Oil is past mid-life and is now on the wane

04/20/2008

Paul Munnis


The title says it all and we must find alternate energy supplies to replace oil. It is just a matter of time before the oil runs out. It is already too high-priced with availability and cost both major concerns.

Two major initiatives in the world today are marching hand and hand becoming almost synonymous with each other. These are carbon emission and supply of energy alternatives to oil. These are topics that can benefit from review as we approach “Earth Day 2008.”

We are told that global warming is the result of increased carbon production leading to higher greenhouse gasses and we know that fossil fuel powered vehicles and smokestacks are major carbon emitters. The efforts to install carbon controls in order to reduce greenhouse gasses and thus reduce global warming is now intricately meshed with alternative energy forms that are low on the carbon scale and high on the clean and renewable energy scale.

We know from science that all matter in our universe is constant. Thus there is no more carbon in our universe today than there was a century ago and the same amount will be present a century from now. What is different is that carbon was bound together with other elements and is undergoing conversions that are creating greenhouse gasses that are causing warming of the earth. For example when gasoline, coal, or wood are burned they emit carbon into the atmosphere and releases greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide that harms our planet and our bodies too.

For cars and smokestacks we had developed catalytic converters and they were supposed to make things better. They did for awhile but they are not quite good enough. We need a further cut in carbon dioxide emission levels. If for example we could convert to all electric cars that would reduce carbon emission by a great deal. It’s the multiplicative factor that makes for too much carbon. We need something renewable and something that is able to be made carbon neutral or at least very low on the carbon emission scale.

Nuclear power has always been a tempting target, the problem has been how to store the spent fuel rods used to run an atomic electrical generation plant. We haven’t been able to develop a good solution yet if we could solve the spent fuel problem then nuclear power would be a dream technology. The U.S. Navy powers its ships now with nuclear power and so size of the atomic reactor unit has been scaled down to (shipboard) community size.

When you tour the Hoover Dam you are impressed with how clean and beneficial hydro power can be then you realize that our demand far exceeds the supply of energy made from hydro power.

We have watched other nations wean themselves from fossil oil and we see their economies soaring and healthy while nations who are slaved to oil are sending their wealth to the nations that are selling the oil. We are envious and we want to reap the benefits of energy self-sufficiency.

The search for a replacement silver bullet single solution for oil has come up empty. There is plenty of coal but when we burn coal it is a high carbon producer. Instead we found a lot of different solutions that are regional and we are challenged because we have to harness all of them and then distribute the energy with minimum loss to where the demand is. So we have deserts where we can put solar panels, and we have wind corridors where we can build wind turbines, and we have nuclear power plants and we have hydro power, and we have corn that we can turn into ethanol to stretch our oil supply, and we have hydrogen but it costs a lot of energy to convert hydrogen to a stable fuel, and we have an alternating current energy grid when what we need is a direct current energy grid in order to minimize line loss due to resistance during transmission. We also have promising research in low flow energy turbines for water and wind use. We can produce energy but getting it to where the customers are will require a big investment.

An exciting technology is fuel cells for energy storage. We know how to make these and they are to be thought of as super batteries. We use them now in space and we will soon use them in our homes. They will bridge us from solar power and wind energy collected during the daytime and they will provide us with lights and power during the evening hours. They will soon power our cars and trucks and they will make a huge difference in our quality of life.

So we need energy investment on a very large scale. We need it at a time when American manufacturing is picking up once more and more energy will be needed. That’s the bad news. The good news is that high energy prices caused by a devalued dollar are making alternative energy more affordable. If we are going to make the leap then the time is now. We have the resources too. If we gradually transfer oil subsidy money from oil to alternative energy then we can make investment capital available for conversion. As we succeed in developing and converting to alternative energy our dollar will once more strengthen making oil cheaper again. However as the oil subsidy is transferred to alternative energy the cost of oil will be slow to drop.

We have a president and a vice-president that are products of the oil patch. They have done little to solve our problem and we can point to impediments that they have created that prevent solutions to our problems with carbon emissions and alternative energy production. Soon their time in office will expire and then the opportunities can be developed to solve our challenges. Some States are already stepping up to the future and are taking the initiative. Our own State of Minnesota has committed to creating alternative energy solutions on a planned timetable. We are also leading the nation in ethanol production. Other States are pledging to cut carbon emissions with whole nations having committed to joining in the battle for a clean and green planet. When a large U.S. State makes the carbon cutting pledge they are often as big as whole nations who are also making carbon reduction pledges. In a collective manner we can create a unified reduction in carbon conversion and greenhouse gas emission. This will be done by us “We the People…”

The multiplicative efforts will add up to a huge reduction in greenhouse gases, the harnessing of alternative energy, a reduction in air pollution, a reduction in global warming, and in the process a trillion dollar “green economy” will be produced right here in America. Instead of worrying about job creation we will be searching for workers to fill job demand. Instead of sending our wealth to other nations we will keep it here, invest it here and reap the benefits of it here.

At a time when opportunity seems to be shrinking there is plenty of it if we can just organize ourselves to the tasks.

As we move into this brave new world let’s remember who the wind, the water, and the sun, belong to. They belong to “We the People,” and not to a company who seeks to privatize them for their profit. We should make every effort to create as much private ownership as possible. For example when hydrogen power to power fuel cells become available let’s make sure that every homeowner has a production facility in their own home rather than a large central unit owned hydrogen power plant. This will be a refrigerator sized unit in your utility room or garage. We should keep as much of the production in our own hands as possible. We should have learned something from our past experiences with power utilities, oil companies, and government owned energy facilities.

Monopolies we don’t need. Decentralized production we do need and we need lots of it.