BeanMan's Energy Platform

[BeanMan]

The thread on gas prices got me thinking.
Here's one farmers idea's for making American strong and keeping it that way. Add to it, pick it apart, cut off the Middle East.

BeanMan's energy platform.

1. Drill here, drill now including ANWAR. Environmental laws still apply.

2. Build Nuclear power plants to generate electricity which can provide power for many things including new processes for cracking Oil Shale (more appropriately called Keragen instead of oil).

3. Biomass energy/Cellulosic ethanol. The technology is ready to be tested in large scale plants, it will need to be done initially with Government help. Biomass energy should not be confused with fermenting alcohol from grains.

4. Dramatically increase funding for research on Hydrogen fuel cells, cheaper and more efficient solar, fusion and etc.

5. Build vehicles that are increasingly more fuel efficient. When my current truck wears out in ten or so years I hope I can replace it with one that gets more MPG without a huge price tag.

6. Utilize as much wind power as is possible. We need to upgrade our national electrical grid.

7. New homes should be built with the latest and best technology to conserve energy, take advantage of passive solar.


I'm probably missing something here and some of these items will prove to be unworkable. Even if purchasing energy created here in the USA is more expensive it should prove to be valuble to our economy (buy American) since the money and jobs will stay here. If we cut off the Middle East from our money they will be less of a threat to us.

Bean

 

[huntindude]

Looks good, other than I'd like to see more grain ethanol production.

 

[202typical]

Piss on grain ethanol Dude. That is absolutely the most asanine idea out there. Use FOOD to make fuel. The friggin world hates our guts cause we use all the oil. Just imagine when Pedro can't make corn tortillas any more cause America has bought up all the corn to stick in their automobiles. Good grief...that is stinkin thinkin Dude!

Bean the only problem I see with that platform is specifically #7. And realy this goes for the entire platform. It has got to be inexpensive otherwise the lower income folks wont be able to get along. latest technologies are expensive as hell.
With that said I agree 100% with your platform. Where do I sign up!

 

[BeanMan]

Huntingdude,

My preference for Biomass ethanol over grain ethanol is this: Grain ethanol has a yield of about 2.3 or 3 to 1 yield in energy return. It's not very efficient. A biomass generator can use a variety of cellulose products including corn stover and wheat stubble after the grain is harvested and used for food/feed. According to the NREL (I was at a biomass conference last week) Biomass energy yields are considered to be in the area of 18-20 to 1. Much better yields. It is a much more involved process than simple fermentation of grain. I don't buy the idea that using grain takes food out of the mouths of poor though. Simple fact is that someone has to pay for growing food and it isn't just given away. If they can't pay then the don't get it unless the Gov steps in and gives it to them.

202, I don't know how to get around the cost of doing many of these things. I do know that I would like to see us cut off unfriendly foreign countries that have lots of oil. It won't be easy and won't be overnight. Hopefully as these things become more common place a scale of economy change over will occur making some of these technologies cheaper. I use the argument that poor folks won't be able to afford organic produce (they won't) when arguing with people about the dubious benefits of organic food.

Not perfect,

Bean

 

[202typical]

" I don't buy the idea that using grain takes food out of the mouths of poor though. Simple fact is that someone has to pay for growing food and it isn't just given away. If they can't pay then the don't get it unless the Gov steps in and gives it to them."

All I know is since this whole corn based ethanol has come around the price of corn has doubled inside a year. Doubled in price and we are still in the small stages. I think if corn/grain based fuel becomes a bigger player in the market place watch for grain cost to rise. No longer will be buying American grown corn/grain we will be importing it and taking it out of the mothes of the poor world wide.

This is a tough pill. I mostly like drill hear drill now pay less and pay less to forigners.

 

[huntindude]

I said I like the grain ethanol because I grow grain.

I don't think grain ethanol is the future, I think it's a starting place. in the future you're 100% correct we will have much more efficient crops for biofuel but we had to start with what we have today, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Corn has doubled? check again, corn did double and now it's down to the price producers will grow something else or possibly need subsidies to grow it. biofuel didn't take one dorito out of anyone's mouth, there never was a shortage of food there has always been a shortage of money. how many of you anti biofuel guys are going to donate money to poor nations to buy this corn now that it's cheap? that's what I thought, so nothing has changed except the price of corn, the poor are still hungry.

Also remember biofuel produced in this country provides jobs and the money stays here rather than buying a camel jockey another bomb or some Arab another gold tiolet.

 

[piper]

we should do a lot of those things but we won't, because it would take governmental action, we can all see things that need to be done but the market looks at profits for the next quarter in order to make decisions about the direction to go. Nuclear power is not profitable, this isn't France, fuel mileage, that Idea was dropped years ago, biofuels they take government subsidies, the government is beyond broke, everything you mention has problems in the free market or it would have been done already, you see Americans have a motto that has been guiding us for many years now "the government is not the solution, government is the problem"

 

[cmiddleton]

add clean coal tech and coal liquidification we really could get completely off foreign oil with these technologies.
new power distribution should be a priority the others are useless without it.
methane and natural gas needs to be utilized more we have vast amounts of them and coal.