Solution for Energy Crisis

You know what is the biggest problem of being programmer - programmers, always underestimate time it takes to program something. and I have faced that over and over from my own experience.

Same is true for scientists, they are so enthusiastic about new R&D, they forgot the basic fact that its Research and it has very high risk associated for failure, or going over budget in terms of time and money

We all know what are the problems associated with Ethanol, Wind or solar power. And as I have mentioned in my previous post, "it would be a positive development and great for the US economy, it would open up some wonderful strategic opportunities if we chose to exercise them...and the fact remains that oil is not in infinite supply, and that's something we had better begin thinking about."

I see us as being in a transitional period here when it comes to energy, and what's really needed is a solution that gets us from where we are now to the point where new energy technology is both feasible and practical and able to be implemented.

The answer, surprisingly, is not some new techno-whiz miracle. Instead, it involves using proven technology and resources we already have.

During WWII, Adolf Hitler and the German military had a major problem: the British Navy had essentially cut off most of Germany's traditional sources of oil and gasoline, and Germany's military and industry were in danger of running dry. What Hitler did was to put his scientists to work on the idea of synthetic oil...and they came through for Der Fuhrer, using a resource Germany had available in the Ruhr, in the Saar and in Silesia, among other places - coal. The Germans perfected the technology of the gasification of coal and kept the Nazis in the war. And that technology still exists today.

Here in the US, we could be said to be the Saudi Arabia of coal, with an estimated 400-600 years worth of supply. And in fact, the US actually created something called the Synthetic Fuels Corporation back in 1980 to refine and streamline this gasification process after the original OPEC oil embargo, and it made significant progress until around 1986. What happened then is that oil prices tanked and made synthetic oil uneconomical to pursue, because it costs around $50 a barrel to manufacture. When oil was at $16 a barrel, it made no sense to continue to produce our own synthetic fuel. Now, with prices Above $100 per barrel, it does...especially in light of what some of the profits from imported oil sales are being used for, and by whom. The problem Associated is smaller compare to other technologies, how to make Coal Green.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-02/turning-black-coal-green

And it also makes sense to start actually building refineries again, something that hasn't been done in the US for over twenty years. Anyone involved with the energy biz who's actually being honest with you will tell you that the bottleneck that causes shortages and price rises mostly occurs at the refining end of things.

Nor is coal the only arrow in our energy independence quiver.

There are millions of potential barrels of shale oil just sitting in the Rockies in the western United States, another potential bonanza for the US economy using already tried and tested technology. There's also nuclear power, something the Europeans and the Japanese embraced after the Arabs turned off the spigot in the 1970's.

Add this to ramping up our domestic production and some basic conservation measures and and the US could achieve energy independence in a remarkably short space of time.. certainly within one four-year presidential term. That would buy us the time we need, and then some to develop the new energy technologies for the future. Not to mention a slew of high paid US jobs, a boost for our economy, more oil to sell to other countries and strategic leverage in certain areas where we need it.

So....why haven't we done this? Nothing I'm pointing out here is exactly a deep, dark secret.

The answer, I think, lies in what I like to refer to as the Arab Oil Producers Government Pension Augmentation Plan, where Presidential libraries, honorariums, consulting fees, retainers, investments in certain financial instruments and foundations get paid out by certain cash flush oil producing nations.

Another part of the puzzle lies in the fact that government in general loves the status quo, because higher gas prices mean higher tax revenues. In some States / counties, the state and the feds garner about sixty cents plus per gallon in taxes - the higher the price, the more they make. State is charging up to 64 cents per gallon, on top of 18.4 cent federal tax which makes almost 80 + cents a gallon
Tax Source: http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp

But the price for continuing this scam is getter larger by the minute, in blood as well as money. The US can indeed achieve energy independence if we want to, and these are the way to get it in a relatively short time. And the sooner we hold our politicians' feet to the fire to make it happen, the better off we'll be.

I don’t care if Obama does it or McCain - but these are my thoughts on it