Posted on 05/04/2008 4:53:59 PM PDT by Delacon
1. Drill Anwar and offshore. This will not give us what we need but will help.
2. Go nuclear to supply our electrical needs. Nuclear can supply 100% of our electrical needs.
3. Shale oil is profitable at the present price of oil. If the government will pass a law that would ensure a base price for the shale oil the companies would go for this. We have around 200 years of shale oil. Shale oil takes a lot of energy to "cook" out of the rock. The ideal source of heat for this would be co-located nuclear reactors. They can make all the heat you want. This would increase yield and decrease cost.
4. Utilize the coal to liquid fuel process that has been done for the last 60 years. It works.
Any energy source that can compete without a subsidy should be encouraged. All of this can not be done over night. Our industry can do it and is willing to do it. The problem is not one of engineering but politics and environmental leftists. They will oppose each of the above suggestions. We could be energy independent in 20 years if we apply ourselves to the problem.
Meanwhile, there will be rolling blackouts every summer unless we add 17 GW of new generating capacity every year through 2015. Last year, nuclear added zero and coal added 1.
Folks, ethanol has been around since the late 70s. Imagine what price oil would be without the 10% ethanol added to replace a similar amount of gas—we would be using about another 10% gasoline. Does anyone really think that using another 10% gasoline is going to force the price of oil down? Don’t get me wrong, I am for any viable solution to the energy problem. Trouble is there are too many roadblocks in the way of other options. The middle oil powers have the demorats in their pockets to prevent domestic production, and there is zip for infrastructure for most of the other options, hence, ethanol is a small piece of the fix since the infrastructure from grain handling has been in place for decades.
All energy we use is ultimately from conversion of matter to energy. We've got this great big functioning fusion reactor in the sky, called the sun. Coal is just fossilized old sunlight.
A little bit of ethanol can raise the octane rating of gasoline allowing better spark timing which in turn allows the engine to use more of the gasoline's energy. But more alcohol than necessary to advance the spark is a waste.
Of course. Didn’t you know that the white man’s greed runs a world in need?
Doesn't matter what part of the corn crop we turn into fuel, it has no impact one way or the other on any nation with a large number of Moslems.
Unless you can get more energy out of the ethanol than you put into it there is no net energy gain or decrease in oil consumption.
“If WE grow OUR corn, and burn it in a stove, feed it to the birds, or throw it away, what does this have to do with starving The Children™ in a “Developing Nation”? Does this mean the “Developing Nation” cannot grow its own food? If so, why do we call it “Developing” if it is nonviable?
-Unless the Writer is referring to handout recipients in corrupt regimes, who despise us. Is that what the writer meant? “
The latest by liberals, is the hate-the-farmer campaign and blame the food producers for all the ills of the nation. Agribusiness is the nation’s number one industry and has done more to make this nation a world power than any other, so hey, it is time we undermine Ag and everybody concerned with the evil food raising business. These low-life food producers should give their products away and dam them if they want more than a 1% return on investment.
And if they still want to do ethanol then take off the 56 cent per gallon tariff on imported ethanol. Brazil makes it out of suger, makes it more efficiently than does the U.S., could export millions of gallons to the U.S., but are blocked by the import duties.
If you dig into this subject, you’ll find President Ford, then Carter, put a stop to this “breeder” technology in the US. It was briefly revived in 1981 under Reagan, but by that time, the entire nuclear power industry had been painted as dangerous.
But nobody approaches any of this with economic, most efficient substitution, rationality. Instead everybody is peddling an angle to subsidize some pet idea or group. It is obscene, and everyone doing so should pause and think of the Iranian nukes they are funding.
Utter drivel.
Absolutely.
“Was riceland (wet) really used to grow corn? Somebody is running a scam.”
Yep, it is called middle east oil producers.
Its not just baloney that coal is a dirty material. It kills miners, it makes dirty by products when burned and requires a high volume of material. Its worked for a long long long time. The HUGE infrastructure behind coal is quite interested in keeping it on the plate. Lots of jobs at stake. IMO nuke is a better option as long as the Russians aren't running it.
Nifty project for someone who wants to market luxury products in Japan ~ Hamilton county Indiana regularly reports the highest corn productivity levels in the world. Grow popcorn there. Package it in small tins about the size used for canned tuna. Sell it in shops handling Gucci, et al, in Japan's big cities for $257 per can. Call it "IRON PIPE POPCORN" which reflects the productivity characteristics of Hamilton county stored within. The "Iron Pipe", of course, refers to ........... I assure you, the Japanese will get the idea and you will have yet another product besides Viagra to put on the market to save the Black Rhino.
We need to contact our reps and tell them we need more refineries, and drill for oil in our own country, and not use food for fuel - it’s unethical.
THEN we need to write an editor’s letter asking other folks in our area to do the same thing. That’s how we can get our elected people to listen (maybe).
Crist just stopped a coal plant here in Florida. But he did herald in a shiny new solar plant.
With a sharp stick.
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