To Our Leaders: Give Us 100% Clean Electricity in 10 Years

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

Americans, addicted to oil and quick fixes, embrace a man and a mantra; yet, most are unwilling to envelop themselves in a cause.  The public appreciates the need for clean energy.  Accolades are bestowed upon the former Vice President, author, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and environmentalist Albert Gore for the work he has done to inform us of an inconvenient truth.  Nonetheless, as knowledgeable as the public may be, nothing truly changes.  

An AlterNet article Republicans Have Handed Democrats a Winning Election Issue (http://www.alternet.org/environment/95469/) proposes that the Democrats, and Obama in particular, should shift the focus of the energy crisis to renewable energy and away from offshore oil.  According to the article, they should place the emphasis on renewable energy and allow the Republicans to filibuster in Congress against a bill proposing to extend subsidies to the renewable energy sector.  The filibuster would expose the Republican’s real agenda, which is to continue to support the oil industry and cut off funding for renewables.

Who knew that the US is currently exporting 1.8 million barrels of oil a day?

To make sure everybody does, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, sent a public letter to President Bush, asking him to "keep our oil at home."

There is a new moveon.org ad that hits McCain for not voting to decide if $13.5 billion tax breaks for big oil should go towards alternatives for oil, money that could have gone towards wind and solar. There needed to be 60 votes and they only got 59. John McCain chose not to vote.

As a result, instead of powering millions of homes with clean energy and building next-generation solar technology, ExxonMobil and other companies are getting billions in tax breaks at a time when they're already making record profits.

Well before the written word or pictograph, before the alphabet or the printing press, even before media or mediums... there was fire.  The flame has been a passion of mankind's throughout history.  With it came the need for fuel.  

If Big Oil is given the permission to do offshore drilling, it should be allowed but only under certain stringent conditions :

All this talk about oil lately, the evil oil companies and offshore drilling has got me thinking, what do you guys want with old, dirty, expensive carbon emitting oil when we can easily have carbon neutral bug created petrol for around $50 a barrel?

Despite evidence that increased domestic drilling will only have a minor impact on market prices and that these will accrue in the distant future, McCain and the Republicans continue their "Drill Here, Drill Now" mantra. Today, Johnny Boy donned a hardhat and took the chopper out to a gen-you-eyne oil rig to give his claim the visuals required to drive this one home. Minor probem:

First it was Speaker Pelosi:

Reversing course, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning energy legislation that may allow oil and gas drilling in new areas off the U. S. coast, according to a House Democratic leadership aide.

Now it's Mark Udall:

If any doubt remained that the debate over energy has shifted in Republicans’ favor, Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) ended it this week.

Udall, one of the House’s preeminent environmentalists and the Democratic nominee in a closely contested Colorado Senate race, came out in favor of a bipartisan, comprehensive energy plan that would permit additional offshore drilling — a striking departure from his past opposition to such measures.

And it's probably not just Udall. To tell you the truth, I didn't even look to see who else might be doing the same thing. Because even if it is just Udall for the moment, it won't be just Udall for long.

Why not? What's behind the opening of the floodgates?

Meteor Blades told you last week:

Republicans have an ace up their sleeve. The ban on additional off-shore leases must be renewed each year by September 30. The extension is attached as a rider to the annual appropriations bill. Senator DeMint says 36 of the 49 Republican senators have signed a letter to Senate leaders opposing a renewal of the ban. Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling is said to have gotten 136 House Republicans to sign a similar letter.

CongressDaily [now linkable] reports:

"Many people aren't aware that these bans on drilling must be renewed every year, and that all we have to do is to allow these prohibitions to expire on Oct. 1," DeMint said in a statement released Tuesday.

"In just 50 days, Americans will have the freedom to pursue their own energy resources here at home," he added. DeMint argued that it was "irrational to say 'no' to American energy" because it was needed to reduce independence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices.

That's the game, right there. The floodgates will open because they have to open. There's no way on God's green earth to find veto-proof majorities to re-up that ban, and no bill George W. Bush won't veto to stop it. Not a defense bill. Not a continuing resolution to keep the government running. Not a National Motherhood and Apple Pie Day bill. Nothing.

So it's either flip now and do what you can to save face, or stick it out to the bitter end and lose.

We know how these things go, by now.

First a little math using examples from a Professor Bartlett video (an example of which I have below).

The amount of anything that grows doubles over time. To determine this doubling time divide seventy by the growth percentage. For example 7 percent annual growth means that each 10 years the number doubles.

