US Energy Policy is broken

OK, let's review the current situation: Oil >$70/barrel, SUVs/sports cars all over the road, everybody drives 'cause there is no mass transit to speak of, with few exceptions. The US is the largest oil consumer in the world.

We need to change this. It will not be easy or fast. We need to start now and keep up the pressure over a period of years.

Problem is: no one wants to do it. It's hard, and no one is going to step up to do something that hard for no good reason. So let's give them a good reason. Seems to me that our government exists first and foremost to protect our citizens. There is nothing that threatens our citizenry more than the threat of terrorism, and terrorism stems mainly from our Middle East policy. Our Middle East policy is driven primarily out of our lust for oil. Remove the dependency on oil, and our problems in the Middle East become much more manageable. This is a National Security issue.

Our government needs to seed and support the following actions:



Ethanol. Today, we add a paultry 10% ethanol to most gas mixtures. We should work to increase this to 25-30% ASAP. This would go a long way to stretch our oil needs out. Brazil has become energy independent by switching to fuel entirely consisting of ethanol. We may not be able to scale our country as completely, but I bet we could make a heck of a dent. We should give massive tax breaks to anyone who locally provides ethanol-based fuels and fuel additives.

Drilling: US offshore, Anwr, Canada. When you combine the potential sources of "local" oil, we have millions of barrels waiting to be procured. We should put tax subsidies in place to make drilling for this oil much more advantageous than buying Middle East oil.

Tax reform. All energy-related activities should be scrutenized from a standpoint of tax reform. That is, we should reward any activity that reduces our dependence upon foreign oil, and tax the heck out of activities that promote that dependence. Clearly we need to strike a balance that will not cripple our economy, but we should move aggressively in this direction.


Electric cars: Look at the Tesla roadster! For years, we thought electric cars were simply an oddity. They could not produce enough low-end torque. They did not have the range. Batteries were too bulky, heavy, dangerous, and ecologically messy. So tell me, if this is so, how come a bunch of geeks in CA were able to come up with a car like the Tesla roadster? Here is a vehicle that can go from 0-60 in 4 seconds, travel 250 miles between charges, and uses relatively clean Lithium-Ion batteries! All for a reasonable $100,000. If this is possible, then with some serious effort, big tax breaks, and a little time, we should be able to get something all of us could be driving in less than 5 years!

Yes, there may not be one "silver bullet" that we can use to solve this problem. But it seems to me there are more than enough "brass bullets" we can use to combine into an effective Energy-Independence Initiative. By combining leadership, government incentives, and technology, we CAN make this happen in less than 10 years!

All we need is the DESIRE!