Tom Mast, whose experience in the engineering and manufacturing fields included involvement in the oil industry, published the book "Over a Barrel: A Simple Guide to the Oil Shortage." The Austin, Texas, resident's book includes a history of how oil came to be so vital to transportation and takes a look at some oil alternatives and their environmental, social and technological impacts. The book is intended to be read by an adult in less than two hours. Mast recently answered several questions about the book and its topic for The Times.

Q: You've written a book about increasing worldwide oil demand and its projected effect on oil production. What inspired you to write the book, and why should people care about your thoughts on oil usage?

A: I am concerned about my children, in their upper 30s, and my grandchildren not having adequate transportation during their lifetimes. Scarce oil is going to put a severe squeeze on the use of oil-based fuels for transportation in the decades to come. I am also optimistic enough to feel we can work our way out of this dilemma with technology, but we are waiting very late to tackle the problem aggressively.

I have master's degrees in engineering and business, experience in engineering and manufacturing and some involvement in the oil industry. Since the solutions have to come from research and development of new industries outside the oil industry, my broad technical background and strong interest in accelerating our work on alternatives to oil prepare me well for conveying this message.

Q: Briefly explain the current trend for world supply and demand for oil and why you believe it should worry people.

A: America's oil production peaked in 1970 and has decreased about 1 percent per year since. It followed a curve of increase and decline also common for individual oil wells and oil fields. Many knowledgeable people feel the world's oil production is following this same mountain-shaped curve and we are very near the peak now. Given that the world's demand for oil keeps increasing at close to 2 percent per year, we are likely near the time at which some people are not going to be able to get as much oil as they would like. This may well drive oil prices through the roof, create additional wars, etc. It will only get worse each year after the peak without some alternatives to oil, especially to provide the energy to drive transportation.

Q: What are some of the possible oil alternatives? Are they feasible for the average consumer?

A: Unfortunately, most of the alternatives to oil have big technical or cost issues. Hydrogen must be compressed to a very high pressure or liquefied at an extremely low temperature to be used directly. It is dangerous and requires huge amounts of energy just to separate it from water or methane. Electric cars need better batteries, ones that will be cheaper, lighter and give better range. Corn ethanol requires about as much energy to create as it provides. Nuclear power, which can't now be used directly in cars, must become safer in the public mind to be used more to generate electricity. So, we need to get aggressive about solving these problems and others. After John F. Kennedy stated we were going to put a man on the moon and return him in 10 years, we did it, despite the huge list of technical issues. We can do this with alternatives to oil, but we need to get started in earnest.

Q: Whose fault is it that oil alternatives are not being widely embraced?

A: Ultimately, it is the public's fault that progress on alternatives is not being made. Remember what Pogo said: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Congress and corporations will continue to permit and provide cheap oil and big cars as long as we demand them. We need to get sufficiently concerned about the mortgage we are placing on our children and grandchildren to suffer some pain. I wrote the book and the article to raise the public awareness of how serious the oil situation will become.

Q: How soon do oil alternatives need to be found and utilized before it's too late?

A: How does one define "too late"? The longer we wait to do research and development of alternatives to oil, the tighter the schedule will be to roll out the new products and industries needed. It will be increasingly painful to us personally (high transportation and other costs) and to our great nation (decisions as to whether to use military force for oil, increasing wealth of Venezuela, Russia, Iran, et al, increasing vulnerability to terrorist actions, etc.).