energy
Return to Common Sense
June 23, 2010
Section:
Domestic – Energy
“The obstacles to
rational power generation in this country are political, not scientific or
technical, so it is time to prioritize energy independence ahead of dubious and unaffordable environmental junk science
to increase
our petroleum supplies exploiting our extensive oil reserves and building new nuclear
plants.”
Philosophy
(Background, Issues, Objectives):
Government oversees energy supply and
demand.
- Department of Energy oversees
- Regulatory and environmental policy restrictions limited energy
exploration and refining ability.
- Energy consumption is expected to increase more rapidly than
domestic energy supply through 2025.
Energy production has a number of sources,
each with its own infrastructure requirements.
- Approximately 6-8 trillion barrels each of conventional and
unconventional oil resources exist.
o Globe
has consumed only one in a grand total of 12 to 16 trillion barrels
underground.
o Industry
recovers an average of only 1 out of 3 barrels of conventional resources
underground.
§
A 10% gain in extraction efficiency on a global
scale will unlock 1.2 to 1.6 trillion barrels of extra resource – an
additional 50 year supply at current consumption rates.
o Unconventional
sources include shale oil, tar sands, extra heavy oil.
o Industry
recovers much less than 1 out of 3 barrels of unconventional resources.
- Oil remains the biggest source of
o Most
of our oil is imported from the
§
§
§
§
o Domestic
§
Untapped
§
Majority of US offshore drilling is in central and
western
Ø
3,200 of the roughly 3,700 offshore production
platforms are in the Gulf of Mexico.
Ø
These oil production platforms off the Bayou
state's coasts extracts 80% of the oil and 72% of the natural gas produced in
the Continental U.S., without causing a single major oil spill in over half a
century of this process.
Ø
Most of US refineries are in the Gulf Region also.
o EPA
regulatory and environmental policy restricts the building of additional
refineries.
- Despite environmental restriction coal still provides 23% of
o Environmental
improvements have been made in coal fired plant pollution control.
- Natural gas has become economically attractive and provides 22% of
o A
Gas OPEC-like cartel, composed of non-democratic nations, is emerging.
- Aging nuclear plants provide 8% of
o
o
o Nuclear
fusion technology experiments are showing promise.
- Hydroelectric energy production provides 2.8% of our energy.
- In 2007 the
o Biomass,
including ethanol, provides 2.9% of energy.
o Renewable
energy sources (solar, wind, geothermal, ocean waves) generate less than 1% of
energy.
o Most
of the best energy producing wind power areas are
located far from population centers, requiring energy transport infrastructure.
o Government subsidies distort the real total cost of energy sources:
§ Solar
energy at $24.34 per megawatt-hour (MWh)
§ Wind
power at $23.37 per MWh.
§ Ethanol
and biofuels at $5.72 per MWh.
§ Nuclear
power at $1.59 per MWh.
§ Hydroelectricity
at $.67 per MWh.
§ Coal
power at $.44 per MWh.
§ Gas
and petroleum liquids at $.03 per MWh
o Without
government subsidies, synthetic fuels have never been economically viable.
- There is a lot of interest but little investment in new emerging
technologies (hydrogen).
- U.S. electric power, in particular, is
generated by a variety of sources (2006):
o Coal
– 49.0%.
o Natural
Gas – 20.0%.
o Nuclear
– 19.4%.
o Hydroelectric
– 7.0%.
o Other
renewable (wind, solar, biomass, etc.) – 2.4%.
o Petroleum
– 1.6%.
o Other
gases - .4%.
Energy is consumed for transportation,
residential, commercial, and industry needs.
- Current daily global consumption stands at around 86 million
barrels
- Transportation uses 25% of all energy produced.
o 97%
of all transport in the
- Residential and commercial use 24% of energy.
- Industry uses 21% of energy.
- 6% of oil/gas energy output (oil/gas) is used for non energy
purposes (plastics, fertilizers, etc.).
- 21% of energy input is lost during conversion to useful forms.
Nuclear energy is a viable long term source of
energy
- Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 has been ineffective and will not
support expanded use.
o Federal
government assumed responsibility of disposing of spent nuclear fuel.
o Government
policies have discouraged the resumption of nuclear reprocessing efforts.
o New
plants would have to be in areas that are not currently linked with
high-voltage (HV) transmission lines to major consumption centers and will
require a rewiring of the country.
