There have been many ideas put forth telling Americans how to save on energy usage, from turning down thermostats to turning up the air pressure on vehicles tires. But we continue to be the most wasteful country on the planet. Rush Limbaugh often castigates environmentalists for telling Americans that our vehicles (SUV's) and our homes (McMansions) are too big and energy gluttonous. Failed efforts at legislation to get automotive companies to gradually increase fuel efficiency through the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) laws attest to our reticence to demand more energy efficient toys.
This document suggests the best ideas using environmentally clean energy in
- developing profitable energy efficient products;
- making the best use of our own renewable energy sources and our clean burning natural gas deposits that we have more of than any other country except Russia; and
- enacting fair and equitable energy taxes and credits (a quick in the rear is what our government representative need).
So here are the key ideas for turning Americans from wasteful to watchful energy conscious individuals.
* Keep Gasoline Prices High.
Mike Jackson CEO of AutoNation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoNation), the largest automotive retailer in the United States says high gas prices bring conservation. But if gas is cheap auto dealers can not sell fuel efficiency. You can’t have cheap gas and cute greenhouse gasses, and you can’t talk about global warming and talk about how you are going to keep the price of gas down. They don’t go together. With $4+ a gallon for gas, this is a pivotal moment in American history. This provides a window of opportunity to enact better conservation policies and for private industry to satisfy the demand for more fuel efficient vehicles. But this bubble of opportunity may be short lived as oil rich countries are becoming increasingly worried that the world may slide off of an oil economy and move on to something more environmentally friendly such as natural gas or biodiesel. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25699943#25692662
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/auto-nation-ceo-high-gas-prices-a-good-thing/
The federal gasoline tax of 18 cents per gallon has been the same since 1993 and most states have not altered their state gas taxes in a long, long time. But it remains the most efficient and direct method of raising funds for our highways. So why is it a political death warrant for legislators that propose any increases? In Europe gasoline is more than double to three times what it is here because they pay for roads with their gas taxes. We have watched our gas prices rise astronomically to help fund Middle East terrorists while we bulk at a few cents more for a tax that would relieve congestion and improve the safety of our highways and byways. In Virginia, the state legislator has been grid locked for two years now because it will not face up to the reality that roads cost money and taxes are the only way to pay for them. The most efficient and direct way is a gas tax. But by taking the easy way out, legislators are letting more toll booths pop up and imposing more hidden taxes in the way of vehicle registration, new car taxes, and anything else that will mask any up front taxation.
http://www.policyalmanac.org/environment/archive/fuel_economy.shtml
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-01-15-transportation-panel_N.htm
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/04/21/mccain_gas_tax/
http://www.washingtondcgasprices.com/tax_info.aspx
* By the Numbers.
If nothing else we are visual beings. When we get our bank or stock statements, we wince when we see if we’ve lost money. By that same token, to actually see how much energy we are using leads us to do some very strange things - like see if we can’t do better. There are very few families that play this game. Set the trip vehicle odometer to “0,” and fill up after using the family car. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine the gas mileage. The family member who gets the best MPG will be given a token reward or privilege. From teenagers making jackrabbit starts, we might see them costing along with the cruise control button on or coming to gradual stops when they see a red light up ahead or, better yet, accelerating gently and not dragging with the adjacent vehicle. Kids talk about times for 0-60, but bet you’ve never overheard one say, “ I won, got 42 mpg.”
The last thing most Americans look for in buying a new car is the gas mileage statistic. Only recently with the gas run-up have vehicle ads been touting mileage figures, but just try and find comparative charts somewhere. In the first place numbers advertised are always highway miles and those miles are composed by driving constantly at 55 on a level road with cruise control on. Only recently the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency have come out with a new web site (fuel economy guide - http://www.fueleconomy.gov/) that compares side-by-side MPG for vehicles in the same year and class (if you can maneuver through the many selections on their web site - it’s http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/sbs.htm).
The DOE/EPA release of this fuel economy guide did not make a huge splash in the papers and no one ran to see the top MPG vehicles before heading out to buy the best, but perhaps with $4+ gas there were a few searching the web for just such information - see “2008 Fuel Economy Guide Released,” http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/10/12/2008-fuel-economy-guide-released/
The same energy usage by the numbers can be an eye opener in measurements in the home. A comprehensive monitoring system is available that can measure the impact of the green technologies the homeowner has invested in - http://www.green-trust.org/wordpress/2008/04/11/defining-the-conservation-technology-market
* Technology.
