A thought provoking book by Peter W. Huber and Mark P. Mills, The Bottomless Well, asserts that, "we can economically dig, dam, pump, and purify all the energy we like. If we choose to." (60) The book posits that "what most of us think about energy supply is wrong. Energy supplies are unlimited; it is energetic order that's scarce, and the order in energy that's expensive. Energy supplies are determined mainly by how cleverly we're able to impose logic and order on the mountains and catacombs of energy that surround and envelop us." (61).

Two of the more interesting theories Huber and Mills offer are that greater efficiency results in more energy consumption and "waste" of energy is "virtuous."

• "New uses for more efficient technologies multiply faster than the old ones get improved. To curb energy consumption you have to lower efficiency, not raise it."
• "We use up most of our energy refining energy itself, and dumping waste energy in the process. The more such wasteful refining we do, the better things get all around. All this waste lets us do more life-affirming things better, more cleanly, and more safely." (62).

As to concerns about climate change and the relationship to carbon dioxide emissions, they state that "for the foreseeable future, the best (and only practical) policy for limiting the buildup of carbon dioxide in the air is to burn more hydrocarbons, not fewer. And then more uranium." (63) This asssertion is based on the inability of 'renewables' such as solar and wind to replace fossil fuels in any meaningful amount. "The only practical alternative today is to burn carbohydrates, and that's much worse" than hydrocarbons. This is based on the idea that for the United States to make up significant amounts of its energy consumption with energy from carbohydrates (ethanol, human and animal food consumption) the amount of farm land needed would require decimation of our nation's huge forrests, which absorb more CO2 than would be saved. (64)

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Alternatives to Oil and traditional fossil fuels