- A majority of Americans have been supportive of the use of nuclear
energy in the United States.
o Gallup
found 59% of Americans favor use of nuclear energy, with 27% strongly favoring.
o Despite
no safety issues in several decades, there remain concerns about safety of
nuclear power plants.
Renewable Energy sources are not
economically viable with today’s technology.
- Spain found that for every "green job" created by the
wind industry killed off 4.27 other jobs elsewhere in the Spanish economy.
·
Denmark found that “no wind energy to speak
of would exist if it had to compete on market terms.”
- It would take a wind farm more than 475 square miles in size to
generate the same amount of electrical power and a 1000 megawatt nuclear
plant.
- An area the size of
- It would take every drop of rainfall in
- The entire state of
Ethanol is being oversold as an energy
“silver bullet” solution that will not live up to expectations.
- Ethanol costs more to produce than gasoline, before the subsidies.
- Studies show amount of energy ethanol delivers are about the same
as the amount to produce.
- Unintended consequence of ethanol is increasing cost of global food
supplies.
- Since ethanol degrades, it must be moved at high energy costs.
- Use of corn to product ethanol is not efficient as other sources,
and competes with feedstock.
Principles:
Availability of energy at reasonable
rates is critical to economic growth and stability.
Energy policy balance:
- Avoid costly environmental regulatory mandates that will achieve
little environmental gain.
- Rely on the private sector’s research and development
capabilities.
- Urge government agencies to learn from the private sector.
- Make all sources of energy within the
- Remove artificial constraints on the domestic energy infrastructure,
including severe environmental regulations.
- Ensure that any effort to reduce reliance on foreign oil is
grounded in policies that are best for the economy.
- Manage risks to critical energy infrastructure as a responsibility
shared jointly by the government and the private sector,
- Establish effective risk communications for energy issues.
- Develop foreign policies that thwart the capability of coercive
regimens to employ energy supplies as an economic weapon.
- Sustain access to the global marketplace.
- Discourage restrictive international regimes.
- Recognize that not all trading partners are equal.
Nuclear Power Principles
- Avoid creating dependency-based vulnerability.
- Establish technological leadership across the spectrum of military,
civilian, and commercial nuclear activities.
- Assure access to the components, capabilities, and materials
necessary to build, operate, and maintain
- Promote free trade as a central tenet of the global nuclear
industry.
- Limit subsidies to the commercial nuclear industry.
- Recognize nuclear power as a clean and abundant energy source.
- Move beyond a Yucca-only approach to spent nuclear fuel.
- Recognize that nuclear weapons are not the result of peaceful
nuclear energy programs.
- Modify international nuclear regimes to better manage a global
nuclear renaissance.
- Pursue nuclear power programs that make the
Recommendations:
Short
Term, increase domestic energy supplies to
lesson
- Fast track new, safer nuclear power plants.
o Reduce
the permitting schedule from four years down to two or less and should be
available for up to two construction permits per reactor design.
o Expand
the
o Explore
commercial reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel.
- Expand energy production by removing regulatory barriers:
o Remove limitations to access to untapped domestic oil/gas energy
production in ANWR and on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
o Exploit oil shale deposits in National Parks.
o Reduce regulatory and environmental restrictions to allow new
production and refineries to be built.
o Remove
environmental restrictions to allow mining low sulfur, low polluting coal
deposits.
- Employ federal funds to accelerate the development and deployment
of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques.
Decrease energy usage with increased
conservation and efficiency will complement increased production.
- Reduce energy loss from leakage, co-generation, and unneeded
emission control.
- Significantly strengthen fuel efficiency standards for vehicles,
construction, and appliances.
- Fund significant financial incentives for domestic production and
purchase of highly fuel efficient vehicles.
Invest judiciously in emerging energy
technologies.
- Repeal corn ethanol initiative as ineffective and disruptive to the
food supply.
- Establish Open Fuel Standard to increase production of Flexible
Fuel Vehicles (FFV).
- Invest in electric transportation alternatives as major initiative
in energy program.
o Require
dual fuel capability vehicles that use both electric and auxiliary gasoline
engine.
o Invest
in battery emerging technologies to extent the range of electric vehicles.
- Provide grants for commercialization of emerging energy
technologies.
o Exploit
geothermal energy as a readily available, environment friendly alternative.
