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What should we do to become free of Arab, West African and South American oil?
Posted by itsyournation • 7/30/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: Economy, mccain, Middle East, nigeria, obama, oil, politic, venezuela
It seems that we have lost the spirit of independence, strength and productivity. In order to recapture the "spirit of America" we must break the chains of oil dependency that has handcuffed our government and economy.
User Comments
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I am very interested in this topic as well. I have begun to outline solutions on my blog.
tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2008/05/solutions-part-i.html
tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2008/05/solutions-part-ii-conservation....
tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2008/05/solutions-part-iii-alternative-...
Basically, I think it is going to take a wide range of solutions and there will be no 'silver bullet'. Conservation plus an increased reliance on alternatives...with a great need for more cost effective alternatives. -
Learn to teleport.-
We need to learn to use quantum uncertainty to our advantage first.
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As long as it is safe, cheap, less impactful to the environment...and does not violate any laws of physics.
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Voodoo ... I mentioned the quantum foam to Joe, my husband, and he said he knows about a lot of quantum subjects, but was unfamiliar with this one. He asked me what it was and (my eyes began to glaze over) I told him it has something to do with the matter that makes up particles in the universe and that I would show him the Wikipedia explanation. Yesterday, I learned something and today I didn't feel so scientifically helpless. Gold Star!
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"handcuffed our economy" - yes
"handcuffed our government" - no
In order to recapture the "spirit of America" we must break the chains of oil dependency: Absolutely.
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Our current political leader (and those before him) have their hands and pocketbooks gleefully involved in the trade of oil. Have you not heard?
One source of so many:
www.commondreams.org/views04/0208-05.htm
Oil: The Bushes' ties to John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil go back 100 years, when Rockefeller made Buckeye Steel Castings wildly successful by convincing railroads that carried their oil to buy heavy equipment from Buckeye. George H. Walker helped refurbish the Soviet oil industry in the 1920s, and Prescott Bush acquired experience in the international oil business as a 22-year director of Dresser Industries. George H.W. Bush, in turn, worked for Dresser and ran his own offshore oil-drilling business, Zapata Offshore. George W. Bush mostly raised money from investors for oil businesses that failed. Currently, the family's oil focus is principally in the Middle East.
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Shameless I know, but I've done a series of posts about alternative fuel and energy:
globallyminded.com/Blog/files/tag-alternative-fuel.php
globallyminded.com/Blog/files/tag-alternative-energy.php-
globalgirl...I read your post about solar electricity for the home. Have you attempted such a project? I have done some research for my home and found that it is far from cost effective, even with the generous subsides. Until solar PV cells increase dramatically in efficiency they will not be adopted in any type of meaningful manner.
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No, not yet. My sister and brother-in-law installed solar at their home and they save a bundle.
As a society, we are far cry from bringing affordable (let alone any) solar to ALL residential homes, but at least we are moving towards such a viable green energy solution.
All corporations need to go green. -
I live on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada and here many people have installed passive solar systems over the course of these last 15 years. The cost is HUGE and the available supply of electricity is limited because it rains here all winter long.
Those who have made such rooftop installations are all very wealthy people and/or businesses, who can write the costs off against their business income. However, when it comes to the rest of us middle to low income earners and those on fixed incomes this wonderful idea is out of our financial reach. I would like to see Provincial and Federal government subsidization programs introduced to enable solar conversions for low income people. Therefore, I belong to a regional alternative energy group with a local branch in my community that has been advocating for this. -
Passive solar is much different than PV cells...and like you say, I'm not sure how economic they are in cloudy climates. I don't know if I would agree with large subsidies for systems that have little utility.
"My sister and brother-in-law installed solar at their home and they save a bundle."
If you don't mind, what type of set up do your sister/brother-in-law have? What part of the country? A break down of the costs/benefits would be great. Perhaps a new blog entry?
"As a society, we are far cry from bringing affordable (let alone any) solar to ALL residential homes, but at least we are moving towards such a viable green energy solution.
All corporations need to go green."
If it is not "affordable", I'm not sure I understand how it is "viable".
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Joe says: "We need to eliminate our use of fossil fuels. Develop and use Hydrogen Power!!! Simple ... do it!"
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What NOT to do: think drilling in the ANWR or off our coasts is going to help. That's like thinking that you can cure a famine if you "give the kid a sandwich" as Sam Kinison famously joked. -
At a time when it's often hard to separate science from spin, THE HYPE ABOUT HYDROGEN offers a hype-free explanation of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, takes a hard look at the practical difficulties of transitioning to a hydrogen economy and reveals why neither government policy nor business investment should be based on the belief that hydrogen cars will have meaningful commercial success in the near or medium term.