The government pored billions of dollars into “going to the moon” with huge technological spin offs. Now with the next-generation lithium-ion batteries in hybrid vehicles to become a sure thing, the big three U.S. automakers asked our federal government for $500 million to help develop the new battery technology for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid. Considering that this new technology is the key to the next step in hybrid vehicle development, PHEV’s using lithium-ion batteries could certainly catapult a U.S. car maker to the front of the line. The ecological PHEV’s can be recharged from a home electrical outlet or operate without plug-in just as current hybrid models operate today. PHEV’s can run longer as an electric vehicle than regular hybrids, and are much cleaner. With 100+ MPG estimates foreign oil dependency could be a non-issue long before fuel cells and the hydrogen economy move from myth to reality.
http://www.soultek.com/clean_energy/hybrid_cars/batteries_the_key_to_the_automotive_revolution_part_1.htm
So far Toyota has taken a giant step forward here with Honda breathing down Toyota’s tail pipes. On June 11, 2008, Toyota introduced a PHEV with a next-generation lithium-ion battery and said mass production would begin in Japan, the U.S., and Europe by 2010. The next generation Prius, due around calendar year 2009, will almost certainly use a plug-in system. The car may launch as a normal hybrid and later, once the lithium ion battery technology is ready, switch to plug-in capability. Or, it may be a plug-in from the beginning using the existing hybrid battery pack and switch to lithium ion later. Whichever route they go, Toyato will certainly increase its share of vehicles on the road. They have publicly announced their goal is to sell 1-million hybrids each year beginning early next decade. And PHEV’s are sure to make up a healthy portion of those vehicles.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/AUTO01/806110418/1148/rss25
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4227944.html
Not only did our government fail to step in with any kind of incentives for development of next-generation lithium-ion batteries, but the tax credits for new hybrid cars expired in Sep 2007. The energy legislation of 2005 was meant to protect U.S. automakers who have yet to become competitive with hybrid vehicles. http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2007/09/toyota-hybrid-c.html . So by capping the credit, Congress has limited the incentives available to companies that have been at the forefront of hybrid technology. "Ironic isn't it?" said Ed Cohen, Honda's vice president. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/business/30hybrid.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Buying a high gas mileage vehicle is the best way to conserve energy because 43% of the 21 million barrels of oil we Americans use daily goes into our vehicles, but it’s too bad that conservation will continue to be hampered by our government to the delight of Japanese automakers. We need to turn this around! An informed public is the best way to do this, so did you have any inkling of all this before reading it here? http://www.sustainer.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=vn355energyfactsed
* Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_in_Energy_and_Environmental_Design
LEED, a Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) which provides a set of standards for environmentally sustainable construction to include incentives to provide for heating and cooling using less energy (superior heating and cooling units and architectural effects that include overhangs, thermal windows, and situation of home in relation to sun) and environmental considerations to reduce CO2 emissions, provide for water conservation, and prevent hazardous rain run-offs and save existing trees.
New home buyers should demand high-performance green homes using the LEED rating system. They should only work with a real estate agent familiar with LEED ratings (adequate-certified, silver, gold, and best-platinum).
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=147
* American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
ACEEE provides a wealth of information for conserving energy including
- information on the 2007 energy bill and potential energy legislation such as CAFE legislation, federal appropriations, and tax incentives;
- policy information regarding natural gas, petroleum, and electricity markets;
- energy efficiency and climate policy;
- energy policy program reports searchable by date and by topic;
- role of energy efficiency in climate change (May 2008)
- energy efficiency research, development, and deployment;
- federal support;
- energy efficiency performance standards;
- energy efficiency progress and potential in research, development & deployment programs;
- passenger vehicle fuel economy;
- state sales tax waiver and credits, and other tax credits incentives for energy-efficient improvements.
http://www.aceee.org/
* Natural Gas.
Natural gas is America’s fuel. We have discovered in the last five years more natural gas (most of it within the continental U.S. and not offshore) than any other country on Earth and have enough to last 450 years. We can take oil down by emphasizing natural gas. Use it for cars. Use it for plants. Oil comes down big to about a buck a gallon under a plan to switch the word’s oil economy to a natural gas economy, that is for the next decade until renewable energy sources are up and running. Natural gas is cheap to get out of the ground and its most recent high price is the result of it being mostly under governmental lock and key, treating it in the same way as dirty oil prone to spills. You can expect companies and developers to switch to natural gas from coal (which is too dirty) from oil (which is too expensive) and from nuclear (which takes too long to build). Another point to consider is that natural gas will pass the muster of the environmentalists. When you talk about fuels, there is only one fuel that has no enemies. That's natural gas.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25699943#25699943
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21997402/
Virginia Senator John Warner backed a “cap and trade” bill that was to go into effect in 2012. “Cap and trade” in place in Europe since 2006 would put more pressure on the production and use of natural gas, the default low-carbon energy option for power generation as oppose to dirty coal which is now used in about one half of our power plants. But Congress killed the measure over fears of higher energy prices. But in reality “cap and trade” would force increased natural gas production thereby bringing natural gas prices down. http://warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.StatementsSpeeches&ContentRecord_id=b221bf5d-7e9c-9af9-7518-9de43c1c2606&Region_id=&Issue_id=
* Renewable Energy...
is energy generated from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat which is renewable (naturally replenished). Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power, hydroelectricity/micro hydro, biomass and biofuels for transportation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy
Wind for Electricity. Shattering all its previous records, the U.S. in 2007 increased generating capacity by 45% with an investment of over $9 billion. But it still only accounts for just over 1% of electrical power production in the U.S.
