changes are only now beginning to be understood.

Other Topics Include:

Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence

and

Why is Natural Gas the Redheaded Stepchild of the Energy Business?