We Need the Power
Energy policy has become a nexus through which so many seemingly disparate issues connect. Energy affects the economy because of fuel prices and production costs. It affects national security because of our dependence on oil from foreign countries, including some that use their oil profits to fund terrorists and other destabilizing forces. It affects the environment and public health because energy consumption creates pollutants that contribute to global warming, smog, and the presence of irritants and toxins in the atmosphere. (And when you get down to it, every one of those other issues carries an added economic cost with it.) It’s not surprising, then, that energy policy has become a significant issue in the current presidential election. It seems like a good idea, then, to look at the two major candidate’s plans as a starting point for a discussion of where we should go in the future.
Both George W. Bush and John Kerry provide outlines of their plans on their websites. Both outlines are extremely vague on a number of points, such as Bush’s claim that he “remains actively engaged with our friends in OPEC, as well as non-OPEC producers from around the world� in order to reduce gas prices or Kerry’s non-specific promise to “improve fuel efficiency of cars to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.� How are you going to engage them? What’s the payoff of the engagement? How much are you going to increase efficiency? How will you motivate manufacturers to make those improvements? Even in those vague statements, however, there are clearly differences in priorities, and there are some concrete proposals to consider as well.
Bush refers back to the energy plan developed in 2001 by his controversial energy task force at a number of points; that plan is not available on the Bush campaign site but is available on the White House’s site. That plan does mention the need to develop new energy sources and develop in next-generation means of production such as hydrogen and fuel cells. The priority, however, appears to be on relaxing regulatory hurdles to domestic drilling and mining to increase production of current conventional sources along with an expansion of nuclear production. I’ve talked about my skepticism toward this approach on our archived forums when it comes to the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR); it strikes me very much as a stopgap measure that could have great repercussions without providing significant benefit. We are drilling and extracting oil far faster than the planet is creating more, and we’re getting closer to the point where we just can’t extract a sufficient supply as cheaply or as easily as we have. Exactly how close we are is a matter of some debate, but there are some who think it’s coming within the next few years. If that’s the case, we could be in big trouble. Even if it’s not, we need to get started now on the transition to new sources of energy.
Bush does mention this in both his 2001 plan and the current campaign site, and includes some specific mentions, such as his “$1.2 billion hydrogen fuel initiative to develop the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to power cars, trucks, homes and businesses with no pollution or greenhouse gases� from the 2003 State of the Union. As we discussed at the time, however, this proposal is much less than it appears at first glance, and in fact slows down work on hybrid vehicles that was underway during the Clinton Administration. Bush also says he wants to invest $2 billion over the next ten years in improving coal plants efficiency and output; since coal is more easily found in the U.S., it has definite advantages over oil from the perspective of energy independence. Kerry agrees with this emphasis, which is why he proposes a goal of $10 billion over the same period.
Kerry’s website has undergone a makeover since he selected John Edwards as his running mate, and some of the details that used to be there are now gone. I think that’s a shame, because he had some rather good ideas there, including his plan to create a renewable energy trust fund from oil and gas royalties that already go to the government; this trust fund would be used to invest in research and development for new fuel sources. He does specifically mention regulating energy markets to avoid Enron-like crises and the importance of stable tax credits for renewable energy providers, but we need to make a very large, very public commitment of resources to the research end of things.
The research currently underway does suggest that we have the potential to achieve energy independence and generate power in more environmentally-friendly ways, even though we have a long way to go before they’re ready to replace our conventional means. A company called Changing World Technologies has developed a process called thermal depolymerization, which can mechanically accelerate the process by which waste gets transformed into oil and fossil fuels. The company has partnered with ConAgra to build a plant that turns turkey offal into oil, and is selling a few hundred gallons per day while also cutting down on the need for landfills. An inventor in New Jersey is working on a similar process to recycle used tires, while other researchers are developing ways to use seaborne oil platforms that no longer provide enough oil to be viable as platforms for wind-power harvesters. An island in Norway is using wind power to produce hydrogen which then provides clean energy to a small number of homes even on non-windy days. Solar energy is becoming more and more viable as well, with researchers testing experimental new photovoltaic cells that are cheaper and smaller than existing cells; if these new cells can be made more efficient, the result will be a film that can literally be sprayed on objects and used to harvest energy. It will take will and sacrifice to get from potential to reality, but the rewards will be well worth it.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.