Alternative Energy

Ok, hold on to your hats, I'm gonna sound like a damned hippie here for a minute. Today, in 1973, OPEC voted to suspend all oil exports to western countries that they considered helpful to Israel. Granted, it's been 30 years since then, but sooner or later, this is going to bite us in the ass again. I suggest we get ourselves off of oil imports as soon as possible for the greater good of our nation.

If we are energy independent, we can tell hostile governments where to stick it. Cheap oil is coming to an end. Do you remember a little more then a year ago, gas was at $1.80 a gallon? Well, prices went up to more then $3.00 a gallon and everyone got pissed. Rightfully so, but then prices are starting to come down. Gas in my area is now down to $2.50 a gallon. Do any of you honestly think that gas is going to go down to $1.80 ever again? People will think "wow, it's gone down" but it will settle around $2.20 tops. OPEC has already stated that they are going to cut production by 1 million barrels per day to keep the price up. India has proclaimed that they will bump up production to fill the 1 million barrels per day gap.

However, Oil is not going to last forever. There's rumors that we're sitting on trillions of gallons of oil, but even if true, that won't last forever either. Honestly, I think Hydrogen is the way to go. Many of you are probably thinking "Hydrogen will run out eventually too". While technically correct, you can extract hydrogen from ordinary tap water. Electrolysis, is the process of extracting hydrogen from water. You can read more about it here. Now, even though hydrogen is a non renewable source, it is cheap and can be created at home. Imagine being able to hook a water line up to a machine, plug it in, and it fills the tank of your car. Water is so unbelievably cheap, you could fill your tank for less then a dollar. You could even go a step further and provide solar power to this machine and get free power, further reducing your costs. You could even go down to your local river and scoop out a tank full for free. Now the downside is that of course, oil companies will have to adapt. But then again, what company hasn't had to adapt to changing markets?

I think my main problem is that we as a society are used to independence and here we are completely dependent on the will of foreign governments, many of them openly hostile to us. So if say, Iran, decides that they want to build a nuclear bomb, and we say no, what do they really have as a negotiating tool? Would they threaten to not sell us a product we don't need or want? There would be a completely different landscape in the Middle East if it weren't for oil. I'm not saying that the whole "blood for oil" bullshit is correct. I think we still would have gotten involved in the first and second Gulf Wars without oil. If you threaten us or an ally, you can expect an ass whipping regardless.

Now, as a side note, I'd like to know from liberals, if the whole "No blood for oil" thing is what you think, why didn't we just keep the oil fields when we had them in 1991 during the first Gulf War? We controlled pretty much the entire country. We could have easily set up shop and said "Fuck You, we're keeping this" and there wasn't much Saddam could do about it. We decimated his army, destroyed his air force, and we had Iraqi soldiers surrendering by the thousands. It was ours for the taking, so why didn't we if that was the reason for us going there?

Travis
travis@rightwinglunatic.com