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I am interested in changing the energy use in the USA. For stationary use, Atomic power, Hydroelectric, Windmills & Solar panels etc. These systems will also Generate Hydrogen for mobile use. This will stop the generation of green house gases by the USA completely. Cap & trade will only continue the use of carbon based fuels!! If you can buy more credits why stop using them? They will just pass the cost on to the consumer. Why not stop carbon usage completely.
There continues to be a debate over the cause of global warming. I have written in, my Blog, “A simple mans view of Global Warming” on the subject myself. Is it caused by humans or is it a natural effect? Switching to alternate power sources would get us out of the equation completely. It also will give use an uninterruptable energy source that will not damage the planet in any way! We could drive those big SUVs if they were powered by Hydrogen!!
There is a lot of hot air flying around Washington. The country is running record deficits and mailing checks that they call a stimulus. If we had low cost energy it would solve our problems. Every one of us uses energy in one form or another. Our main source of energy comes from a part of the world that doesn't like us much. Ross Perot proposed an energy tax during his campaign. It was to replace the income tax.
Oil or natural gas must be brought here on large tankers or pump from wells out in the ocean. All this just drives up the cost. Those ships are expensive and so are those wells out in the Gulf. All this just drives up the cost. I can't stress the cost of energy more. It is the main commodity in everything that we do and have. It even affects our medicines, and our medical care. Our entertainment depends on it. Taking a trip to grandmas depends on it. Our foods are trucked in by it. I think you get my point. It is the thing that separated us from the animals. Everything that we do since the caveman discovered fire has depended on it.
This is not a political document. Energy independence is not a left or right issue. Energy powers our life. Environmentalists want us to ride bikes. China gobbles fuel and is using more every day. Any talk about drilling in Alaska is at least 5 years away. Even when it starts we have nowhere to refine it. Alaska also has started a new natural gas pipeline and it is heading south.
China is very rapidly catching up with us in energy usage. We buy their stuff and their economy grows requiring more energy. The china, followed closely by India, is becoming our biggest competitor on the world’s oil market, and they are using our money to do it. Everything we buy that is made in China or India requires them to use energy.
Our leaders say this is an enormous business opportunity for us. This is only true if we or a large international company. We the people need low cost energy to produce our products. The cheaper it is the better we can compete. Our competition has low labor costs so fuel cost doesn’t impact their end product price as much as it does ours.
It is obvious that we should not lower our salaries. The feeling I get from the government lately is that is what they would like to see happen. The real answer is very simple. Develop a low-cost energy supply, one that does not require gigantic expensive ships, huge ugly derricks in our oceans or destroy our countryside. Cannot cause an oil slick, and like any other explosive fuel if it is handled correctly. It is very safe. That fuel is hydrogen the ultimate reusable power source.
It makes no sense to put our country into a Cap & trade program. It's going to raise prices of our energy not lower them. It will make us less competitive in the world, not more competitive. I wonder what we're going to be making. Obama talks about jobs, making windmills and solar panels. Making them requires energy. China and India have the technology and they know how to use it. We have given it or sold it to them. Their products will be cheaper, and we will buy them. No jobs for us!!
The big General Electric windmill plant is in Spain. I am sure that China and India are gearing up to produce windmills and solar panels. India is about to start construction on two atomic power plants arranged for by our Secretary of State, and being built by US companies. Guess where the jobs will be? Why are we helping India construct atomic power plants? Why aren't we expediting ours?
Those of you that have read some of my other blogs know that I believe it is big oil that is stopping the development of alternate fuel sources. Our oil companies have very large overseas investments. All those oil derrick's cost money. China and India are increasing their demand. Their heart is not here in the USA. The oil-producing countries are not in favor of reducing carbon-based energy. For many, it is their only income. The shift that I propose to hydrogen will have a worldwide affect.
The oil production in Iraq is still well below prewar levels. Personally I would not be so quick to get out of Iraq. As we withdraw we should leave them a bill to be paid with oil. One of the reasons China defends Iran in the UN is the oil they receive from them. We get upset, but all they are doing is looking out for their interests with little worry about us. It’s up to us to worry about ourselves.
My old employer IBM sold their personal computer division to China. IBM developed the PC and China got all that development. It puts them in competition with all of the top PC builders in the world. China also bought up parts of World-Com when they collapsed. That is major parts of the fiber optics network that carries a lot of our Internet traffic.
