Energy: Oil, Coal, Solar, Electric, Wind, Water....

The big news this week is President Bush asking Congress to open up the OCS for drilling and the Presidential Candidate's response to that request... As usual I will add my 5 cents.
Let's look at some little known facts:

Life And Death of the Electric Car
1891: William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa builds the first successful electric automobile in the United States.
1966: Congress introduces the earliest bills recommending use of electric vehicles as a means of reducing air pollution. A Gallup poll indicates that 33 million Americans are interested in electric vehicles.
1972: Victor Wouk, the "Godfather of the Hybrid," builds the first full-powered, full-size hybrid vehicle out of a 1972 Buick Skylark provided by General Motors (G.M.) for the 1970 Federal Clean Car Incentive Program. The Environmental Protection Association later kills the program in 1976.
2006: A few pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids are in limited production and new ones are on the horizon. Experts differ on how soon rising oil prices, peak oil forecasts, changing fortunes at car companies, and public demand for cars that run without gasoline will resurrect the mass market for electric car in the twenty-first century. The success of the gasoline hybrid Toyota Prius is a promising sign.

So we have had the technology for an Electric Car for 100 years - Yet it has barely been developed beyond the original issues? And the EPA essentially killed the Electric Car in 1976 - Remind me to write a Thank You note to them on the back of my next $4 a gallon gas receipt.

Wind Power
1888: The first windmill for electricity production was built in Cleveland, Ohio by Charles F Brush
1995: One of the first offshore wind parks was built in Tunoe Knob off the coast of Denmark

While we have the world's largest wind farm in Texas, we still rank third in the world for wind power. At least this hasn't been killed by the government yet... But Give it time.

Water Power
It is one of the oldest sources of energy and was used thousands of years ago to turn a paddle wheel for purposes such as grinding grain. Our nation’s first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity occurred in 1880, when 16 brush-arc lamps were powered using a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The first U.S. hydroelectric power plant opened on the Fox River near Appleton, Wisconsin, on September 30, 1882
Hydropower does not experience rising or unstable fuel costs. From 1985 to 1990 the cost of operating a hydropower plant grew at less than the rate of inflation.
Only 2,400 of the nation's 80,000 existing dams are used to generate power. Installing turbines in existing dams presents a promising and cost-effective power source. However, in the last 10 years the Department of Energy has spent $1.2 billion on research and development for other renewable sources like wind, solar, and geothermal, but only $10 million on hydropower

The main concern with Hydropower that I could find was the effect on Fish going up river to spawn - a problem that has already been solved with "ladders" that the fish successfully use to climb the damn.

Solar Power
1883: The first solar cell was constructed by Charles Fritts
The 1973 oil crisis stimulated a rapid rise in the production of PV during the 1970s and early 1980s. Economies of scale which resulted from increasing production along with improvements in system performance brought the price of PV down from 100 USD/watt in 1971 to 7 USD/watt in 1985. Steadily falling oil prices during the early 1980s led to a reduction in funding for photovoltaic R&D and a discontinuation of the tax credits associated with the Energy Tax Act of 1978. These factors moderated growth to approximately 15% per year from 1984 through 1996.

Again, we have had access to the technology for over 100 years, and yet haven't really developed it. I am beginning to notice a pattern

Here we are at gas over $4 a gallon, well over in some areas - Many Americans are calling for more drilling, opening up Shale, Coal to Oil etc. Over 1 MILLION Americans signed the Drill Here, Drill Now Petition and New Poll: 81% of Americans Support Greater Use of Domestic Energy Resources While I see the importance of developing so called new technologies, but if we have had access to these technologies for over 100 years, do we think that we are going to wake up tomorrow morning to a brand new electric car in our driveways? I think not. Not only are these going to take a few years to develop, and then even more years to get them affordable to the average American family - as most families can't go out and buy a brand new electric car or two - never mind 2 cars as most families use.
While it makes sense to develop these technologies, we can't stop producing or block increased production of oil and natural gas here in the US in the mean time - yes it make take up to 10 years for that oil to hit the gas pump, it will also take that long to get the other technologies up to par as well. And if some miracle happens and we are able to get these "new" technologies online and distributed main stream then we have all this oil to sell to other countries and then we are able to once again secure our place as a super power.Sphere: Related Content