Soothsayer

Every spare molecule of gas, drop of oil and electron is being used up and the world faces a “meltdown” of its economy unless more supplies are found, a leading energy pundit warned a capacity crowd Monday at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

Renowned hurricane soothsayer Dr. William Gray and his team atColorado State University have scaled back their forecast for thehurricane season but still expect the season to be more active thanaverage. Seven rather than eight hurricanes are expected now andonly three of them are expected to be intense rather than the fourexpected in the group’s prior forecast on June 7. In round numbers,the August forecast is for three named storms, two hurricanes, andone intense or major hurricane.