http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/AWEA_Market_Release_Q4_011708.html
http://www.eei.org/industry_issues/industry_overview_and_statistics/industry_statistics
http://www.awea.org/projects/Default.aspx
Solar for Electricity. ScienceDaily (Mar. 17, 2008) reported that researchers in the United States and Austria have made a significant advance toward the next generation of plastic solar cells that are a low cost, environmentally-friendly alternative to inorganic solar cells. Solar accounts for less than 1% of U.S. electrical production. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070719011151.htm
Geothermal Energy. The U.S. Department of Energy announced Jun 26, 2008 that they pan to invest up to $90M in advanced geothermal energy technology and research. http://petrochemical.ihs.com/news-08Q2/doe-invest-geothermal-research.jsp
Cellulosic Ethanol. We need to scrap the government ethanol mandate. Look at wheat: It has barely budged in price. Why should it? You can't make gasoline out of it. Corn prices on the other hand are simply out of control causing beef and chicken to also be out of control.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10423695/3/jim-cramers-best-blogs.html
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Jul 14, 2008 the selection of two small-scale cellulosic bio-refinery projects in Park Falls, Wis. and Jennings, La. for federal funding of up to $40 million over five years. These projects will further new government goals to make cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive with corn-based ethanol by 2012, and help reduce America’s gasoline use by expanding the availability of alternative and renewable transportation fuels. http://www.energy.gov/news/6413.htm
Biodiesel. Made from the oily residue of non-food crops and animal waste, biodiesel presents great potential to replace gasoline in fueling our vehicles. Biodiesel is gaining traction in Europe where they have begun a massive switch to diesel vehicles, where more than half of all vehicles sold there are now diesel, new improved over the loud hard to start versions that we saw 25 years ago and virtually indistinguishable from gasoline-burning vehicles. Biodiesel can be mixed in any proportion with diesel made from fossil fuels, and pure biodiesel reduces net carbon dioxide emissions by 78% compared to 100% petroleum diesel. And the miracle plant that is making this all happen is the jatropha, a non-food crop plant that produces eight times more oil than soy bean. But more significant, Old Dominion University (Norfolk VA.) is showing industry how growing algae on garbage spread out in fields can produce up to 100 times more oil per acre than jatropha crops. ODU experts say this process can supply enough biodiesel to meet all of America's transportation needs using very little land. http://www.cellulosicethanol.com/
http://www.lightconnection.us/Archive/mar06/mar06_article4.htm
http://www.ecoworld.com/home/articles2.cfm?tid=356
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/01/odu-experiment-turning-sewage-algaebased-biodiesel-flourishing
* Just How Do they Do It?
We won the race to the moon and have beat Japan hands down with our computer technology. But why haven’t we lead in getting the world off an oil economy (hint – an oil man runs our country)? Here are initiates that we must follow. Too bad we could not have been leaders here. Get over it; we’re no longer No. 1 (see “The Rise of the Rest” http://www.newsweek.com/id/135380/output/print). But wait, Americans will not take this lying down. As Howard Beale said in the 1976 movie Network, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechnetwork2.html
(1) Brazil is now the world leader in “flex car” technology using ethanol. http://skeptically.org/oil/id12.html
(2) A South African company is profitably using its coal to satisfy nearly half of its transportation needs. Wait - something is wrong here. How can they do it while being signers of the Kyoto Protocol while we can’t and are not signers? http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6960234/description.html
(3) Europe has begun a massive switch to biodiesel with over half of their vehicles now running on diesel, which unlike in the U.S., their diesel is cheaper, all because of government mandates for refining priorities. The only priorities American refineries know is how to make the most money -http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/03/20/diesel-becoming-more-expensive-than-gasoline-in-europe..
(4) The Canadian Natural Gas Vehicle Alliance is making an all out effort to promote natural gas vehicles http://www.cngva.org/about.htm.
(5) The Former Soviet Union country of Estonia is using its abundant oil shale to extract natural gas and produce electricity as its chief export and for over 80% of its own electrical use. Our own Green River Formation, holding huge oil and gas reserves, is being studied for oil only extraction. Just ask Estonia how they are able to do it. http://www.worldoil.com/magazine/magazine_detail.asp?ART_ID=2658
(6) Germany has plans to open large numbers of biomass plants using their garbage for profitable energy production while we have to pay to have our garbage hauled away http://renewenergy.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/biomass-to-liquid-biofuel-plant-opens-in-germany/ and..
(7) The German government is actively adding solar incentives. At the same time the Bush administration did nothing when Congress continued to put the damper on solar incentives (runs out Dec 2008). http://www.renewables-made-in-germany.com/en/biogas
(8) Spain is using its citrus waste to produce 16% of its ethanol while Florida throws away most of its annual 8 million tons of orange peel? http://biopact.com/2007_02_10_archive.html
(9) European governments are progressively ramping up their support for wind energy while our administration fail to encourage the extension of the wind energy stimulus for wind energy in the 2007 energy bill (runs out Dec 2008) http://www.trainsnotlanes.info/.
(10) France generates 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear power while over half of ours comes from dirty coal. The Bush administration allowed some of the nation's dirtiest power plants to make major modifications without installing costly new pollution controls by strong arming EPA officials to drop health hazard findings from the Clean Air Act. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/07/anglers_environmental_control.html
No comments:
Post a Comment