Obama on Energy

I was watching the youtube video on Obama's Energy Plan address to Ohio. Obama was pushing wind energy and stated that $3.5 billion in wages could be made by 2020 through wind energy. And, with the right investments (?), Ohio could save $24 billion and provide energy for 2 million homes. And, he would reduce demand for electricity by 15% nationwide which would save $130 billion and improve energy efficiency.

Sounds great! But, one really huge wind turbine can power about 4,000 homes - which means Ohio would need about 500 turbines - which will cost about $4.5 million each or about $2.5 billion total. Not a big deal, right? Although, I can't imagine 500 giant wind turbines that are 130 feet tall in our back yards. I think I'd rather see a couple of oil rigs.

Still, Mr. Obama hasn't addressed the basic issue. The oil crisis. He wants to give us $1,000 "gift" (basically, a bribe), which we will promptly pay back to the oil companies in higher prices. It's stupid! So, what do we do? First, we have approximately 62 million registered vehicles in the U.S. All of those cars are not going away anytime soon. I know I'm not planning on getting rid of mine soon. So, the majority of cars are still going to be using gas in five to ten years. What's going to happen to oil prices in five years? Shouldn't we be providing gas to all those cars in order to keep the economy going while alternatives are being developed? Solution - ANWR. John Hofmeister, the retired CEO of Shell, says we can get ANWR pumping some oil in two years because we already have the Alaskan Oil Pipeline. Two years, people, NOT ten years.

Now, alternative energy for automobiles. Mr. Obama is talking about electric cars with batteries. You plug them in, they suck up electricity and store them in batteries. Lots of batteries. But, electricity and batteries won't get you very far - they die in 50 to 100 miles. They're ok if you're going to the grocery store, but what if you want to see Grandma in Florida and you live in New York? Plus, what do you do with the batteries when they wear out? Can I say it? Pollutants!

Mr. Hofmeister proposes hydrogen as an energy source. Okay - that sounds good! Hydrogen can be supplied at gas stations. Mr. Hofmeister is concerned about the global climate change. Hydrogen is an non-polluting energy - it leaves water. And, it doesn't have to be plugged in to get energized. But, there's a "dirty little secret" about hydrogen. It is produced, at least 90% is, by fossil fuels - coal, gas, oil - so we're in the same mess we started with! Plus, hydrogen cars (right now) are extremely expensive. And, I believe they can explode.

So, here's a question: if we use electricity for our cars and have to plug them in every night before we go to bed, how are we going to save 15% in energy? We aren't. With 62 million cars, that's a lot of juice. It's scary to say, but it sounds like Mr. Obama is suggesting we don't drive anymore. Get out your horses, your bikes, and a good set of sneakers! No more visiting granny, because we won't have any planes, trains, or buses. Yikes!

So, we are back to square one. Until someone thinks up a genius idea to power our cars, we're still going to be using gasoline in 2050