U.S. energy and oil strategies and policies are discussed. The Energy Policy Act is also discussed. The oil conservation aspects of the Energy Policy Act are touched on.
On January 31, 2005 in the State-Of-The-Union address, President Bush stated that "America was addicted to oil." and must break its dependence by "improving technologies" to reduce oil imports from the Middle East by 75%. (I bet the Middle East leaders are still laughing about that one particularly with China and India waiting in the wings to compete with us for Middle East oil.) The President then went over some items of the U.S. energy policy. He vowed to fund additional research into ways to make ethanol from wood chips & grasses in addition to the corn from which the ethanol is presently largely produced.
Senator Charles Schumer of New York responded to the President's 'addicted to oil' charge by stating that, "the Bush Administration is addicted to oil companies.
Some are making fun of the president for mentioning, as an energy strategy, converting grasses into ethanol and, by grasses, are assuming he meant prairie grass. I didn't hear the speech but, after observing first-hand the value of marsh grass in preventing erosion of the Louisiana marsh, I know that you have to be careful about wholesale destruction of native vegetation. The South American nutria, released in the Louisiana marsh only 60 or so years ago have caused great destruction to the marsh, by eating a large part of the native marsh grass. Similarly, the prairie grass, no doubt, serves a more useful function than to be converted into ethanol to keep our ridiculously oversized SUVs and giant pickups rolling. One such useful function is to provide breeding ground cover and food for the ducks which visit us in Louisiana each fall and winter. If the energy strategy comes down to choosing between ducks and oversized SUVs, I'll take the ducks.
On August 8, 2005, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was signed into law. This was a major Bush Administration initiative on the energy crisis. It received a considerable amount of ridicule from some Democratic and Republican senators. Some of the provisions of the bill were:
Tax credit of $3,400 for owners of hybrid vehicles. On the surface, this looks good, but many of the so-called Hybrid Car scheduled for production in the US don't achieve much better gas mileage than non-hybrid cars.
Increase in Ethanol Content of Gasoline. This should result in oil conservation. But from what vegetation will the ethanol be produced? Is being converted into ethanol the best use for the vegetation.
$50 Million Annually for Biomass Grant Program.
$200 Million for Clean Coal. The U.S. has enormous deposits of coal which is a dirty-burning fuel. It is worth spending some research money here but why did we wait this long to do the research.
Wind Energy Subsidies. Again, I believe researching wind energy for possible use in oil conservation is good, but I question whether wind energy will ever solve our energy crisis.
Geothermal Energy. Provisions for making geothermal energy more competitive with fossil fuels for generating electricity.
Wave Power and Tidal Power. These two energy sources would be placed on the "official list" of renewable energy resources. We found out in Hurricane Katrina what uncontrolled wave power and tidal power can do. Will we ever be able to control the two power sources? People have been talking about wave energy and tidal power a long time but they have proved hard to harness.
There were other provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 but enough of the major provisions are listed above for the reader to get some idea of what the Act is about. There is some good strategy and some bad strategy to the Act but, obviously, by itself, it is not going to solve the energy crisis.
I was a little cynical about the Energy Policy Act but some U.S. Senators and several newspapers were far more cynical.
Senator John McCann called the Act, "no lobbyist left behind bill."
The Philadelphia Enquirer said the Energy Policy Act was a "lets pass it and say we did something" bill.
The Washington Post said the Act is really a collection of subsidies for the energy
companies.
One critic of the nation's energy policy (or lack thereof) had an interesting take on America's addiction to oil. He said the addiction can be compared to the technique used to capture monkeys in certain Asian countries. The technique involves hollowing out a coconut's center and placing certain goodies in the cavity with a hole leading to it just wide enough that a monkey can reach into the coconut and grasp the goodies in his hand. Once his hand clutches the goodies and becomes a fist, the monkey cannot withdraw the fist because the hole is not large enough for the fist. The monkey is trapped! He then has the terrible choice of turning loose the goodies so he can unclench his fist and withdraw his arm. But being the monkey that he is, he won't do that. He wants the goodies! The coconut has been tethered to a tree or bush and the natives simply walk out and grab the monkey whose fist is still inside the coconut. The energy critic compares the US to the monkey and the goodies to oil. Until we Americans learn to unclench our fist and let oil go (and go to oil alternatives, of course), we will remained trapped (addicted to oil).
A nice analogy if you don't mind being compared to a monkey.
Even supporters of the Act admit that the Energy Policy Act will do little or nothing to lower oil prices.
So, at least the Bush Administration has become somewhat involved in the energy crisis and is not depending entirely on the "market" to solve the problem as they formerly did. (with a little help from the armed forces in seizing the oil fields of Iraq.)
Lest you get me wrong, the market is very important is obtaining more energy, but we shouldn't gamble our energy policy entirely on it. I think it is going to take a joint effort by the private and public sector in meeting the energy challenge that lies ahead. Many experts think even a joint effort won't be enough to stop the ill effects of Peak Oil. According to them, it is too late! They say civilization is going to take a big hit as the oil runs out.
1. Planning & Strategy. The Germans had great battlefield tactics in World War 2 but the Allies were superior in strategy and planning and won the war. We will need the best strategy, planning, and tactics to meet the challenges of the looming energy crisis.
2. Alternative Energy Sources. We are running out of oil. What are our alternatives?
3. Oil & Energy Crisis. Well, we don't have a truly effective energy policy in place yet. We had better get one....Peak Oil is on the way!
An energy crisis looms as U.S. fails to come up with an effective energy strategy or energy policy in the energy policy act.
e-mail me @ vanc13@cox.net (Author: Van Cook)
Last updated on: 05/06/09
U.S. Energy Policy