A Sound Energy Policy Could Solve A Lot Of Problems

by Watch Dog
Ronald Reagan told us, “The government is not the solution to the problem! Government is the problem!”

Nowhere is this more evident than in our ‘Energy Policy‘! It is a fact that the current ‘Energy policy’ is a NO energy policy.

There is talk of “renewable” ‘Green Energy ‘; these include Biofuels, solar, wind energy and some wonderful yet to be found unknown. Science tells us that Solar and Wind can reliably supply about 4% of the nation’s energy needs. Technology is not even close to a having method of producing a viable Biofuel in any significant quantity. If or when a new fuel is discovered or created, it will take 20 to 30 years to build the infrastructure to distribute it and the machines that will use it.

There is a Corn to Ethanol program, the Ethanol is used as an additive to gasoline. This program is said to reduce our need for oil by up to 15%; but at what cost? The Ethanol is subsidized to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars per year and it is 20% less efficient than gasoline! Many studies have also indicated that when one includes the process of fermenting and distilling, Ethanol pollutes more than gasoline. Furthermore, using corn in this manner has contributed to world food shortages and higher food costs here in America. Because Ethanol readily absorbs moisture, it cannot be distributed via regular channels and must be trucked.

Some politician and others claim that all we have to do is fund a “Manhattan Project”. The Manhattan Project” was not the result of giving scientists million of dollars and sending them off to create an awesome unknown weapon. Scientists already knew that if you could create the chain reaction needed, that the Atom Bomb would produce tremendous devastation. Their job was to make a well founded theory in to a working bomb. We have no well founded theory for a new fuel.

The Obama policy is to ban the use of ALL fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) without first finding a replacement. How stupid is that?

Even if a ‘miracle’ fuel is discovered, it will take decades to transform from current systems to new systems. If you want to drive a car, work at a job, or get quality pharmaceuticals over those transition decades, you need oil. A friend told me that she thought that Obama’s plan was akin to doctors removing an ailing heart in the hope that a new one might be found.

If your goal is to destroy the economy and reduce America to the status of a third world power, it makes perfect sense to shutdown all viable energy sources now; otherwise, you would have to be an idiot!

In truth, there is absolutely no reason to ban fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels does not add to the Earth’s temperature. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is an insignificant contributor to any greenhouse effect. CO2 makes up far less than 1% of all ‘Greenhouse Gases” while water vapor makes up more than 95% of all greenhouse gases.

One of the things left out of Global Warming discussions is the fact that during the ‘50’s, ‘60’s, and early ‘70’s industry pumped 1000’s of tons hydrocarbons and CO2 into the atmosphere. Pittsburg for example, was so polluted by smoke from coke ovens and steel mills that if you were on the outside looking in, it appeared as an amber dome. The air was so thick that if you were in the city you could look directly at the Sun without hurting your eyes. At the time Pittsburg was pretty typical of hundreds of similar cities and towns the world over. If CO2 and hydrocarbons were a problem, that would be the time for holes in the Ozone and man caused rising temperatures.

In addition to the false claim that we are creating ‘Greenhouse Gases’, the naysayers tell us that we do not have enough untapped oil or coal to last more than a few months. They also claim that we only have enough natural gas to last a few decades.

The governments own reports show that in we have enough coal, oil, and natural gas to supply our projected needs for several centuries in to the future. The truth is that the United States has more known and yet untapped energy resources than the rest of the world combined. By some accounts, we have enough resources to carry us well into the next millennium. If the reader wishes to confirm these claims, he need only read earlier articles which are posted on this blog. Those articles go into detail and identify the sources of the data. All of the data is also available on U.S. Government websites.

The U.S. has billions of tons of Coal reserves. Coal can be converted to petroleum and in mass production, be competitive with crude oil selling at $35/barrel. We call this product Synfuel. The technology has been around for a long time and has been very well tested.

The Germans used Coal based Synfuel for 50% of all their fuel in WW-II. All most all of their aircraft, tanks, and military trucks were using it.

The U.S. has trillions of cubic feet of Natural Gas which can also be converted to Synfuel.

Our Air Force and Army have conducted extensive testing of Synfuels---their findings are that the Synfuel functions as well as regular petroleum products, but the Synfuels also produce greater energy and burn cleaner; which means less pollution, longer engine life, and better efficiency.

A Synfuel based Energy Policy offers many advantages over anything proposed to date:

1. It can be done without any tax dollars. Industry has made the investments toward developing these products and if government would just get the hell out of the way, these same companies will be happy to complete the task.

2. It will create 100’s of thousands of real jobs and at all skill levels.

3. These jobs cannot be exported.

4. It will help bring our balance in trade under control.

5. It will increase the strength of the dollar

6. It will create 100’s of billions of new taxes without increasing tax rates.

7. Synfuels can be distributed through existing systems.

Nuclear Energy also has a place in a sound energy policy, but we save that discussion for another day.

 
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