They have also constructed The Three Gorges Dam. It is the world’s largest electricity-generating plant of any kind. It is to supply their country with cheap & clean energy. They will have cheap labor and cheap energy. All this is great for China, but who is worrying about us.
We are being told that we should cut back on the use of carbon-based fuels. Many of the countries in the world like China and India are doing their best to use more. We've got to realize that cutting back on the use of energy is the wrong thing for this country to do. The right thing to do is to develop a clean source of energy. One that is limitless and economical. We have the technology. Let's not give it away this time. Let’s use it. The American way is to move forward, not backward. We need a leader that puts the USA first. A leader that realizes the basis of the US economy is energy!!
I hear our president saying that he cannot believe that a country that put a man on the moon in 10 years cannot develop clean coal. The words “cannot develop clean coal”, worry me. That means we do not have it yet. Why spend development money and time when there is a better choice. If he were to state that he cannot believe that a country that put a man on the moon in 10 years, cannot develop hydrogen a truly limitless, clean energy, reusable system in 5 years. It would make scientific and economical sense.
John Kennedy put us on the moon in 10 years because of his enthusiasm and belief in the United States. Mr. Obama is a great speaker let him get behind hydrogen. Selling carbon credits is just a way to get money, and it does not help any of us except those who buy and sell credits. It will make us less competitive in the world and lower our standard of living and not create one single job. In fact, it will put people out of work, if a company can't afford the carbon credits. They will have to shut down or move overseas. To China or India, or they don't care about carbon credits.
He states that he is an environmentalist. I wonder what he is going to say to the people in the Midwest when all the strip mines start showing up. This coal will also run out, and like our debt. The problem will be passed on to our grandchildren.
There are 13 countries that have signed the Kyoto agreement. China and India are not members of the 13. They are the top two most populous countries in the world. China has 20% of the world’s population. India comes in second with 18%. The total of both countries is 3.2 billion. That is 38% of the of the world population. The USA comes in at 310 million 4.6% percent of the world’s population. If the trend continues by the year 2011 the world’s population will exceed 7 billion. Even if our population doubles, we won't be one billion. They will all want energy.
If we don't fix the energy problem now, we will be a minority country. The competition for carbon-based products will drive our cost of living through the roof. Remember when their oil runs out, they will want ours. Let's make a giant step forward. Let’s switch to a fuel that is limitless. Once it is in full production it will be the cheapest fuel ever.
It is expected that the 13 countries with operational Kyoto protocol targets will remain below their agreed minimum greenhouse emissions. These countries will therefore be sellers of carbon credits. When money starts being made from carbon credits, greed will take over. We will never get rid of them until the oil and coal are gone. What is best for the average person will be forgotten.
On the surface another country selling carbon credits doesn't sound so bad. Think about it. Energy has been the base of man's progress. What this statement tells you is these countries will be stagnant. They will have sold their ability to move forward. The citizenry will not tolerate that. We will end up with another North Korea. Only this time, they will be using carbon in secret not building bombs.
I could keep giving examples of the competition we are facing in the world for our energy. I believe, loose of our technical base is only one of the problems we face. To keep our way of life moving ahead we most have low cost energy. Even the environmentalists should see this. If we stopped burning fossil fuel today it will do nothing to help global warming now.
We know that oil and coal are going to run out. Hydrogen never will. China and India have already far exceeded our energy use. China with the three gorges dam in India's two new atomic power plants, Japan already has 25 that will be making hydrogen from sea water. They are moving forward on the energy front. Yet we are being asked to go backwards. It is not the American way. We do not back up!
China and India have 3.2 billion people all wanting to drive an SUV. The 310 million of us stopping carbon use completely have no affect on the 3.2 billion of them. Stopping carbon-based fuels usage will stop the draining of our countries, pocketbook to support the rest of the world. Boone Pickens called it the largest transfer of wealth in human history!
Stopping us from progressing, is the wrong thing to do, energy independence must mean independence from fossil fuels. Not independence from using energy, which will shut us down and lose us jobs and our standard of living. Who would care if a person was driving a big RV if it were not polluting the air. If it contributes nothing to global warming. Even the Greener's would drive one.
Diesel fuel sure does fill our cities with smog. The flipside is someone had to build the vehicles. If they were hydrogen powered it would mean jobs, jobs, jobs. The way it is going. It means loss of jobs, jobs, jobs.
