ABSTRACT
In modern industrial societies, cheap energy has supported a complex system of production and distribution that lies at the very foundation of economic and cultural progress. Productivity itself is dependent on energy. The continuous decline in the price of oil throughout the 1950s and 1960s was responsible for increased capital usage and the substitution of machines embodying new technological advances for ordinary labor. Coal is regarded as a prime energy source, with reserves totalling more than ten times the level of proven oil reserves. Many energy experts consider coal to be the nearest available replacement for oil, unless there is an unexpected technological breakthrough in nuclear power. Gas, as an important energy source, meets a large part of energy demand on a global scale. In the United States - the largest consumer of natural gas in the world - this energy source provided 27 percent of total energy requirements in 1980, or the equivalent of 492 million tonnes of oil.
