Current Republicans are misleading people....

Today's post: Wednesday, 3-16-2010

We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.

At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.

And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.

Today’s post:

Current Republicans are misleading people....

(Next week’s post will be on the nuclear situation. This week it may be a bit too early to know how bad it will get.)

In the important and very well researched book, Addicted to Energy, by Elton Sherwin, Jr, he makes the point that simply retrofitting existing technologies or replacing things with the existing technologies to increase energy efficiency throughout the economy in the United States would save more energy than all the oil we now import.

The book should have been titled something like, “Massive savings from energy efficiency using already available technologies.”

Since the majority of these changes improve energy efficiency for the use of electricity and natural gas, the savings he speaks of will only cut petroleum use if we also begin to use dramatically more plug-in hybrid and all electric cars and trucks.

But doing both these things well and soon and on a large enough scale will indeed increase the energy independence of the United States.

We will need far less oil from outside our country and the reduction in demand will cut the prices for fuel from petroleum to less than they would have been.

In fact, gasoline and diesel prices would be much higher now if Federal Standards had not mandated higher mpg standards in cars and trucks.

Tightening these standards now will help speed the adoption of plug-in hybrids and all electric cars – and increase the efficiency of new vehicles that still use gasoline and diesel.

Recently we had an increase of gasoline prices from close to $3 a gallon to close to $4 a gallon. This was due entirely to the growth in demand and the threats to supply and its increased costs.

So, the more we are able to reduce demand for petroleum fuels, the less we will pay for gasoline and diesel fuel.

In fact, gradually beginning to tax oil in some way for part of its real cost for climate change will help speed the changes that cut demand.

That means that adding something like 25 cents a gallon to gasoline and diesel from such taxes is a way to make the future price of gasoline closer to $6 a gallon instead of $12.

So, trying to cut back fuel efficiency standards or these carbon taxes is penny wise and twenty dollar bill foolish.

Meanwhile I got an email today from a conservative Republican source that said that the only way to energy independence was to drill for more oil within the United States and to trash or turn off the kinds of programs that will cut the long term prices of oil. It came right out and said that doing anything else was only boosting gasoline prices and cutting back our energy independence.

So, fight back against people who disagree.

Simply put, this is either total ignorance or deliberate deception – and it’s a campaign which many current Republicans openly endorse.

It deliberately leaves key parts of a solution off the table and only leaves solutions favorable to the oil companies and the oil industry instead.

They actually have a reasonable point that increased oil production and drilling within the United States would help, particularly in the short run once the oil starts flowing.

So, I was saddened by the recent offshore drilling disaster in our Gulf of Mexico since that’s the best place to do this increased drilling.

Before that, the support was there from most people for more drilling in the Gulf.

But their email was NOT about energy independence or keeping gasoline costs low. It SAID so but completely left out the large additional leverage of the ways to cut demand to achieve these things.

This is irresponsible and inaccurate. And, they are trying so hard with it, it’s clear they hope to fool a lot of less informed people into leaving out many parts of the solutions we need badly.

Some people believe it. Unfortunately, it’s dangerously wrong.

If the other solutions are blocked because of it, we will all be in worse trouble and gasoline prices will both be higher and increasing faster.

This is most unfortunate. But it also shows that the other side has not stepped up to the plate enough that most people getting these emails know it’s inaccurate and incomplete at best.