I hear that we are being asked to insulate our houses, and to drive smaller less powerful cars.
I hear you saying, Bob we should we not try to save the environment?
I ask you this question. Why are we not developing energy to let us do what we want to do? It does exist. That is the American way. That is how you create jobs. When you stop things you stop jobs even insulating a house may give a job for a day. But you will never do it again in your lifetime. Buying a new car many times it is an emotional thing and you may buy two or three of them in 10 years. The vehicles that are being described as the vehicles of the future will be held on to until the wheels fall off.
I'm sure that you have noticed that all the talk about energy saving vehicles only pertains to our vehicles. The planes and trains and boats will still run on carbon-based fuels. Only the military has atomic power. Our aircraft carriers and submarines run on it. I have not seen a bunch of green sailors running around lately. And they live a lot closer to those reactors than any of us ever will. We are being sold a bill of goods. The big oil companies continue to block it. Reactors can produce the hydrogen. Hydrogen will run the rest. I repeat, it is limitless and completely green when it burns. It produces water.
The military has plenty of atomic material. We have been making it since the 40s. There is enough atomic material stored to run this country for a thousand years. We pay for every ounce of it lets use it. We also have been buying a lot of the Russians weapon grade material. Just to get it off the market. We have its stockpiled in secret facilities around the country. No one knows just how much there really is.
Let's turn it around and use it for power. Opponents of atomic power will tell you the reactors are too heavy to put in a plane and that is true, but a tank of hydrogen is not. And it is not radioactive. The atomic power is excellent for stationary use on land or large sea born vehicles. Again I repeat hydrogen will do the rest.
Anyone that understands the science knows Hydrogen and atomic power are the fuels of the future. They should be brought on line now. Fuel cells that use Hydrogen are being developed and someday will be in common use. Why not push up the development and do it now?
We need a transition period to move us from one fuel to the other as rapidly as we can. We should never take a detour trying to develop something like clean coal. During the Second World War it took us three years to build the biggest bang in history from a totally unknown to science. (Nuclear power)
It was done by a bunch of people pushing slide rules and a very dedicated female workforce operating the controls. We need a leader that will dedicate building something like that again. This time it is an energy system, we need to build. They were not trying to change our society. They were trying to save it. Kennedy did the same thing when we went to the moon. We need a leader that champions cheap energy!! Alternate power systems producing electricity and hydrogen is the answer.
Presently we have millions of internal combustion vehicles on the road. I hear you asking can an internal combustion engine run on Hydrogen. Yes there are several auto companies are running them. BMW has one operating in Germany.
I built one when I was 14 years. If a 14-year-old kid can make an engine run on hydrogen in 1948. Not only did I make the engine run. I built a unit that produced the hydrogen. What I did was dangerous, but it did produce hydrogen and the engine did run. Our great modern knowledge technology sure can make that practical.
These are the words that should come out of Obama's mouth. The same kit that converts your vehicle to natural gas with minor modifications will work with Hydrogen. The gases can be mixed making modifications unnecessary. That is similar to adding methanol to gasoline. Most engines running on natural gas have to be started using gasoline. The addition of hydrogen to the mix would make that unnecessary and burn cleaner. It is still not a completely clean burn, but is headed in the right way. The percentage of hydrogen can be increased as availability increases. Vehicle computers can be programmed to compensate for the mix.
Building a pure hydrogen distribution system will take time. The existing natural gas distribution system will carry the hydrogen, natural gas mix. We need to start introducing hydrogen into our natural gas distribution network now. The percentage of hydrogen can be increased as the availability increases. If we don't start now, it will only delay things. To date we have not even started Japan has. California has talked about it. I don't know how far they have gotten.
The use of hydrogen is not new. City Gas that was used for so many years when they cooked coal was mostly hydrogen and some parts methane. The fear of hydrogen, that was developed because of the Hindenburg disaster made them call at city gas.
The question is what we do in the short term? The first step is to separate our energy usage into 4 parts fixed, mobile, airborne and seaborne. The second step is to establish if and existing asset can run on synthetic or alternative fuel such as Ethanol or Bio Degradable diesel. This way fuels can be allocated on the bases of time until conversion to hydrogen.
Development of electric cars that use batteries should be stopped.
