Should our governments be encouraging research into finding alternatives to carbon producing oil burning fuels

Question

Not only establishing alternative fuels but also encouraging the oil industry to produce cars and engines that will run effectively on such new alternative fuels.

Answer 1

The extention of the alternative energy tax credits hasn't been passed yet.   The proposal in the energy bill, in December, was to take $21 billion in tax credits(subsidies) away from the big oil companies to pay for the extension of the alt energy credits.  They expire this year and need to be given another 8 years.  

Nuclear, coal, gas and oil are all heavily subsidized.  This $21 billion is about 1/4 of the oil company subsidies.   The top five oil companies just reported a combined $123 billon dollars in profits for 2007.   Exxon Mobil earned $40 billion.



  The point I'm trying to make is that the current subsidies for alt energy are actually miniscule compared with conventional sources of power.

We should invest more, not less.

Scientific America Solar Grand Plan

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-so...

Have you seen the article in Scientific American about how we can have a solar electric grid in the U.S., using solar thermal power plants in the southwest?

  We already have this technology, and it isn't even high tech.

http://blogs.business2.com/greenwombat/

Green Wombat has articles about solar thermal projects in California and Arizona.  Scroll down.

"In recent months, PG&E has signed deals for more than a gigawatt of electricity — enough to light more than 750,000 homes — with solar power plant developers. Such power purchase agreements can take more than a year to hammer out and the permitting and construction of a solar power station can take another three to five years."

"The United States could lose more than 116,000 green collar jobs and forgo $19 billion in green

tech investment in 2009 if Congress fails to extend two tax credits crucial to the renewable energy industry, according to a new study."

"The solar thermal industry is in its infancy but utilities like PG&E (PCG), Southern California Edison (EIX) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SRE) have signed several contracts for solar

power plants and negotiations for gigawatts more of solar electricity are ongoing."

from Green Wombat - Todd Woody

One gigawatt will power San Francisco.

These are just the start.

If we create a clean energy grid, we can eventually have all electric cars.

"Solar thermal power plants such as Ausra's generate electricity by driving steam turbines with sunshine. Ausra's solar concentrators boil water with focused sunlight, and produce electricity at prices directly competitive with gas- and coal-fired

electric power."

"Solar is one the most land-efficient sources of clean power we have, using a fraction of the area needed by hydro or wind projects of comparable output. All of America's needs for electric power – the entire US grid, night and day – can be

generated with Ausra's current technology using a square parcel of land 92 miles on a side. For comparison, this is less than 1% of America's deserts, less land than currently in use in the U.S. for coal mines."

http://www.ausra.com

The CAFE  fuel efficiency goals that were just passed in the energy bill in December were sadly inadequate.

Answer 2

And who is going to encourage them? YOU ME

What we can all do is not buy any gas  for a week...just stay home and not go to work school shopping. Stay home and read and get acquainted with family. Do a sit down before we all end up in line waiting food slips and you can only buy gas on certain days depending on your last name.

The GOV and big companies will listen then. But gone are the days of the Boston TEA party. We should start or conservation at home!

Answer 3

We Need to Convert, simple as that, otherwise our Environment will Cease to Exist eventually

Answer 4

Stop alternative energy programs based on ethanol and bio fuels.

  South America and the US used to export food. Now all that food is wasted and turned into gas that costs more per gallon, the production emits CO2 and on average uses 30 gallons of pure drinkable water (a resource that is getting scarcer on this planet) while increasing the basic cost of food.

   We need to start drilling for more oil, besides gasoline other by products are fertilizer,  natural gas, diesel, and of course plastic. All at a lower energy cost and no consumption of food except by the workers.

  The US has proven reserves in Alaska, off the California coast, in the gulf are off Florida and off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina. We let special interest groups prohibit us from getting this oil and stopping our dependence OPEC, Mexico, and Venezuela. Why?

   Because all the Eco-freaks feel it is getter for us to pay $4.00 a gallon pollute the oceans with carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide from mega tankers bringing oil to the US. They force these alternate energy bills through congress on us instead of seeing some red tailed nit-rat moved or their condo view spoiled by a temporary drilling rig. The US can become energy self sufficient in less than two years if we let the oil companies do their job. I hate to pay $4.00 a gallon for gas, who do you think will pay the oil companies taxes? The consumer of course, just like we pay their taxes now. Sure it cuts into their profit margin a little, but in the end the biggest company that get the most profit from a gallon of gas is the congress (Right now about 50 cents a gallon) and they spend that on bridges to nowhere.

   Maybe Congress does not want us to drill in the United States they keep the groups who finance their campaigns. All those big powerful Eco lobbies and foreign oil companies that pay them a lot of cash to back them have a bigger say than the voting citizens’ who don’t write their congressman telling them to open up these reserves.

   Alterative energy, Why don’t you look back to the 1970’s and see how much a gallon of gas jumped the last time congress thought they knew how to run a business.

  Congress is at a 20% approval rating lower than even Prez Bush. The reason why is because they are letting these Eco-freaks try to limit big business in the name of climate change. They also don’t see a reason why you should not be happy paying $4.00 a gallon for gas just so some farmer can get a kickback growing corn for ethanol.

Answer 5

Well of course. But the fact is, our government tend to bow to special interest, so that is why this type of stuff takes a very long time. Oil lobbyist control the senate and the house and keep them from pushing any substantial energy bills through simply because it would disrupt "business as usual" for the oil and gas companies.