For more information or to link to this book: www.amazon.com/Hype-About-Hydrogen-Fiction-Climate/dp/155963703X
The Hype About Hydrogen www.cool-companies.org/hydrogen/inthenews.cfm
Check out A Silver Bullet For High Gas Prices www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=52771
I'd also like to point out the US Department of Energy Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies Program
www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/
There is information there on:
Hydrogen Production
Hydrogen Delivery
Hydrogen Storage
Fuel Cells
Technology Validation Safety, Codes and Standards
Education Systems Analysis-
The silver bullet link is broken...I am highly skeptical of any silver bullets, considering the complexity of the problem.
I am very skeptical on the H2 economy, as well. -
@chief302
Thanks for telling me about the 404 links. I have now replaced them with links that do work. I share your skepticism. -
Having said that I don't believe in silver bullets, an increase in flex-fuel plug-in Hybrids is about as close to one as I can get... We will need to increase our green domestic electricity production (large scale wind farms and solar power towers, nuclear) to prevent an increase in coal and natural gas use, however.
This actually is quite a multifaceted solution when it gets down to it...
Better batteries, 2nd 3rd gen biofuels, greener (yet not more expensive) electricity, etc...
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Concentrating Solar and Decentralized Power: Government Incentives Hinder Local Ownership
4 Jun 2008
Can residential rooftop solar compete with new utility-scale concentrating solar electric plants? Only if federal and state incentives are amended to level the playing field. This May 2008 report explores the economics of solar PV and concentrating solar and shows how local ownership is hindered unless government solar incentives change. View the full report www.newrules.org/de/concentratingsolar.pdf-
Unless there is an immediate benefit to distributed power generation, why would we want to spend more money on it? Why build thousands of small, less efficient systems, when larger ones are actually becoming competetive with fossil fuels?
The distributed nature of a small scale system is more resilient to attack, I'll admit.
The govenment does not give magic subsidies...they only redistribute everyone's money. If it's not a good investment, I'd say it is not a good idea. I would agree that increased investment tends to enhance innovation. But there is a limit on the speed at which that can happen. The right balance must be reached. Dumping money into solar power in the Pacific Northwest does not seem to be a good investment to me. Perhaps tidal or wind power might be better?
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The rooftops of shopping malls should be covered with solar panels. That would generate a lot of electricity.-
I agree. Also the rooftops of publicly owned buildings should be similarly equipped.
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But if it generates it at $0.40 per kW-hr...I don't want to pay for it.
It is very easy to spend other people's money. -
I've just been reading this: Senators craft bipartisan energy bill
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/02/MNEA123KET.DTL -
@timethief
I'd like to see more of the particulars, but I like the bipartisanship and balance of the solutions they are proposing.
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How do we stop shipping $700 billion of our wealth overseas to buy oil, stop killing our dollar, and in the process create 5,000,000 new (good paying) jobs, and boost our own economy?
Easy. All we have to do is develop our own oil resources, and throw them into the worldwide mix.
We're using 10 million barrels of imported oil daily anyway. Why not replace it with our own oil? This act is not going to add or subtract from worldwide pollution. It will have no net effect whatsoever on the environment. All it will do is save our own economy.
Example: Saudi Arabia has a 260 billion barrel reserve. In contrast, here are our (U.S.) oil assets:
Offshore: 82 billion barrels
Baaken Formation, North Dakota: 160-500 billlion barrels
Anwar, Alaska: 12 billion barrels
Oil Shale (Utah,Wyoming, Colorado): Over 1 TRILLION barrels (Canada has developed its tar sands, and is now producing 1 million barrels a day from it. Why can't we do the same with our oil shale? The technology is there.)
So, who is, really, potentially, the big kid on the block when it comes to oil?
Need I say more?-
It all depends on how you define 'oil'. All oil is not created equal. Oil shale and tar sands are much harder to extract/less economic/more environmentally impacting than light sweet crude. That being said, at today's prices it is only a matter of time before we start to exploit those resources as well. The environmental arguments will become harder to defend as gas continues to climb.
This is one of the reasons why I believe if global warming is real and actually a human caused event...it is inevitable. -
Do not take this to mean that I believe the environment is unimportant. I believe many past civilizations' collapses have been caused by environmental degradation. This line of reasoning would almost lead me to say that the collapse of western civilization is inevitable...yikes! All the more reason for viable solutions.
tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2008/06/collapse.html
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Hemmm.....
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