NY Times Special (Business As Usual) Energy Section
Clifford Krauss’ “Can We Do Without the Mideast?” sets the tone for the “Special Energy Section” in the NY Times, March 31, 2011. “The path to independence – or at least an end to dependence on the Mideast – could well be dirty, expensive and politically explosive.” Is this an April Fool’s Day joke? The path to sustainable energy requires vision and hard work. a solar array on every roof and insulation in every wall and every attic. It will be better for the economy, better for the environment, and better for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.
There is an article about the demand for new nuclear power installations in “China, India and other regions” (like Pakistan and Iran). Matt Wald’s article about carbon sequestration suggests that it is far from proven technology, but we know it will be expensive. This is not news. While there are ads for renewable energy, one by an oil company, the other by Scotland, there are no articles about wind, solar, hydro, including small hydro and marine, geothermal, and the negawatt virtual turbines of conservation and efficiency.
Krauss cites President Nixon and the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, President Carter “calling an effort to reduce our dependency on foreign oil “the moral equivalent of war,” President G. W. Bush, Krauss said “called oil an addiction.” And President Obama said, “We cannot keep going from shock when gas prices go up to trance when prices go back down.”
And we have seen, in addition to the economic, banking, housing bubble pop, and employment crises, the energy system Trifecta of Disaster Plus One.
- 12/22/08: Flood of 1.2 Billion Gallons of coal ash – laden with toxic heavy metals from arsenic to lead to mercury to zinc, and including uranium 235, U 238 and thorium.
- 4/7/10: the accident at the Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W. Virginia. 29 miners dead.
- 4/22/10: the Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe: 5.1 million barrels of crude gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, plus an unknown quantity of (toxic) dispersants poured into the spill like a magic potion to make it seem to disappear.
- 3/11/11: earthquake, tsunami, irreparable damage to six to 12 nuclear reactors at three complexes in Japan, fires in the spent fuel storage pools, and release of clouds of radioactive gases and the release of radioactive materials into the Pacific.
On Jan. 25, 2011, in the State of the Union, President Obama called for an infrastructure shift to 80 % clean energy by 2035. (See my analysis here.) This is the bold vision and strong action we need. We need to redesign our energy infrastructure and rebuild it around clean, renewable, sustainable energy and efficiency. For example: 200 gigawatts of nameplate capacity wind, 100 gigawatts of nameplate capacity solar. Rather than a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage, we want a solar array on every roof and insulation in every wall and every attic. It will be better for the economy, better for the environment, and better for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.
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Lawrence J. Furman, MBA.
The author, who earned his MBA in Managing for Sustainability at Marlboro College writes on energy, sustainability, and systems dynamics.