Alternative Energy: It's Time To Move On

Much has been written about the President's state of the union address in regards to alternative energy. The press on alternative energy will only increase, especially since the release Friday of the UN Global Warming warning. But let us focus on things we can do now and not dwell on the speech. Sure he outlined goals and policy, but as a guide line. Let's take the ball and run. Move forward and discuss the issues as they warrant and not keep falling back and using his speech like a gym wall during a dodge-ball foray.

Also there has been much criticism aimed at big oil and its effort to promote alternative energy technology. Recent commercials and monetary incentives handed out by BP (BP) have been looked at askance. It is in big oil's best interests to proceed in this direction. When looking at the very long run, they are involved in a waning industry. If we had looked at IBM in the 1950's with this same attitude, maybe we still would be communicating with an IBM Select and using message runners.

Much critique has been dealt to the use of corn in the production of ethanol. World hunger is not in jeopardy nor will we run out of cornflakes and hush puppies. The market will sift out the weaker links here as well as drive motorist to their fancy. Who cared about the droughts in the past and waning water tables that affected corn futures. Nobody in my neighborhood.

I read about motorist complaining they can't get the same fuel economy with ethanol. OK, so what. One guy wrote that he travels across state to get away from his local gas mixture so his mileage will improve. Figure that one out. One stately newspaper wrote about the use of pesticides for use in growing corn. If we had a breakthrough in more comfortable underwear would we complain about spraying for cotton aphids?

Let us concentrate on the bigger issues such as the reduction in carbon particle emissions. If we compel our government to mandate stricter emission standards, the market will work itself out. Survival of the species isn't restricted to the iguana. Give government the chance to become forward looking. And it will. Incentives given towards our technology base will allow the information flow to propagate and become integrated into industrial solutions. We also need independent oversight, and not a dot.org, but a dot.commission. If we look upon that report on global warming, as we did on bank failures in the early 1900's, we would immediately form a body of stewardship, much like the Federal Reserve, for our governance of progressive energy solutions.

So it's time to move on. I will.

Comments

[cynic69:]

re: Moving ON
Jeff
Please read Howard Kunstler's "The Long Emergency". Kunstler says (he is an expert) he says ethanol is a stupid joke that is being fostered by the big oil companies because they know that it takes a huge amount of oil to make ethanol. Switching to corn based ethanol is huge blunder and is typical of the kind of mindless business centric decesions that the Bush adminstration is famous for. The use of ethanol is a red herring that will tend to allow the policy makers to take their eyes off the real solutions. Kuntsler says that conservation, nuclear power, wind, solar and geothermal are the only ways that civilization can get past "Hubbert's Peak" (the point in time when we run out of oil) without world wide chaos. Conservation should include public transpotation, electric vehicles, trains instead of trucks and planes, live and work communities.
Gale Whitaker

2007 Feb 04 04:07 PM

[Jeffrey Todd_:]

Thank you Gale. I will read up on Kunstler. Please read my previous articles and you will see my theme. I believe conservation is a major factor in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. I also feel ethanol is a fad that will ease as the market forces take over. Please click on my name and e-mail me. If you have a site of interest I will link.

Jeffrey Todd

2007 Feb 04 06:44 PM

[CrossProfit_:]

Gale,

Agree with you on the corn ethanol issue.
See energy.seekingalpha.co...

Current technology dictates that geothermal production of electricity is commercially viable today only if the hole in the ground already exists. In other words, if you’re drilling for oil on land close enough to a populated area or for gas in the Barnett fields, then it becomes feasible to add Ormat systems to produce 1.4MW-37MW per location. Not all locations are suitable. [Ormat could do with some serious competition to bring down the cost of units. Maybe XOM should just buy the company and eke-out the inefficiencies.]

XOM is already looking into this technology. If XOM decides to go through with it and bores 55 wells in north Texas they can produce 250 – 750MW (guestimate) at competitive prices without any subsidies.

www.dentonrc.com/share... and energy.seekingalpha.co...

This would be great news for Fort-Worth residents. More important is that XOM headquarters are nearby and this would be an amazing turnaround for XOM regarding its public image. Just imagine the headlines; “Exxon Mobil Goes Green with Geothermal Power”!

It’s a bit premature to reclassify XOM as a utility. Besides, shareholders would prefer a slightly different headline; “Greener Pastures for Exxon GeoPower Inc.” $39.5 billion just doesn’t sound the same as Fifty Billion Dollars. So I’m greedy Gale, shoot me! [private joke]

Disclosure: Information/comment provided by Saul Sterman and may not reflect the opinion of CrossProfit.com. There are no conflicts.
CrossProfit’s new and improved website scheduled to re-open on 2/15/07
www.crossprofit.com

2007 Feb 05 04:20 AM