By Lance Winslow
The other day there was an advertisement on TV promoting a perfect world with everyone driving electric cars in California, and I must say it was an excellent PR piece with clear blue skies over Los Angeles and little Smart like Cars cruising without traffic down the freeway. Such a nice scene, but is it a plausible or potential eventuality? I say no, and let me explain why.
First, off we can't go all electric, as we already have brown outs and rolling blackouts in CA in the summer time due to air-conditioning usage. If everyone was charging up their cars, we simply do not have that much power on the grid. Besides the transmission lines in the country could use another 700 billion, some say a trillion dollar upgrade, as it is. There are over 25 million registered vehicles in California.
Where is that infrastructure money coming from? In the Public Relations piece it showed wind turbines as part of the scene, which if you really think about it is quite laughable - forget wind; that will never happen. Why you ask? Well, in Palm Springs they have wind generators everywhere and in the summer they do not even generate enough energy due to all the air conditioners for that one city?
Solar - Sure with new technology it could be a percentage of the grid, but folks are on drugs if they think solar will solve our energy needs, this nation uses more energy than anyone would ever imagine. Currently, the low costs we pay has given rise to our economic and industrial strength, a clear advantage over the rest of the world by far.
Demanding alternative energy like wind and solar which cannot compete with coal, hydro and nuclear means continuous subsidies, and in the end inefficiencies, meaning it these alternative sources may never be able to compete. As much as the alternative energy environmentalists dream, there is a reality behind energy supply and demand and eventually that reality will rule the day. Think on this.
By Lance Winslow
.
Think of a world without fossil fuel and nuclear power. Think on this.
Think of a world without air conditioners. Think on this.
Hmmm ... maybe an "energy independence tax" on fossil fuels? Think on this.
Your piece is long on assumptions and short on hard facts. Think on this.
"If at first, the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it." -- Albert Einstein.
It is likely that not far in the future, all new cars will be electric. They will require no recharge and in fact, as utilities adapt the new technology, can become power plants when parked. A parking lot will be a replacement for a substation.
Since this is new science and new technology it will seem absurd to most with technical training. However, as independent labs begin to validate the surprising systems and Demonstration Devices and toys enter the market, it will become obvious that we do not need to burn fossil fuels nor to carry banks of batteries on board vehicles.
Skeptics might keep in mind Arthur Schopenhauer's comment: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
WHY??? What would you propose instead?
Alex Garmon << Did it ever occur to you that the enivronment is running out of time and we have no choice. >>
Did it ever occur to YOU that he doesn't believe in your dystopia? The FACT is that we (Americans) are emitting far less pollution, real pollution that is, while using more energy than twenty or thirty years ago.
We need to think of a world without fossil fuel, to understand that it is possible to survive without it. We need to think of a world without nukes, because we still have not solved the nuclear waste problem. We can survive without air conditioning. Can't we? There are technologies available to survive and many more in working and many more will be developed for a world without fossil fuels, nukes and air conditioners.
In his post "The business leader 2009: Chief Meaning Officer (please hit the link http://news.cnet.com/8301-13641_3-10130136-44.html... )," Tim Leverecht wrote "Consumption-driven wealth and status are being replaced by identity, belonging, and a strong desire to contribute and do something "meaningful" rather than just acquire things. Trust and reputation are no longer enablers for the exchange of goods, services, and information, they are replacing them. Values are the new value. Meaning is succeeding experience and customer satisfaction. "The job of leadership today is not just to make money. It's to make meaning," writes management consultant John Hagel. Out: Bottom-line-pragmatists and financial wizards. In: philosophers and ethicists. " I think Tom is supplying the idea of a real need for authentic leadership.
I agree that there is a need for a transition with the lights on.
I wrote that "Dr. Steven Chu can get plenty of results in the next four years, by placing into operation the financial mechanism to exploit the lowest-hanging fruits in the demand side. Such mechanism, enabled by the EWPC EPAct, will shift us away of the fossil fuel era vicious pervasiveness into the emerging digital era virtuous pervasiveness that will spread the clean energy revolution." Please take a look at "Steven Chu: Four Years of Low Hanging Fruits ( http://www.energyblogs.com/ewpc/index.cfm/2008/12/... )," for details.
That should sufficient to keep the lights on, while we get the innovations needed without the uncertainty posed by the pressure of fossil fuel pervasiveness. In the mean time, "technically and economically viable... mechanisms" on 100% clean coal and nuclear water innovations might also be developed.