There is a law in physics that states “energy in equals’ energy out minus efficiency”. This means the energy for charging the batteries has to come from somewhere. Somewhere will be coal-fired generating stations pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
This will force them to purchase the proposed carbon credits and strip mine the Midwest. And guess who gets the bill? We have just passed on the cost to someone else. That someone else is us when we get the electric bill. Unlike hydrogen and atomic power it also pushes off the problem into the future. The coal will run out. Oh those poor grandkids.
Batteries are expensive and they are dangerous. If not disposed of correctly they are toxic and a health hazard. This will produce waste that the grandkids will have to handle. Money used to develop a new type of car battery could help us bring hydrogen online. A small carbon fiber storage tank filled with hydrogen contains 10 times the energy of one of these new batteries and is less than half the weight. They work just like a storage battery. They store the energy. Storage tanks have no known life expectancy. Battery estimates say one year or two and they are expensive. Just like the battery can be charged a storage tank can be refilled. The advantage is it can be refilled over and over and will last forever.
The transition should be from internal combustion engines converted for a natural gas to fuel cell vehicles. The tanks could be filled with a mix of natural gas and hydrogen. Other types of gases can be used for fuel cells, including methane.
These words are from our EPA a development effort you paid for “LFG” is Land Fill Gas which is methane (Natural Gas)
“Fuel cells are one of the newest and most innovative ways to generate power. At this point, the technology works much like a battery fueled by LFG. A fuel cell extracts hydrogen from the methane in LFG and mixes it with oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water. The Fuel Cell produces no combustible parts that can harm the environment.
Prior to development of the gas cleanup technology designed and used in this project, use of landfill gas to power fuel cells was not possible due to contaminants in the gas such as sulfur and halides. Under contract from EPA, ONSI set out to show that using landfill gas to power fuel cells is technically and environmentally feasible in commercial operation.”
We paid for this development effort. I know it was done for landfills, but the same technique could be used on a vehicle with a storage tank full of natural gas. There are several places in the US right now that run on natural gas in their buses. The Honda Civic Gx is available in Utah. Utah has natural gas available in many areas. It is clean and economical. A distribution system for natural gas can be used for hydrogen and the mix.
There is so much technology out there, and it is ready to go. We just need a good plan that makes it work. Similar to the plan Kennedy gave use when we went to the moon. He didn't say we can't tell him we can't develop clean coal. He gave us a goal and a plan and my generation fulfilled it. Energy has a greater priority than Eisenhower had when he proposed the interstate highway system. We need an interstate energy system similar to the REA.
“Electrification Administration (REA), created under President Roosevelt the REA was created on May 11, 1935 with the primary goal of promoting rural electrification. In the 1930s, the U.S. lagged significantly behind Europe in providing electricity to rural areas due to the unwillingness of power companies to serve farmsteads.”
We have a similar situation today in the 30s it was the power companies that were not servicing our farms. Today, I believe it is the oil companies are blocking us from getting a new type of energy system in place. We are starting to lag behind the world in energy. France is now 90% atomic, and many of the European countries are coming online fast. So are Japan, India and China. We are being asked to drive smaller cars, and lower our standard of living. This is the wrong direction.
I know it is great to talk about medical reform, and I am a believer that something needs to be done. But if there is no money there will be no reform. If we don't develop our own energy supply it will subtract from our wealth. Using less is not a bad idea, but when it's the only idea it is a problem.
The fixed asset that affects us all the most is the power plant. They presently burn coal, natural gas, fuel oil and Atomic power. Natural gas and fuel oil are also used to heat our homes. The only hope for short term there is natural gas. Hydrogen could be mixed with the natural gas. The pipelines are in place but furnaces would need a miner modification to operate on pure hydrogen.
The city of San Diego California has hydrogen available at some locations. They have another asset that is not being used it is a Navy station. Our atomic submarines arrive there all the time. What we should do is hook their reactors to hydrogen generation units. These small reactors are the real solution for getting started on energy independence. The military reactors need to be declassified and made available for civilian use. Any reactors and mothballs should be released for civilian use. Contract should be released for the construction of these reactors for land use. I've stated this before; I don't see many greens sailors running around on these ships and submarines in spite of the fact that they sleep right next to the reactor.
The Army Corps of Engineers takes care of our waterways. I believe we should start a Navy Corps of Engineers; they can take care of the small reactors. They can be placed in small towns and operated as a small local power station. The rural electrification program started from the large cities and moved into the small ones. This program would work the opposite way.
