kebu77

The Pickens Plan Changes Its Strategy

Picken's plan and most other energy proposals deal with expanding supply of alternative fuels (batteries, CNG/LNG, LPG, H2, etc.) to accommodate decreasing supply of oil-based fuels. No one seriously addresses "negawatts" and other demand-side solutions to the energy crisis.

Not good enough.

We need to save energy in a hurry due to general oil depletion issues and for national security. The single largest energy efficiency / conservation option (with the possible exception of improving the energy efficiency of buildings) is to expand and electrify the freight railroads. (Passenger can follow, but freight now is critical.)

Diesel-electric rail transport is 10X more efficient that big rigs, not counting the savings on road maintenance and public safety from getting the big rigs off the road - - and electrified rail is double that. Rail saves so much energy that using coal-fired electricity to run trains reduces CO2 emissions compared to NG-powered trucks (gasoline and diesel are not even in the running).

Between the Civil War and 1905, America expanded the rail network from about 30,000 miles to 240,000 miles. The current network is a little over half that, due the the transition to trucking that came when we switched from a coal to an oil economy, and the largest use of rail is transport of bulk commodities (e.g., coal mine to power plant).

An added effort should be made to expand water transport of goods, incl. river/canal/coastal traffic and more shipping of Asian goods to Gulf and E. Coast ports via Panama Canal vs. Trucking from W. Coast Ports.

The diesel saved can go in part to ensuring that shortages of home heating fuel do not occur during the transition of building heating to geothermal heat pumps and other non-oil heating sources.

The International Energy Agency is finally coming around to the reality that an energy crunch is upon us with the end of cheap oil. (Even now, oil is not cheap @ 4X its 1998 low and 3X its 2002 low.)

This July The Oil Drum, theoildrum.com, published a detailed proposal by Alan Drake, a proponent of expanded and electrified rail, which can be found at www.theoildrum.com/nod.... Mr. Drake's dedication to the national interest come thru in every word.

The expanded rail network in the 19th century converted the US into a truly national ecomony by the end of the century. The relative impact of that effort was greater than the construction of the interstate highway system. (An anecdote tells the tale: the 1906 SF earthquake was about as devistating as Hurricane Katrina was on NOLA, but a much smaller country was able to provide what some have commented was more effective and timely relief from all over the country via rail.)

A government effort to support and guide the reconstruction of our freight rail system is needed now.

Natural Gas: Clean Fuel with a Dirty Little Secret

The price differential between NG and oil and our balance of payments deficit (oil imports) means there is room for higher NG prices and more LNG imports.

We need to increase electricity production, electrify the railroads, expand frieght rail and get heavy trucks off the roads, thus cutting diesel consumption (helping to restrain jet fuel and home heating oil prices) and road maintenance costs.

In the short run, if energy security is a goal, we are currently under-using NG (at least until there is greatly expanded electric. prod. from renewables and nuclear).