I am an Associate Director of SRI International's Chemical Science and technology laboratory. I am an organic chemist by training, and have spent over 30 years working on energy. Much of this work was on the chemistry and processing of coal into liquid fuels. With Hew Crane and Ed Kindermann, I co-wrote A Cubic Mile of Oil. The book is intended to inform the readers of the enormity and complexity of the current unsustainable global energy enterprise, and what it would take to transform it into a sustainable one.