Long
Term,
- Abolish federal Department of Energy as not covered under
enumerated powers.
o
Terminate
energy research activities ($19.9 billion annually).
o
Privatize
the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Power Marketing Administrations ($1.02
billion annually).
o
Transfer environmental activities to Environmental
Protection Agency ($544 million annually).
o
Terminate
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
o
Move
the defense-related activities to the Department of Defense ($19 billion
annually).
- Develop Comprehensive Energy Policy to allow free market to govern
energy production and use.
o Promote
fuel diversity to allow free market, not government regulation, to determine
energy winners and losers.
§
Eliminate
all government subsidies on energy sources.
§
Set energy transition to alternative sources
expectations in terms of decades.
o
Strive for energy
independence, reducing domestic usage and foreign energy imports.
o Remove
regulatory barriers to energy production, storage, and exploitation.
o
Reject calls to drastically reduce air emissions,
which would suppress needed energy production.
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A Fuel for the Future” by James Daniel dated 1975 published in
Readers Digest.
“The
Energy Crisis: There Is an Easy Answer” by James Nathan Miller dated
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Energy Solution” by Mike Oliver and John Hospers dated
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Mistakes of the 1990s Should Top The Energy Agenda for 2006” by Ben
Lieberman dated March 20, 2006 published by The Heritage Foundation on http://www.heritage.org/Research/EnergyandEnvironment/bg1921.cfm .
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“Break
the oil monopoly” by Clifford D. May dated
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Forces Only Cure for Oil Prices” by Robert L. Bradley Jr. dated
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to Regulation” by Pete DuPont dated
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Restrictions on Domestic Offshore Energy Production” by Ben Lieberman
dated
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Out of Oil?” by Walter E. Williams dated
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Fusion – Much Needed Recognition” by E. Ralph Hostetter dated
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Would Reagan Do About Energy?” by Don Hodel
dated
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Energy Inventory: Abundant Domestic Supplies Off-Limits” by Ben
Lieberman dated
“
“State
of the
“Very,
Very Big Corn” dated
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of Bush’s Latest Fix for Energy Policy” by Kevin Hassett dated
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101: How to Reduce Gasoline Consumption” by Gary Wolfram dated
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Secret of Viable Ethanol” by Mark Falcoff
dated
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Brazilian Sugarcane Ethanol Experience” by Marcus Renato
Xavier dated
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Corn Threat” by Dave Juday dated
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dated
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dated
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dated
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and Pipe Dreams” dated
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Obvious Energy Answer” by Kevin Roeten
dated
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Principles to Guide
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Energy Challenge” By Alan W. Dowd dated
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Our Motors Running” dated
“Creating
a Biomass” dated
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Increase Federal Gasoline Taxes – Abolish Them” by Jerry Taylor
and Peter Van Doren dated
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Energy Tax Policy for the Twenty-First Century” by Kevin A. Hassett and Gilbert E. Metcalf dated
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say ‘oui’ to nuclear power” by
John Dyson and Matt Bennett dated
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Oil into Salt” by R. James Woolsey and Anne Korin
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.
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Nuclear Renaissance: Ten Principles to Guide
“Time
to Curb Oil Dependence” by E. Ralph Hostetter
dated
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Myths About Nuclear Energy” by Jack Spencer and Nicolas Loris dated
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About Breaking Our Foreign Oil Habit” by Robert Bryce dated
“The
“
“The
World Has Plenty of Oil” by Nansen G. Saleri
dated
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Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2008: Modernizing Spent Fuel Management in the
“What
“Energy
2008: The Coming Economic Meltdown” by William Weronko
dated
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Picks a Loser” by Dana Joel Gattuso dated
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Oil Drilling, Please” by Deroy Murdock
dated
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Power Critical to Meeting President’s Greenhouse Gas Objectives”
by Jack Spencer dated
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Case for Ending Ethanol Subsidies” by Diana Furchtgott-Roth
dated
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Riots Made in the
“
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Starvation, and other Liberal Ideas” by Ross Kaminsky
dated
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Hopeless Energy Policy” by Irwin M. Stelzer
dated
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Simple Case of Supply and Demand?” by Ruben Bryce dated
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Fuel Flexibility” by Clifford D. May dated
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of Nuclear Power’s Costs Miss the Point” by Jack Spencer and
Nick Loris dated
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Coal to Fuel” by Vasko Kohlmayer
dated
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Foolishness Has Made Nuclear Energy Radioactive” by Jack Spencer and
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Free-Market Approach to Managing Used Nuclear Fuel” by Jack Spencer
dated
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is the
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dated
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.
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.
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.
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.
