Posted on 01/03/2005 11:39:46 AM PST by ddtorque
a group of national security experts and representatives of prominent Washington think tanks and public policy organizations including the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS,) Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD,) Center for Security Policy, Hudson Institute, National Defense Council Foundation (NDCF), and the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE,) released an open letter to Americans and an accompanying blueprint for energy security called "Set America Free," calling for immediate action toward reduction of America's demand for oil. The document spells out practical steps which can be undertaken over the next four years and beyond to dramatically improve America's energy security. Members of the group called upon America's leaders to adopt the plan, with a view to rapidly expanding fuel choice in the U.S. transportation sector beyond petroleum while exploiting currently available technologies and infrastructures. If the plan is carried out in full, U.S. oil imports would drop by as much as 50 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at iags.org ...
agreed 100%. that's why we need to focus on reducing oil consumption in the transportation sector. only 2% of our electricity is generated from oil so shifting around electricity production to solar, wind, nuclear, etc does nothing to reduce our oil dependence. automobiles are the key.
Okay, but I thought that the article was about US independence on foreign oil and what choices the environmentalists have left us with. Is there a solar energy plant in the US?
Carolyn
Doesn't seem to address home heating. That must be a much smaller percent than cars. But millions of homes run hot water and heat off of oil.
Very interesting. It seems to me that the $1 trillion we'll spend to create private investment accounts for SS might be better spent on developing these technologies to get us off of foriegn oil. Can you imagine the shockwaves this would send through the middle east?
A relative of mine worked on legislation in the 1970's that would have created a system of grants to fund research into alternative energy and conservation. Congress re-wrote the program to change how the funds would be awarded. Instead of merit, the awards were allocated based on Congressional approval, meaning funds went to pork projects with no regard for the benefit of the investment to the country as a whole.
The more things change.....
I wouldn't think of solar energy as something generated by a plant. By its nature, it would be distributed where it could best be used. For example, put solar panels on buildings and homes throughout the south.
bumping recycling/recovering
Thanks for your response. Please refer to post 15 and 17 as a related link to this response
No problemo....invade Canada.
couldn't agree more:
Support the Troops, Conserve Oil.
Automobiles certainly are a major factor, but most merchandise and food products are transported by trucks, trains, ships and cargo planes. All consume huge amounts of petroleum products as do the manufacture of plastics, computers, etc. Oil is a necessary commodity to the worlds economy and will remain that for the foreseeable future.
Remember that figures given for "proven reserves" include only that oil which has been located to date. It doesn't include oil that will be located tomorrow. Yet, obviously, our seismic crews get up and go to work every day finding new oil.
You have to keep that in mind when quoting a figure that Africa or Russia can only provide x percent, when those figures are under continuous revision.
An example is the reference made to Brazil in the article, that their production is expected to fall off. Only a very few years ago, Brazil wasn't even a producer at all. They didn't have any reserves. Then they did, but they were deep offshore. But then the price of oil went up enough that the deep offshore fields became viable, and suddenly Brazil is in the game. Prognostications are always based on yesterday's seismic information. But new information is coming in tomorrow, from zones that no one bothered to check out until now, because we had our hands full elsewhere.
Africa is a pretty big place, and we haven't even begun to scratch the surface, or subsurface, of what is there. Central Asia sits on an enormous pool of oil, and we don't even know how big, because we are busy dealing with the stuff we've already found. Once we've got a handle on that, we'll be ready to fill in some more gaps in the map.
Russia's "proven" reserves are simply a function of investment in seismic work. Their production figures are similarly a function of investment in field development. Politics are retarding that process, but that doesn't mean the oil isn't there. Russia is actually one of the fastest growing producers in the world. You can't take a temporary dip, caused by political wrangling, and extrapolate that out 50 years and hang your hat on it.
If production continues at today's rate, many of the largest producers in 2002... will cease to be relevant players in the oil market in less than two decades.
But thats just it. Things never continue as they are. No one ever sits on their hands.
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