Large nuclear reactors are presently under discussion. Finished construction will take time. We could start with the small towns and small reactors now. When the big reactors are finished we can move to the big town. Every reactor should have a hydrogen generating facility associated with it. Any windmill or solar panel farm or hydroelectric generating facility should also be assigned to generating hydrogen. This will increase domestic power and hydrogen will start flowing.There also is a small reactor on the civilian market.
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Conceived at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the HPM intellectual property portfolio was licensed to Hyperion Power Generation for commercialization under the laboratory's technology transfer program. Inherently safe, and self moderating, the HPM utilizes the energy of low-enriched uranium fuel and meets all the non-proliferation criteria of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). Permanently sealed and never opened on site, each unit produces 70 MWt, or 27 MWe when connected to a steam turbine - enough to provide electricity for 20,000 average American-size homes or the industrial equivalent. Approximately 1.5 meters wide by 2 meters tall, the units can be transported by ship, rail or truck and produce power for five to seven years depending on usage.
New Small, Transportable Nuclear Power
Hyperion Power Generation
For the purpose of this blog which I call “Step One” I will concentrate on the areas that can start making us energy independent and hold prices down fast. I talked above about atomic power. Even the small units will take time. There is something we could do right away in preparation for it to come online. We can start switching all internal combustion engine vehicles over to natural gas. Newly manufactured vehicles should use methane fuel cells.
These converted units will run cleaner than gasoline powered engines. In the future natural gas will be mixed with hydrogen. It will be cleaner yet. Trucks with diesel engines can run on bio degradable diesel (vegetable Oil). New pipeline distribution systems need to be installed. The plan being to use natural gas in the beginning, and slowly switch over to hydrogen as it becomes available. Technically we have answers for the short term and the long term. As demand increases, other sources of hydrogen will be available.
Presently the government has a fuel economy standard that they are trying impose on the car manufacture. The Bush administration had relaxed this standard. As I stated earlier this is not a political document. It strikes me however that relaxing the standard continued our addiction to oil. With the rest of the world becoming more and more our competitor in a supply and demand market the price will go up!!!
I hear you asking Bob, what are other countries doing anything about energy independence?
Japan has started installing a Hydrogen distribution system. They also are producing internal combustion and turbine engines that will run on Hydrogen. These vehicles will not be exported to the US until there is a distribution system in place here. They will be fuel cell ready when they come on line. Even little Thailand, switching over to hydrogen.
I hear Mr. Obama talking about clean coal and very little about Fuel Cells and nothing about Hydrogen. All the Fuel Cells in the world won't work without natural gas or hydrogen distribution. To me it is like the interstate highway system or rural electrification. It would never have happened without government intervention.
The only country in the world that is now energy independence (It may surprise you) is Brazil. They have done it by removing the taxes from Ethanol and Bio Degradable diesel. They also mandated the oil companies to invest in these products and to keep the prices below gasoline.
Special tax breaks are given for companies that invest in alternative fuel sources.. They also built a major dam and have started several Atomic plants. Ford has a major manufacturing plant in Brazil. Ford has just made a profit without bail out money or a government takeover.
This has a positive effect, resilient oil companies. They will really be in the energy business. Those pensions will be safe when the oil runs out.
Even the new hybrid cars have a gas engine to charge the batteries. It can run on natural gas or hydrogen.
My recommendation for a first step is to start putting this country first. Put us on an energy development path that will guarantee our success for the next 250 years. There is a rule in physics “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Iraq is winding down. The reaction to our success and the death of our troops will be competition for Iraqi oil.
We most get independent as fast as possible. Jimmy Carter called it the moral equivalent of war. I believe this statement to be true but would state it this way "It is a weapon of economic war". When we win the war on terror the war for energy will be bigger than ever. The time for action is now!!!
I would like to see us follow the example that Brazil has set. Ethanol can be 40% percent Alcohol. That’s 40% of home grown product. Get the Moon Shiners fired up.
Our very success spreading economic growth around the world causes our trade in balance to grow. It also makes them our competitor. They need energy to produce the products they sell us. This in turn raises their standard of living thus more energy is required; and so on and so on.
I feel the countries fuel supply like the interstate highway system affects or quality of life. If we wait for market pressures to make it happen the world will pass us by. Our main competitor is a Communist dictatorship two billion strong. If they were taking our land we would fight back. Energy as an invasion is a hard concept to grasp. Like terrorism it is hard to pin down. Yet we most defend ourselves. It really is war.
That’s my thoughts. What do you think?
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