Force Change

Shift in domestic oil policy must be accompanied by global agreement

One issue that we have not looked at with respect to Al Gore and T. Boone Pickens’ recent proposals to decrease our consumption of oil, is the unintended effect that these plans might have on oil use in developing countries like China and India.  Our concern is that if the United States is successful in dramatically reducing our consumption of oil, the resulting decrease in demand and price on the global market could allow developing nations to continue, or even increase, their own reliance on oil. 

While it may not sound fair, if the rest of the developing world follows the irresponsible path that America and other developed countries took, there will be dire climate consequences.  Therefore, we should not only be concerned with decreasing our own consumption of oil, but we should be aware of the effects of any potential easing of global demand and price on oil consumption in these countries.

While we must shift off of fossil fuels domestically, we should also attempt to involve the rest of the world in the process.  Hopefully the next president will be able to undue the ill will created by our rejection of the Kyoto Treaty, and will be able to begin the process of creating some sort of global agreement on steps necessary to shift the entire planet away from the burning of fossil fuels.  Otherwise, we may win the battle but lose the war. 

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Airline CEOs release open letter blaming oil prices on speculators

Yesterday, CEOs from some of the 12 biggest airlines in the country co-released an open letter to the public regarding the current state of fuel prices.  While the letter mentioned conservation and increased production in one sentence, the main point of their message was to encourage increased regulation of market speculators, whom the airlines assert could be responsible for as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary increased costs. 

While market speculators have recently been a popular target for politicians looking to appear responsive to the public’s concerns over high gas prices, it is not entirely clear that speculation is a major contributor to the current state of oil prices.  T. Boone Pickens, billionaire oilman, and modern pioneer in the quest to develop renewable energy sources, asserts that investigating market speculators as the cause of the current state of oil prices is a “waste of time.”  This is because, as Pickens explains, “you have 85 million barrels a day of oil available in the global energy market and 86.4 million barrels a day of demand. So the price of oil is going to go up until you can kill demand.” 

In our opinion, regardless of whether speculators are a major factor in current oil prices, or not, the more focus that politicians and private leaders, like airline CEOs, place on them, instead of on conservation and development of alternative sources of energy, the more we miss the chance to make real changes.  Instead of blaming “market speculators,” public and private leaders should be following the lead of Pickens, and taking positive steps (like his $10 billion wind farm in Texas) to actually decrease our reliance on fossil fuels.

The text of the letter from the airlines is copied below, and was signed by the CEOs of the following airlines: Northwest Airlines, AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Midwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.

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Solar updraft towers may provide another alternative source of power

Solar updraft towers are another possible alternative for renewable energy production.  As its name implies, solar updraft towers utilize the natural phenomenon of updrafts to spin a turbine, which in-turn creates electricity.  More specifically, solar reflectors on the ground (ideally spread out over a 1.5 mile radius) heat up surface level air, which is then channeled into a super tall chimney (ideally 3000+ feet tall).  Since the ground level air is so much hotter than that found at the top of the chimney the super hot air rushes skyward (at around 34 mph), creating a vacuum effect which spins the turbines at the base, thereby creating electricity.  

Some downsides to solar updraft towers include that they require large open spaces (for the solar reflectors) and are also only 1/10^th as efficient as solar cells in converting the sun’s rays into electricity.  However, on the plus side, solar updraft towers are substantially less expensive than traditional solar plants, due to the cheaper material costs. 

Although there are no solar updraft tower power plants currently in existence, a prototype was tested in the 1980’s in Spain and locations in Australia and the American Southwest are currently being considered for actual plants.

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Huge potential for solar energy generation in outer space

The concept of space solar power has been receiving a lot of attention lately.  The commonly noted problems of skyrocketing energy prices and global climate change have caused the revisiting of many previously passed upon energy solutions, including SSP.  The basic premise of SSP is that satellites holding massive solar panels would be put into orbit, where they would redirect the sun’s rays to a receiving station on Earth that would process it into electricity.  From their perch above the atmosphere, these solar satellites could generate power 365 days a year.  While the concept of space solar power has existed since 1968, it has only regained momentum as of late, due to current economic and environmental issues. 

Apparently, if an array of solar satellites were put together to form a one kilometer wide band of panels, there would be enough energy generated in one year to exceed all of the known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth.  However, not surprisingly, there are a number of technical hurdles that must be overcome, including the lack of an efficient means of getting all of the necessary equipment into space, given our aging space shuttle fleet.

Nonetheless, the potential for a massive source of renewable and clean energy is intriguing.  While it clearly will not be a short-term fix, given the technological and logistical hurdles to be cleared, it does sound like a promising future alternative.  Right now it appears that attempts to develop such a system will be a mix of public and private efforts.  It will be important, as a leading space pioneer, that the United States takes a leadership role in this process, rather than being surpassed by other countries like Japan and Russia, which are also pursuing SSP. 

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High energy prices spur the reopening of old coal mines

With energy costs skyrocketing, old coal producing regions throughout the world have sprung back to life.  In Japan, coal production is at its highest point in nearly forty years, after a long period of contraction due to high labor and extraction costs. With the world price of oil and other commodities at all time highs, re-opening old mines and the expansion of existing mines throughout the world has boomed.  Illustrating the dramatic increase in prices, the cost of a metric ton of coal shipped from Australia to Japan in 2003 was $23.25.  Now it is almost $140. 

Of course, along with this increase in coal production and use, comes an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.  While high oil prices has encouraged alternative energy investment and development, it is also apparently fueling old energy re-development.  Hopefully this won’t prove to be a net-wash.

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Process allows landfills to produce energy and reduce greenhouse effects

Unbeknownst to many people (ourselves included), garbage dumps can be a meaningful source of alternative energy production. As the waste that is piled up in a landfill breaks down, it releases copious amounts of methane gas (whose greenhouse effect is 20 times worse than CO2). Consequently, landfill operators have begun to install pipe systems that capture these gasses in order to use them in energy production. Once captured, the methane (aka “biogas”) is burned in a traditional power generation process. Although the burning of methane releases CO2, this is substantially less harmful to the environment than the methane in its original state.

The recent surge in waste-to-energy projects stems from federal tax incentives and state laws requiring the use of certain percentages of clean energy. However, opponents complain that biogas is not actually a renewable energy source since it is derived from human excess (trash). While these critics are literally correct since human waste is not created by Mother Earth, it seems silly to denigrate attempts to turn a negative (human garbage and excess) into a positive (an energy source that reduces the greenhouse effect).

As with most forms of alternative energy production, we were not surprised to learn that this waste-to-energy process is most developed in Europe. We can only hope that the next administration and Congress will implement policies that will encourage alternative energy development. Maybe then, hearing about innovative processes like turning waste-to-energy will no longer be such a surprise to us and our readers.

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