This sounds simple: 1 becomes 2 becomes 4 becomes 8 becomes 16, but the implications of exponential growth, thus any growth, on the world is dramatic. Look at those numbers again. If you add up 1 and 2 and 4 and 8 you get 15. One less than 16.

Here is a real world example. Up until 1970 the use of oil in the world grew 7 percent each year. That means every 10 years the amount of oil the world used has more than the world used for its entire history just 10 years earlier. So by 1970 the world was using more oil than all the oil it had used from the cave days to 1960.

If this continued humanity was ready to jump off a cliff in our lifetime.

My friends, I'd like to tell you, the voters of America, that I'm for friendly drilling off our coast and maybe even in Alaska, just as my GOP friends are.  

Republican presidential nominee John McCain said Congress should come back early from its month-long recess to consider lifting federal restrictions on off-shore domestic oil drilling.

My friends, I'm also for other friendly energy sources.  But, my friends, I haven't had a chance to vote on renewable energy legislation legislation in a while.

nytimes.com — Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year — which effectively counts as a no vote each time.

     Plumbing the nuances of a black and white Audy Murphy film, some in the dark recesses of American glory are calling out the Russians. This is a mistake of nuclear proportions. While it makes for a helluva sound bite in the middle of an election cycle, promising a "toe to toe" spins differently over in Moscow (or wherever Vladimir Putin happens to be at the moment), depending on whether it comes from a lame duck administration or one proposing to succeed it. Those folks would do well to consider who they are dealing with and what their motivations might be, prior to racing a commercial to air.

Time for another late-night mickt diary to be ignored.

Ask the average American where his money goes when he fills his tank and he will say "The Middle East".

So what are the facts? Based upon data from the U.S.Energy Information Administration, Keating says the U.S. produces 5.1 million barrels (34%) of crude oil per day while importing 10.1 barrels (66%) per day. The top five countries we import from on a daily basis are:

Canada - 1.8 million barrels
Mexico - 1.6 million barrels
Saudi Arabia - 1.4 million barrels
Venezuela - 1.1 million barrels
Nigeria - 1.0 million barrels

unreliable source because it doesn't fit the mainstream narrative

Here's an interview I recently did that I thought might raise some good discussion here.

Bush and McCain would have you believe that we must drill to get control over the energy crisis facing this country.  To the contrary, the facts demonstrate that the technology for America to achieve energy independence from the Middle East exists and is being used by hundreds of millions of people today.  As I will show, if we Americans were using this technology today, we currently would be saving more than twice the amount of oil we import from the Middle East.  

It is up to each of us to become more conversant with the facts around oil so we can rebut the false claims of Republican politicians.  It is not enough to rely on one "guru" or another as a source of information, whether it be the Sierra Club, or for that matter Anne Korins or T. Boone Pickens.  

Whether it be hybrids or wind power or whatever solution they offer, these gurus will frame the facts to point you towards their solution.  I will show you the basic facts.  You can draw your own conclusions.  

Neither I nor any guru can predict how we can reduce our dependence on oil.  I just know we are an industrious people.  If we elect a leader who guides Americans to set our minds to the task, if we set our goals high, or at least not low, one way or another, America can do it.

So in today's news we learned that Nancy Pelosi and a bunch of Democrats are going to let us all down AGAIN and give consent to some offshore drilling.

Are gas prices too high?  Yes.  Is it because we don't have enough oil?  Well, I'm not too sure.

Did Exxon Mobil make its biggest profits EVER last quarter?  Sure did!

So...are prices high because there's not enough oil or are prices high because the oil companies can charge what they want and we pay them??

Ok, so I, like so many of us filling out tanks with $4+ gas, have been thinking about ways to address the "energy problem". I really haven't heard anyone with a broad and cohesive plan to really address it yet... all just "baby steps" in my opinion (or it's "DRILL DRILL DRILL"). Nothing that's going to change anything significantly any time soon. But I've had a couple of ideas that I thought might be worthy sharing. So for what its worth, here's my energy plan.

Short n' sweet: In exchange for being hooked to the energy grid, anyone hooked up must also be able to generate and return to the grid, some portion of the power being provided by a renewable energy source such as solar or wind or both.

The details after the jump.

The US is trying to cut Russia out of the profits and control of Caspian Sea oil. There is no other story in Georgian-Russia conflict, there are only details about innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.

The way our network news covers it is a little like talking about the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima without mentioning the atom bomb. But they are only following the lead of our elected officials.

It is to the undying shame of American democracy that this is not part of what our elected leaders tell us about the decisions they are making.