Articles tagged with: energy crisis
Is Obama Responsible for $4.00 Gas?
Not even a little bit. On April 5 of 2012 a McClatchy Newspaper article claimed that financial speculators are gambling on oil prices much like they did on subprime mortgages bringing down the entire financial world in 2007, according to Michael Greenberger, professor of law at Maryland University and former federal regulator of financial markets. Republican presidential candidates are all too ready to blame Obama for $4.00 gas but it is pure political negative baloney. This speculation could bring to a halt the current recovery and lead to a deepening of the recession which finally seems to be responding to some of the things that Obama, did such as rescuing the auto industry and bailing out some of the financial institutions, all of which prevented a much worse economic crisis. They always seem to forget that George W. Bush bears the major blame for the 2007 melt-down. Presidents from Bill Clinton back to Ronald Regan can also share some of the blame by allowing the gutting of a lot of the financial regulations that help prevent financial disasters like that of 2007
How Big a Disaster is Big Enough?
Back in September of 2009 I wrote the following paragraph. It was a comment decrying the seeming inability of the public to grasp the true nature of our coming energy crisis. Here is the quote.
"What we really need is a dose of reality. A climate disaster might wake some people up, for a little while, but it would have to be catastrophic to have any real impact. The 2008 oil crisis did some good in calling attention to the energy crisis, but it didn't last. A large portion of the general public refuses to believe that climate change is anything other than a hoax perpetrated by those in power to bleed us dry and ruin our economy."
Better Late Than Never
On July 30, 2009, the venerable New York Times reported that a new study by the consulting firm, McKinsey, had released a study saying that making our homes and businesses more energy efficient could reduce our projected energy use by 23 percent by 2020. Where in blazes have they been?
Replace all Fossil Fuels? You Betcha
Sorry Sarah, but we may not have to destroy the Arctic Wild Life Reserve to replace fossil fuels from abroad, if you'll pardon the pun. No drill, no spill.
Biofuels, like ethanol made from corn, consume lots of energy and water and take a lot of land to produce. Cellulosic materials, like wood chips and grass are more efficient than corn and take no crops out of the food chain. A new start-up company based in Cambridge, MA, named Joule Biotechnologies, claims they can make 20,000 gallons of biofuels per year per acre. This is phenomenal since so far only algae-based biofuels come even close to this new technology, only producing from 2,000 to 6,000 gallons per acre per year. This new process is of the scale of production that can make biofuels a viable substitute for fossil fuels. It could mean that biofuels could replace all fossil fuels for transportation. How are these quantities achieved and what is the process?...
Is it Sarah Palin or Tina Fey?
Will the real Sara Palin step forward, please? Please God, tell me it's Tina Fey. Sara has finally revealed her great political career plan. She's going to be the Republican party's spokesperson against the Obama energy program. She, who doesn't believe that humans have any affect on climate change, and whose husband is in the oil business, is going to.....do what?....
Fox is in the Chicken Coop
Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have adopted renewable energy standards requiring electric service providers to increase the amount of renewable energy sources. In my home state of Arizona it is currently 15%. At this moment in time President Obama has proposed a new Federal law mandating electric energy providers to generate 12% of their electricity from renewables, such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, or geothermal sources by 2012, and 25% by 2025. Both houses of Congress are considering different versions of this proposal, but their goal is only a meager 3% to 6%. The fox is in the chicken coop...
Water: Our Next Crisis 2
I have written before about the water crisis we are facing. It may make the energy crisis look like child's play. We can invent substitutes for gas and oil but we can't invent a substitute for water. It is essential for all living things. Not only that, it is vital to growing food and manufacturing all manner of things.
Who Are you...Really?
I heard a journalist on NPR this morning lamenting the demise of newspapers, due in part to TV and the Internet. I like newspapers, and I like the immediacy of the Internet too. Both technologies are useful. Watching Charles Osgood's Sunday Morning TV show with the Sunday paper and a cup of coffee in hand is one of the best moments in most weeks. But the journalist was critical of bloggers and others who can really say anything and never reveal their bias...