Issues #1: Energy Reform, Solutions

As stated in my previous post, we would need to cut oil consumption to about one quarter what it is today. So, what are the solutions?

What we need is a comprehensive approach to the problem, and recognize that there is no single solution that will solve the problem for us. I don't care who is an advocate for Hydrogen cars, biofuels, electric, etc. All those are solutions that will have only a limited impact over the total consumption of oil in this country. They involve tradeoffs, such as having less arable land in the nation, due to using some for making fuel, or they have low energy density, and therefore limited range, or are expensive to mass produce, or involves toxic, difficult to recycle materials, etc.

The most obvious way to create oil independence in this country is to actually free us from the need for automobiles for most of our transportation needs. This will involve something akin to a whole new reindustrialization of the nation. In some cases it will require slight modifications of existing systems, in many other cases, it will require a total revamp of the design and layout of cities and towns.

One of the first things we could do is restore and expand our current railroad system, and limit diesel locomotives for freight, and have separate, expanded, electric high speed rail for long distance passenger travel. This would cut down on "gas guzzling" air travel, which has its own problems, like long waits, low turnover, and if you don't live near a major hub, quite a few switchovers. We need to divide the nation up into railroad regions, with some crossover for cross country travel, and quite a few regional, high speed, rail systems, that could cut down on travel times by an order of magnitude compared to car travel.

In addition to this, our cities and towns will need to be remade with an emphasis on pedestrian traffic and public transportation. Cities with existing light rail systems could greatly expand these systems, and use them to service as many areas as possible. Bus systems could be expanded, and the buses themselves converted to some renewable source of energy, whatever is economical for the particular city or town they service.

These types of reforms wouldn't eliminate automobiles entirely, however they would greatly limit the need to even have an automobile just to get to work or to the local grocery store. What could next be done is to expand tax credits for those who buy hybrids and, eventually, renewable or electric vehicles. This can include public financing for lower income working families, and also do the same for more energy efficient homes.

When I refer to reforming the cities and towns of this country, basically I'm talking about the death of suburbia. Unfortunately, suburbia is car centric, and has been marketed as such for years. The problem is that its simply unsustainable, if we wish to attain energy independence in any lasting form, we will need to rid ourselves of suburbs and exurbs.

There are many ways in which to accomplish this, and one of the ways to do this is through, oddly enough, marketing. What we need is a "new urbanization" where we revitalize existing neighborhoods, and build new neighborhoods. Include public financing for new and existing neighborhoods, tax credits, etc. to encourage middle class and working families to move into these neighborhoods. Just because we may have to sacrifice a little convenience just to make ourselves energy independent doesn't mean we have to make it entirely unpleasant.

This would create a building boom that would be unprecedented since the 1950s, and we can also plan ahead for future challenges as well. This building boom will help many cities rebuild their economies, open up new businesses and new investments, and put a lot of people to work. The cost can be great, but also manageable, and we shouldn't think of it as a burden, but rather an investment in the future, and we should tie in renewable ways to produce electricity, making "greener" neighborhoods and cities, and also help spread and eliminate some of the costs associated with pollution now.

Diversification of our energy sources is key to this, I believe, some areas of the country would be able to utilize the power of the Earth, through geothermic plants, others can utilize wind power, solar power, hydroelectric, whatever is practical for an area. I think this will go a long way towards complete independence from oil, even domestic oil.

Issues #1: Energy Reform, Oil problems

This is the first of my Issue series, these are issues of either domestic or international interest that I will tackle, stating both current problems, challenges, and then solutions. This may be divided into several different parts, depending on length of each post.

This first issue is a doozy, to put it mildly, Energy Reform is a term I sort of came up with to encompass energy independence challenges, new technologies in renewable energy, and the needed economic or structural reforms that need to take place for these issues to work as policy. This isn't a simple issue, and there are so many different approaches to take, it may seem overwhelming to the average person.

My focus on this issue will not be limited to just transportation energy, though that is a large part of the problem, but also "fixed" energy sources, in power plants, etc. In addition, the economy will need to transition from our current "fossil fuel" phase to a sustainable economy using renewable sources for energy.

The first source I'm going to talk about is Petroleum, and the current realities related to oil production and consumption. The United States, today, consumes about 20 million barrels of oil a day. Unlike many other natural resources, we don't hoard oil, not a lot of it, at least, so the product supplied, as shown in the table in the link, is product consumed. Contrast this with with the total amount of proved reserves within the United States, which is a little over 20 billion barrels of oil. Sounds like a lot of oil, doesn't it? However, do the math, 20 billion divided by 20 million equals 1000, which means a total of 1000 days worth of oil is present within the nation. That's a little under 3 years worth of oil, at current consumption rates. Now it doesn't seem like a lot, doesn't it?

Of course, this is assuming that all that oil can be extracted immediately after discovery, which isn't the case. Pipes can only be so large, and the oil is deep underground, so you have to drill. The total domestic production of oil is about 5 million barrels per day, so we have to make up the shortfall with imports. Now, before you ask, yes ANWR does exist, and production estimates say that it will be able to produce anywhere from .6 to 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, so it wouldn't be able to reduce imports by no more than a few percentage points. It should be noted that access to this oil isn't guaranteed until 2013 at the earliest, and given current trends, oil consumption is on the increase. Even worse, the total proven reserves in the United States peaked in the 1970 at 39 billion barrels and has been decreasing ever since.

Given these facts, in order to attain energy independence in this country we will have to reduce oil consumption by 15 million barrels a day, only using a quarter of the oil that we use now. Imagine the highway only have one quarter of the cars it has now, or just simply reducing our commutes to only one quarter what we use now. To be honest, this is possible for some people, however, for the large majority of us, this is impossible.

The problem is that this nation is car centric, and to be blunt about it, this leads to a large amount of wasted energy. No one can claim that traveling in a 2000 pound vehicle is the most efficient way to travel. Our towns and cities are designed around the automobile, and regardless of how many new technologies allow us to replace oil as the primary fuel in cars, none have as much energy per gallon as gasoline. This means some tradeoffs are in order.