President Swordsman Plans Energy Independence

Since transportation accounts for 67% of oil consumption and our cars and trucks are 56% alone, we need to do things to reduce our fuel consumption.

For several reasons:
1. Oil is getting more expensive
2. We're running out of it
3. Emissions are creating air pollution
4. I hate OPEC
5. The Middle East is an unstable mess
6. Did I mention I hate OPEC?

I think the proposed raise in CAFE standards is a good start. However, if we raised our level of miles per gallon to the same standard that is average in Europe, we'd reduce our oil consumption by 25% and would no longer need to import oil from OPEC at all. That bears repeating. If we lowered our mpg to the standard that Europe has already shown is possible, we'd no longer care about OPEC.

Some might say that ecologists won't let us drill here in the US for more oil. That's correct, but only to an extent. This is a common misperception. ANWR has about four billion barrels of oil, give or take (http://www.sibelle.info/oped15.htm). That sounds like a lot, but US daily consumption is near 7 million barrels of oil per year. Even given higher estimates of what is in ANWR, it'll power us about a year. Big deal. Gulf of Mexico? About 16 billion barrels of oil. Well, drilling everywere imaginable will gain us about 3-4 years of oil. Clearly, "drill, baby, drill" is not a long term solution.

I think nearly everyone agrees ethanol is a stopgap at best and is going to drive up food prices which we don't want.

We can't build enough solar power or wind power plants to meet demand (although that doesn't mean we shouldn't use those sources of energy).

Coal is incredibly dirty and polluting and yes, there's this concept of clean coal, but it isn't reality. They call it 'clean coal' power, but it's marginally less polluting than the way they were processing it before. Besides, it's still a non-renewable fuel resource and will eventually run out.

We also need to start NOW. Any change to our economy and lifestyle as large as this one needs to be planned and implemented before the wolf is at the door.

So, here are my proposals:
1. Increase mpg standards to the level of Europe over time and allow common rail diesels to be sold in the US. As I said, raising CAFE was a good first step.

2. We need massive public transportation in the form of light rail, commuter rail, subways, elevated rail, and bus-only lanes. This will work in the major cities. Between some cities (like DC to NY), we can build bullet trains. We get the technology from Japan. Is this expensive? Yes. Is it going to be necessary when we run out of oil? Yes.

3. We need to go back to giving tax breaks to those who buy hybrids. Subsidize R&D to get all-electric cars and buses so that we don't use ANY fuel for them eventually. You just go home and plug them into your electrical grid.

4. Which brings up the point, how do you fuel the battery operated cars, bullet trains, light rail, and the like? Nuclear energy. France and South Korea have built massive nuclear power plants, and while I recognize the spent fuel rods are toxic as Hell, there is currently no other reasonable power source that is massive enough to meet our demands. The last nuclear power plant in this country hasn't been built for 25 years. Time for the federal government to give tax breaks, cut through all local red tape, and if necessary, massively (and I mean MASSIVELY) subsidize the building of nuclear plants.

5. We need more biodiesel plants like Germany has (they want to phase out nukes though which I think is silly but understandable I guess). They have over 200 and are building more. I'd rather burn pig excrement (which they are) and other waste products to make fuel then just dump them in a landfill somewhere.

What do you think? Any other ideas out there?