Good News – Alternative Energy
While on the subject, we could already start to reduce and eventually eliminate oil, at least to the point where we would only need to use our own resources and may buy oil from Mexico and Russia.
Solar: While seemingly forgotten, this is still a growing industry. Solar assist panels for homes are still selling. Modern units are functional in northern parallels up to Seattle. They are good for hot water, and can be designed to store DC batteries for household lighting. The downside is that Solar often only reduces natural gas use and not electrical. But, by using it for lighting, this would add to the overall reduction.
Wind: Wind generation is VERY exciting. Even my conservative radical Republican, Rush Limbaugh loving, capitalistic, kill the environment attitude welcomes Wind generation. The new generators being installed as we speak provide an output of 1 Megawatt. A large generation field in Iowa now has 1,000 wind generators. They run from 5 mph up to 50 mph winds. So, it takes little to keep them going. They are cheap, clean, and inexpensive to operate and maintain.
Fusion: Not there yet. Still being worked on. But forget it in the short term.
Alaskan Oil: Contrary to popular tree hugging environmentalists, Alaskan oil pipelines have not caused any negative environmental impacts. So, a few more wells and maybe a few more lines will not be a problem. Certainly, in the short term this will take pressure off of Arabian oil prices and most of all purchases can be reduced.
Hydrogen: Some years ago the Japanese finally made a breakthrough in developing a catalyst to make Hydrogen burn safe, and applied this to automobiles. If this technology is still being developed, then maybe this will be one more way to offset the need for oil, and improve the environment – as hydrogen outputs clean water vapor. The cost and logistics of extracting hydrogen from the ocean is still an obstacle. However, the good news is that this can be coupled with nuclear plants which produce hydrogen. The challenge is to find a way to de-ionized hydrogen produced in nuke plants.
Electric Cars: Saturn now produces and markets an electric car in the USA. If Americans could buy at least one Saturn car, they could reduce oil consumption for local use, which burns most of the oil, and save their gas-guzzlers for longer road trips.
Conservation: This is a Liberal Word in my vocabulary, and is NOT an alternative energy source. But my deeply conservative heart would be willing to compromise and use more public transportation, especially electric light rail or electric busses and save some oil. Conservation would at least help in reducing some of the dependence on oil and contribute to the overall plan.
Ethanol : This is a great corn product, but has to have some oil product used for today'’ cars. BUT, with improved technology, we could make immediate reduction in oil by about 20%. And, corn is renewable. The USA is by far the world largest corn producer. Many farmers now idle could increase corn production, and thereby increase supplies, while keeping prices stable.
Co-Gen: This is a great way to eliminate our garbage and reduce landfill needed for trash. Also, with today’s clean technology, Co-Gen plants produce almost no pollutants. Co-Gen could be used in greater amounts to help take oil power plants off-line and reduce our demand for oil even more.
Coal: Coal produces dirty stuff among which it blows out large amounts of Alpha radiation. You cannot co-locate a nuke plant next to a coal plant as it will set off the nuke alarms. But, again, with the clean air technology developed by my old company, Bechtel Power Corporation in San Francisco, even coal plants can be made much more environmentally safe – and – we have so much coal in reserves that we could become energy independent for the next 1,000 years.
Nuclear: Clean, no pollutants, efficient, and we have enough raw uranium in the USA – the world’s largest supply – to make ourselves totally energy independent for yet another 1,000 years --- AND --- using our Breeder program stretch this out to 10,000 years!
The above are just some obvious methods. I imagine there are other I have not mentioned. BUT --- We Can do it!!! So, if a cleaner environment was not enough motive, then by all means independence from OPEC – Arabian oil is yet another strong motive to get out from slavery to people who would love to see us gone. – Amazing