War On Oil

I would like this country to declare war. Not the kind of war we are used to. The kind of war we need to engage in is much more difficult. It will be a war without blood and guts, but a war that will require real heroism.

The war we need to declare is the one against oil. This will be a war on oil, not the countries that produce it. How do we begin? First, use all of the present technology we presently have, and then go on from there.

Technology Development
The technology that will be generated by this concerted effort has value to the U.S. far beyond our own supply of electricity. We can sell this technology to the world creating an inflow of dollars that will bolster our economy. The technology we sell to others will further diminish the need for oil from other nations. As that happens the oil producing countries have to change their basic economies. At present most oil producing countries don’t share that wealth with their people. Nigerians are, for example, dismally poor. Depriving that country would have a very small economic impact on the people, but a large impact on those that are presently exploiting that resource.

Global Warming
As we develop carbon neutral solutions to energy we clean up the air as a by-product and slow down the progression of climate change. Some people will argue that burning fossil fuels or anything else does not cause global warming that human beings do. I disagree, but instead of having that argument, why not point out that cleaner air is just plain healthier. This healthy air that is available for us to breathe will reduce health costs.

Electric Power Conservation
Electric power is wasted in this country in ways that other countries find hard to believe. The litanies of possible improvements are enormous, but let’s start with conservation:

Light Emitting Diodes (LED) use about 3% of the power that is used by an incandescent lamp. Presently they are suitable for traffic lights, exit signs, and numerous other 24/7 applications. (Traffic lights have four 150 watt lamps on at all times, that is 600watts 24 hours per day 365 days a year. The total kilowatt hours per year are 5,256 @ 12cents/kwh which costs the municipality $630 per traffic signal. The annual cost of operating an LED traffic lamp is $19.

Buildings
The best building codes in the country have heat transfer guidelines that are woefully lower than what we’ve known to be possible for at least 40 years. We can double the requirements on homes and commercial establishments. We can do this with no new technology. The additional cost of a $300,000 home is about $10,000. The annual savings is about $1,000 estimating a 900 gallon savings at $2.50. Payback will be less than 5 years. If the cost oil increases the payback period will be shorter.

Motor vehicles
At the same time double the required gas mileage on trucks and personal cars. At the moment the only technology that can achieve this is the Hybrid engine design. The cost of driving a car 20,000 miles that gets 20 miles per gallon, using gas that costs $2.80 per gallon is $1,800. Presently the hybrid costs about $3,000 more. The payback is less than 3.5 years and maintenance costs are lower.

All Electric cars are on the horizon and we will see production of these vehicles this year.
The electric car will obviate the need for liquid fuel. It will also make power plants more economical as otherwise idle power plants produce during the night. The economic gain to power producers will stabilize or reduce electric rates.

Hydrogen powered cars using fuel cells will eventually be practical and the benefit here is also a no oil result. Equally important there are no emissions. The chemical process that drives the car has a waste product of pure water. In this case we need a cost that would make it acceptable. We’re not there yet!


Rail Transportation
Maglev
Developing Maglev will mean that no oil will be needed for this means of transportation.
CSX runs advertisements that tell us they can transport a ton of freight almost 500 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel. That’s excellent, but it’s still oil. The Maglev can do a lot better than that using of clean electric energy generation. The Maglev being a frictionless mode of rail is extremely efficient. Using Maglev we can move freight at high speed. Perishables that we move by truck can be transported longer distances without spoilage when we reduce a 4-½ day journey to one day. For intercity passengers, Maglev will reduce airline traffic. Airplanes are one of the most obnoxious polluters, and what is worse is that they pollute at high altitudes where they do the most damage to the earth’s protective envelope. Here the benefits are many. We reduce significantly our need for oils, streamline intercity travel, clean up the air, and make the nation more efficient for conducting commerce.

Geothermal
Heating and cooling can be accomplished by extensive use of ground source heat exchangers. These systems use only a small fraction of the power required by electric resistive heating and no on premise burning of fuel.

In Summary
If we as a nation resolve to utilize these measures we put ourselves in a very good negotiating position when we deal with the rest of the world. Instead of rolling out billions of dollars worth of military equipment to secure our share of the world’s oil we merely tap our own resources. With all these measures in place America will have enough oil from domestic sources.
We have given these dictators around the world a cudgel with which they periodically beat us. By embarking on aggressive energy programs we merely take back the weapon we gave them

An America without a need for foreign oil dramatically changes our foreign policy. The technology allows us to deal with difficult regimes without fear of being cut off from our supply. I believe it was George W. Bush who used the term “addiction to oil”. It was a very apt term. Drug addicts behave in irrational ways to secure what they need. Robbery and burglary committed by the addict to provide funds for the addiction is comparable to the U.S. going to war to secure a stable supply of oil.

Whenever large vision efforts are undertaken there are many unforeseen fortuitous gains. When we went to the moon we needed a better computer. The on-board board computers that were on the first Apollo mission were less sophisticated than your pocket calculator, but the quest for better devices was set in motion giving the marvelous computers we now take for granted.

When we embark on the road to new discoveries we never know where we will wind up. Just ask Christopher Columbus. He was looking for India, and look what he found. Discovery is exciting but we will never meet the challenges that are there if we don’t change some fundamental elements. Our education systems range from very poor to extremely good, but even in the best schools we may be missing the boat. The schools in some Long Island districts have great teachers and students that are truly achieving, but if you drill down and see what they are learning they may not be learning what they need in a world that wants to make things. Turning out the brilliant minds that can dream up new financial instruments that can get them rich, may not be the skills that make the country rich. We have to ask our educators how many scientists, engineers and chemists are we producing. The answer is embarrassing.