Political Commentary

After that headline, you are probably expecting something about global warming, right? No. Although related, the crisis I have in mind is oil. We are running out. Now this is not a big surprise to anyone, so why am I bringing it up? We will soon run out of easy to extract oil throughout the world, and the total reserves will probably be gone in our lifetimes.

We need an all out government funded effort akin to the Manhatten Project to develop alternative energy sources. Much of the technology exists today to significantly reduce our dependence on oil. I don’t consider coal to be a viable long term solution either. Too many people are killed in mining accidents. Too much of our land is being ravaged in strip mines to get coal.

I believe two current technologies need to be developed immediately. First is solar energy. The southwest United States could provide a significant percentage of the country’s electrical power using solar power farms. This would require massive investment in existing PhotoVoltaic (PV) systems, as well as other more advanced solar electric generating systems. Solar chimneys are being built even now to provide low tech power solutions in various parts of the world. Similar efforts could be done here in the US. Wind and tidal power generators should also be developed to the maximum extent possible as soon as possible.

The other technology that needs to be developed is a hydrogen economy. Of course there is a lot of research on this subject currently, but much of it is by oil and auto companies. I have seen grand plans for huge infrastructures to move hydrogen all around the country. Most of this research seems to be geared toward continuing to give the oil companies a stranglehold on the American economy.

Is this a good idea? No! We already have a great deal of hydrogen all over the country. The atmosphere distributes it quite evenly all over the world. Why should we distribute it again in a pipe or a truck? There are huge issues with storing and moving concentrated hydrogen safely. Technology currently exists to bring hydrogen generation stations to the user without any additional infrastructure. These stations have a water supply and a solar power generator that is used to generate the hydrogen. The hydrogen is produced in relatively small quantities at the point of sale. Further development of these existing systems should be encouraged.

As the technology is improved, consideration should be given to a closed system in an automobile, for example, where the exhaust water vapor is recycled in the car and run through an onboard hydrogen generator. The car would only be limited in the amount of fuel it could produce by the amount of sunlight and water available. Just imagine driving across the country without filling up by driving through rain storms every once in a while to fill up your water tank, and then finding nice sunny areas where the on board solar system could generate the necessary hydrogen.

The other side of the hydrogen equation is the method of storing and burning the hydrogen safely in a vehicle. Currently, there are several possible technologies, but none of them provide the required amount of energy for long range, high speed travel in a safe manner. This is an area where significant research should be funded to provide a working solution to providing motive power to ground, marine and air vehicles.

By embracing these technologies, the United States could eliminate its dependence on foreign and domestic oil. This would result in a significant change in the current global political picture. In addition, it would eliminate virtually all electric generation and vehicle related pollution. All of these technologies can be built with minimal environmental impact. The only big problems are that water vapor, the only form of exhaust from most hydrogen burning systems, is the most potent green house gas there is! Hmmmm.