The will to get out there and produce either crude oil, or a reliable and relatively easily available substitute for petroleum, is what is lacking. We could have an adequate number of coal-to-liquid fuel plants up and running, as well as a number of new-generation nuclear power generation plants. In fact, the nuclear “waste” we now have in storage in various places around the US would be an important resource in fueling these nuclear plants. We have the technology to separate out the radioactive isotopes that was not available back in 1960 and 1970, so what once was untouchable now becomes just another raw material for industrial use.
There are waste-to-power plants that consume solid-waste trash and rubbish, by a method known as Plasma Arc Trash Reduction, that both eliminates landfills, and produces electrical power generation as well, far in excess of the power consumed to start up the operation. There is carbon dioxide produced by this process, but it is carbon dioxide that would be produced anyway over time, plus no methane or leaching into the groundwater of various contaminants.
Carbon dioxide is plant food. In fact, to get a greener world, we may have to step up the proportions of CO2 in the atmosphere, or dissolved in the oceans of the world, just to boost the photosythesis activity of plant life, so we are assured of sufficient free oxygen in the atmosphere.
The watchword is actually to produce more and more of our energy in the form of electricity, by fueling the generators with compressed natural gas, drawn from the depths of the ocean as Methane Hydrate (just LYING there, people!), or from using the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert any of a number of carbon compounds to syngas, and using that to drive power plants. Syngas is made up of equal quantities of free hydrogen, which may be used directly in a fuel cell, and carbon monoxide, a deadly poison to almost all forms of animal life, but an excellent fuel in its own right.
The total number of alternative energy delivery systems is staggering. It is something of a puzzle why we continue to place so much of our reliance on a substance like petroleum. It is great stuff to make plastics with, and goodness knows, it can be transformed into any number of useful products, so its value is probably far greater than just as a means to generate heat.
If we NEED petroleum, we can manufacture it out of otherwise waste organic material, by a process called Thermal Depolymerization, which converts a slurry of organic wastes and water into a grade of kerogen with the application of heat, pressure, and a couple hours of time.
This could be used to reduce the effluent in wastewater plants, sending all the wastewater through this system, and letting the steam produced in the process cool and condense as distilled water, free of minerals, contaminants and pathogens. The heat could be supplied as a by-product of the operation of a nuclear power generation plant. This is essentially how clean water is supplied to the crew on a nuclear-powered warship at sea.
Excellent post- very informative.
The answer to your puzzle in one single word: Congress.
The technology is pretty much there on a lot of fronts, as you detailed. My engineering background tells me that electric is the way to go for the short to medium term future. Battery technology is very close to making a practical electric car a reality (with blistering performance, I might add)
The big nut to crack here, as I see it, isn't solving the technological issues. The big nut to crack here is getting our own gubmint out of the way!
This is what cracked me up when I was listening to the President speaking this morning to the Arab leaders...
Just after begging them to increase production so we'd have lower prices, he was telling them that we are going to find alternatives to oil, and then they'll have to find something besides oil to maintain their economies.
We haven't shown a whole lot of enthusiasm for finding alternatives over the past 35 years, and China and India are burgeoning markets even if we find alternatives quickly, but I guess he can pretend they're in a bind.
With our economy in the shape it's in, it seemed rather odd that he'd be telling other countries how to run theirs anyway.