More renewable energy IS the solution....

Today’s post: Wednesday, 8-13-2008

As we have been posting about, the most important thing we can do to allow us to drive where we want to go and get everything we need shipped to stores, including food, at prices we will be able to afford is to dramatically increase our production of electricity generated by renewable energy sources.

(It looks like we should also increase our generation of electricity from nuclear power for the same reasons. But some people have reservations about doing so. And, renewables will work. Our position is that it will work faster and create a more reliable availability of electricity to do both. But whether we use more nuclear or not, we absolutely must use massive amounts of renewable sources and put them in place soon.)

Since a massive increase in our use of renewables has the potential to cut our demand for oil by well over 50 percent, this will also begin to drop the price of gasoline. And, it will begin to offer alternatives that cost LESS than gasoline. This will strengthen our economy in ways that a bit more domestic oil cannot even dream of doing.

It will also protect our economy for when oil simply begins to run out, which it will do at some point.

This process will take some amount of time to get into place. But it will work.

Unfortunately most Americans do not yet know this.

Meanwhile, doing more drilling for oil offshore and other places in the United States will both only provide enough oil to keep the price of gas from going up quite as fast. It will take a good bit of time to get online as well. And, the increased burning of oil that it will cause will worsen global warming.

So, it both has a negative effect on global warming AND has less than ten percent of the upside that adding massive renewable energy will have.

Apparently, most Americans do not yet know this either.:

Just a few days ago I found this polling result on the Rasmussen news item in the online news:

“Nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) support going ahead with offshore oil drilling, an issue that John McCain seized on in early June as a way to help lower gas” (prices.)

And, it also said this:

“Forty-two percent (42%) said that offshore oil drilling would have the biggest impact in terms of reducing the price of oil -- a far higher percentage than believe that for several other options now being floated by the two major presidential candidates.”

& “Only 20% of Americans now oppose offshore drilling….”

This polling report also said this:

“By substantial margins, voters believe that the Republican candidate's top priority is finding new sources of energy while his Democratic opponent is more focused on reducing the amount of energy we consume.

Yet a separate survey found that for nearly two-thirds (65%), finding new sources of energy is more important that reducing the amount of energy Americans now use.”

This should be 100 percent in my view. Using less energy means a weaker economy and less buying power, personal freedom, and less economic security for everyone.

But by using massive amounts of new energy from renewables and retrofitting our economy to get more effective work done for less energy we will have a stronger economy with all the benefits that go with it. We will have MORE energy we get constructive use out of.

If we continue to rely on oil, the prices for the fuels made from it will continue to rise and our economy will remain at serious risk of collapse.

Of the two candidates, from what I’ve seen only Obama seems to know this & understand its implications.

Other than his proposal to increase nuclear power, John McCain is looking to simply continue the policies of the outgoing Bush administration to ignore all this.

In my view, if we have 4 to 8 more years of this, we are headed for economic disaster.

So, in reality, Obama has by far the better take on what we need to protect our economy.

And, given the problems recently with our economy, that’s the issue that will decide the election.

But here’s the relevant results from the recent Rasmussen poll:

“… in terms of voter trust, other survey data shows that more voters now trust McCain over Obama on the energy issue.

Nationally the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll continues to show a very close race for the White House.”

This means that unless the Obama campaign can begin to show the American people that our economy is at even more risk than most people realize and that Obama truly wants to improve the economy – not just have everyone make do with less, and that there is massively MORE upside in his approach, he will very likely lose.

And, it looks to me that if the election were held now before this is done, he would lose.

The Obama campaign needs to get T Boone Pickens and his comment that this is a situation “we simply cannot drill ourselves out of” & the real proven, upside of his wind program wide publicity.

And, they can publicize information like this from the CEO of Nanosolar that shows the huge upside of powering electric cars with solar electricity.

“http://www.nanosolar.com/blog3/

Going All-Electric
August 7, 2008
By Martin Roscheisen, CEO
The following is one of my favorite charts: A comparison of the distance a car can drive based on either of the following forms of energy, each produced on 100m x 100m of land (2.5 acres):

How come that biofuel does not really cut it? Electric cars are about four times more energy efficient than fuel based cars, no matter whether they are based on biofuel or other fuel. This is because any fuel engine mostly creates heat and thus wastes the majority of the available energy units. Combine this with plants not being very efficient solar energy harvesters relative to semiconductor based solar electricity, and the result is this huge difference.

In other words, it is clear that if the goal is to maximize energy efficiency, the end point to go after is all-electric cars everywhere. Moving all of transportation to all-electric would essentially cut in half our overall energy consumption while delivering the same distance.

I for one have vowed that the Prius I bought six years ago will have been the last fuel powered car I'd buy in my life. (Given that I may very well own the highest-mileage Prius on the planet, this probably reflects my confidence in the quality of this vehicle and the near-term readiness of electric car technology…) Presently, it is baking in the sun all day while I'm at work. My future all-electric car would charge up while idling under a solar carport.”

If the average American doesn’t know the upside of renewables and that it’s real and larger than the upside of drilling for more oil, Obama will lose.

And so will everyone in this country and in the world if our analysis is correct

The good news is that the politicians who believe we should drill for more oil are right about two things. It will give the public the feeling that everything possible is being done to reduce gas prices. And, it will eventually increase our country’s energy independence slightly.

But of far more importance, these politicians will be willing to trade support for more drilling for oil for allowing the go ahead for the support of renewables we so desperately need.

That Barack Obama understands this & was willing recently to say so publicly is one of the most encouraging pieces of news I’ve heard for a long time.

It’s NOT a statement by a weak man bowing to the popular view. It’s the statement of a skilled politician who shows me he has a shot at getting the changes we need done in place.

People ARE tired all over the country of divisive do nothing squabbles in Washington DC.

If his campaign can show that he wants MORE for Americans instead of less; that renewables will deliver more; & that Obama CAN put them in place if elected because of just this political skill, people will trust him MORE than they do McCain to help the economy.

And, that will get him elected.

But he’s not yet done this. And, if he fails to do it and do it well enough, I’m gravely concerned he will not be elected with frightening results and consequences for our economy & for us all.