The recent State of the Union Address, once again, had little to say about what more and more people feel is the most important issue we are facing after Iraq which is global warming. Mr. Bush seems to be more focused on limiting foreign oil imports than tackling the environmental problem head on. He is saying we must step up domestic oil production meaning we will just be burning oil that was drilled over here instead of over there. He has no real acknowledgment of the impending crises.
As far as using ethanol in place of gasoline, experts are already saying that the infrastructure needed will be very expensive and not very practical at this time. Experts in the California EPA tell us that the whole ethanol production process may actually increase green house gases rather than lower them. As is the case with powering automobiles with hydrogen fuel cells, the great hope of previous addresses not mentioned this time, ethanol is not a naturally recurring resource and takes energy to be produced. That energy unfortunately will be in the form of burning oil or coal.
Perhaps David Pimental, a leading Cornell University agricultural expert put it best by concluded that "abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuels amounts to unsustainable subsidized food burning". Indeed, of the ten top crops listed for the production of ethanol, corn ranks ninth on the list once again showing what a strong lobby can do.
So far the immediate impact of the Bush policy change is a rise in corn futures, making cattle farmers worry about feeding their herd and a spike in the price of oil spurred by the announcing of expanding the strategic oil reserve. Way to go.
Seriously, the global climate situation may be nearing a point of no return according to many top climate scientists and requires very serious attention. For over 25 years NASA scientist James Hansen has been studying the earth’s climate and is convinced that we are rapidly nearing that point. Clearly there is not going to be a quick fix and that makes it hard to get a term limited politician to embrace the problem but it must be done soon.
Nature itself may be helping to quell global warming with a phenomenon known as global dimming. This is the result of the soot being spewed into the air actually causing less sunlight to reach the earth’s surface. A combination of shielding the sun and a recently discovered effect of seeding the clouds with very small particles causing them to be much more reflective is dramatically dimming our planet. This balance between the forces of warming and cooling has protected us from the full impact of global warming. This balance is nature’s way of trying to maintain the thin line that keeps our world from turning into something like Venus.
We need to get serious. We need to consider all of the forces at work here. We need a plan not just another speech.
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| Prop | Date | Time | User |
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| 2 | 2006-12-27 | 15:42:13 | B Ruberton | |
| Let’s not forget about wind power. As we shift away from fossil fuels and become more dependent on electricity we must create electricity from clean, renewable sources. Estimates are that we could produce more than half of the countries electricity needs from wind power if we had a steady flow of government money. Then an electric car or an electric furnace becomes environmentally practical. |
| Prop | Date | Time | User |
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| 2 | 2006-12-27 | 15:40:38 | FrancineP | |
| A key renewable fuel is ethanol but it seems some of our elected officials would rather protect their local corn growers and allow foreign oil to continue to flow into this country. Brazil’s sugarcane industry is the largest in the world producing ethanol for around 90 cents per gallon, half of what it costs our corn growers so we impose huge tariffs to keep Brazilian ethanol out of our market. The result is we pay more and oil imports soar. |
| Prop | Date | Time | User |
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| 2 | 2006-12-22 | 09:11:25 | LeftOfCenter | |
| In this post 9/11 age we must come to the realization that our dependency on foreign oil is funding the very people who are out to destroy us. Our best weapon in the war on terror is renewable energy. |
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| 2 | 2006-12-22 | 08:48:16 | PeterB | |
| It was interesting to see that the Gulf Coast competition for an environmentally friendly building design sponsored by Global Green and the actor Brad Pitt drew more than 3000 entries. There is apparently a vast enthusiasm for this type of design world wide. It will be interesting to see if the new buildings live up to the hype. Surely the best way to save energy is to use less. Then the more modest needs can be filled by renewable sources without the need to burn combustibles. |
| Prop | Date | Time | User |
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| 2 | 2006-12-18 | 13:34:32 | M Williams | |
| New Jersey has had one of the best renewable energy initiatives next to California but its success may be its downfall according to recent reports. The number of people applying for the rebate program has caused a backup that could take years for homeowners to have to wait to know if they are approved. And, they cannot install the systems until they are approved. Combining that with the reality that there may not be enough money to fund all of the projects, has caused the recently booming solar industry to grind to a halt. It is clear that people would like to take advantage of renewable energy if there was just a little more government support. This is the kind of project that a new national energy policy needs to maintain instead of handing our tax dollars over to the oil industry. |
| Prop | Date | Time | User |
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| 2 | 2006-11-16 | 11:36:19 | LiveAsOne | |
| Many years ago Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller developed a plan for a Global Energy Grid. The idea was to interconnect the world’s energy supply and share the best renewable sources from all parts of the world. Also to bring electricity to all parts of the world and help thus reducing hunger, sickness and poverty. Then Senator Al Gore was a big proponent of this plan although is seems odd that he never mentioned it during his presidential campaign. This kind of initiative can help to bring the world together and help to clean up the environment. The Global Energy Network Institute is still working for this goal and would be greatly helped by a more progressive US national energy policy. |
| Prop | Date | Time | User |
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| 2 | 2006-11-12 | 11:04:28 | LeftOfCenter | |
| There is no good reason why this country doesn’t currently have a more progressive energy policy other that the current administrations right wing political agenda. Their deep ties to big business will want to finish taking all of the profits from current energy models before moving on to newer technologies at the expense of our health and future. As long as there is oil to pump and coal to burn they will continue to promote those industries. It is well past the time to abandon fossil fuel as our primary energy resource of the future in favor of greener, renewable sources that can be developed. We will still need petroleum products in our every day life for many years to come including plastics and fuel but a change has to be pushed to cleaner products. Once the energy grid is powered by cleaner, renewable sources the move to electric cars will make even more sense. Then cutting edge technology like the Tesla car will become the standard. We still have a chance to lead the way into the future, but time is running out and soon we will once again follow other countries lead as with the Japanese automobile industry. |
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