ENGLISH
FOR
CONGRESS POSITION PAPER (Revised January 2012)
This
discussion with energy issues is combined with those of
environment because the use and conservation of energy is the
single most important consideration in the preservation of the
environment. The United States has the dubious distinction of
being both the world's second largest consumer of energy and
emitter of greenhouse gases. If the United States were to
undertake a long-range national effort aimed at eliminating all
usage of fossil fuels for surface transportation, electricity
generation, and building heating and cooling, its greenhouse gas
emissions would decline by well over half from those occurring
now.
In addition, replacing the need for imported oil and natural gas
would have an immediate stimulating effect upon the domestic
economy as the money formerly sent abroad for energy imports
would be kept within our borders and used to create industries
and employment with the United States. The consequent
reduction of foreign indebtedness and the ongoing balance of
trade and balance of payments deficits would stabilize our
economy as well as end the possibility of interruptions of
foreign energy supplies with its risks for our economy and
society.
Short (next 5 years), medium (5 to 20 years from now), and long
(20 to 35 years from now) energy substitution and source
replacement programs need to be implemented immediately at the
national level. Multi-fuel and hybrid cars, trucks, and
buses are already operating in increasing numbers. A
national program to replace all newly manufactured and imported
surface transportation vehicles (including diesel powered trucks
and river boats) sold in the United States with compressed
natural gas CNG or E-85
(85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) powered engines or hybrid power
systems is possible and ought to be required and achieved during
the next five years. The present 53 cents per gallon
tariff on imported ethanol from Brazil should be immediately
ended because it restricts the supply of fuel needed for
conversion to E-85 vehicle usage. The tariff on ethanol
imports is no longer needed to encourage domestic production. The production of
domestically produced et hanol from corn is expensive and only
marginally beneficial for energy conservation and it drives up
the cost of food as well as stresses farmland fertility from
overproduction. If E-85 or CNG powered hybrid vehicles with
overnight home plug-in home electric battery recharging
capability were introduced, many of the vehicles used in shorter
daily trips would not need to use any onboard fuel at all except
when driven on longer trips, and overall vehicle mileage could
exceed 100 miles per gallon. In contrast, the efficient
diesel- powered cars now in widespread use in Europe average
about 40 miles per gallon of fuel. The technology already
exists to build energy efficient and environmentally beneficial
vehicles: all it takes is the political will to implement a
national program to require their manufacture and use.
A one-half cent per ton mile tax on all freight transported
within the borders of the country should be immediately imposed
and the revenues raised therefrom used exclusively to pay for
the infrastructure (new fuel pumps, etc) costs of CNG and E-85
substitution for gasoline and diesel fuel consumption.
Similarly, a one-half cent per kilowatt hour tax on all
electricity used within the country should be imposed and
exclusively used to pay for the construction of massive wind
turbine electricity generation facilities in remote high
plains regions and other suitable locations throughout the
country as rapidly as the funds raised from these taxes will
permit. Funds from both taxes should also be used to
finance the electrification of all major railroads east of the
Mississippi River and the three major transcontinental railroads
during the medium term phase with all remaining railroads
throughout the country becoming electrified during the long term
phase.
The
high plains region of the country is particularly well suited
for wind powered turbine electricity generation because it is
sparsely populated, economically depressed, vulnerable to crop
failures and extreme weather, has abundant wind resources, and
is in desperate need of an industry that is environmentally
benign that would result in a steady and continuing source of
regional income and employment. Farmland and pasture used for
wind farms could be converted to natural grasses and
consolidated initially into 20,000 acre or larger fenced
cooperatively farmer-owned tracts that should be eventually
incorporated into a National High Plain Energy and Resouce
Conservation Reserve. The Reserve also would restore the huge
American bison (“buffalo”) herds that once roamed the high
plains. Buffalo
are very hardy, can survive winter conditions that kill cattle,
and produce nutritious lean low fat meat without the need for
cruel and stinking environmentally destructive feed lot
“finishing” that maltreats the animals or
bovine hormone growth enhancement use that endangers the health
of consumers. Furthermore, the establishment of the
Reserve would greatly reduce the present ongoing continuing
depletion of the Ogallala Aquifier.
As mentioned above, the production of ethanol requires
significant energy usage to grow, harvest, transport, and
process the corn and other grains required by the
industry. One estimate claims that twenty percent more
energy inputs overall are needed to produce a single gallon of
ethanol than is contained and released when that gallon is
burned as fuel. Prolonged grain cultivation for
ethanol production also is likely to be a major cause of the
long term exhaustion of farmland with continuing loss of topsoil
from the unrelenting tillage of farm land. During the long
term energy transition phase, surplus electricity generated by
the national wind turbine electricity generation program should
be used to produce hydrogen for powering all non-electrified
vehicles employed in surface transportation (and aviation, as
well, if feasible). As fuel supplies become available,
production and use of hydrogen powered vehicles should gradually
replace the manufacture and use of ethanol and CNG powered
vehicles. Stored hydrogen made water using surplus wind
farm electricity could be used in turbines or fuel cells during
periods of peak electricity demand.
When
the transition to the entirely renewable wind-powered or solar
energy economy is completed, shortly after the year 2050 the
United States will have totally ended its dependence upon
foreign energy sources, eliminated the majority of its
greenhouse gas emissions, and preserved its remaining
hydrocarbon reserves and agricultural lands for the benefit of
future generations of Americans. (Please read the Public Lands Use issue
paper and Transportation
Policy issue paper).
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Designed by Imad-ad-Dean,
Inc.