Campbell presented a series of lectures during the Keplinger Seminars in late 1976 in Houston, New York City, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. This paper is the basis for these presentations and associates handouts at the seminars.
Oil and gas reserves are declining at an alarming rate, but alternate energy resources such as coal (including lignite), uranium and geothermal energy will play dominant roles in the American economy in the near future. Fortunately, alternate-energy resources are regionally abundant in the United States and if developed rapidly, with all due consideration to the environment, they will serve to bridge the energy gap between our present petroleum-based energy and future solar or fission to fusion-based energy. It is clear that a diversified multiple energy base must be developed to serve our regional energy needs well into the 21st Century.
Alternate mineral resources are also being sought to substitute for many metals presently in short supply and for plastics that may decrease in availability as oil feedstocks increase in cost. Engineering and economic feasibility studies will be based on regional resource availability, regional energy and mineral needs, and comparative economics in both energy and mineral development.
And environmental issues will continue to affect resource development. If industry and state and federal regulatory agencies develop rational environmental controls, the goals of both will be achieved.
In closing, Campbell suggested that the guiding philosophy of the future should be:
"Alternate resources to achieve a better balance. Alternate choices to maintain the environment."
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