The End of Energy Obesity
 Like the author’s bestseller A Thousand Barrels a Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World (2006), The End of Energy Obesity examines the energy industry by tracing the historical relationship between technological innovation and societal response. Tertzakian coined the term "break point" to describe both the pressures that force the displacement of an incumbent energy source and the subsequent “rebalancing” around a new energy paradigm. An important catalyst for The End of Energy Obesity appears to be the author’s conviction that the world is currently in the midst of a break point of prodigious significance where oil, "the gold standard of energy utility" (p.&nbsp;101), will see its market preeminence undermined. Signs of break point pressures are legion and include: the triple digit crude oil prices reached in 2008, accelerated economic growth in the populous BRIC countries, widening prevalence of legislative and fiscal measures to address assumed anthropogenic climate change, energy independence policymaking in support of renewable energy and the energy-price influenced global recession. Historical analogues to the current break point are the shift from wood to coal with the industrial revolution and from coal to oil during the World War I. The current rebalancing of the energy mix is substantively different from historical precedents. With the possible exception of natural gas, there are still no other energy sources with adequate utility to take significant market share from oil, let alone supplant it. The rebalancing underway will be effected only in part by an increase of supply from alternative sources. Tertzakian believes that the cross-fertilization of information, communication and energy technologies promises dramatic improvement in conservation practices and energy efficiency. He cites telepresence technology, smart grid networks, Skype telephony and virtualization software as potential "break point innovations" that could dramatically change energy needs by reconfiguring the ways people live, work and play.