t boone pickens energy plan?

[Scott50]

anyone have any thoughts/opinions? Since our govt has failed for the past 30 years to come up with a energy policy , I'm all for the private sector to step up to the plate.. Show people that you can produce clean renewable energy and make a profit..

Some alarming facts-
we send 700 billion dollars Annually out of of country every year year due to our dependence on foreign oil..

Americans use 25% of the worlds oil but are roughly 5-6% of the world's population

https://www.pickensplan.com

[AngelinaCatHub]

Hey I like him in principle. I don’t think his plan is well thought out. The best and most reliable plan is Nuclear power plants. We use them in subs and Aircraft carriers, etc. and they have an uneventful safety record. If it were not for the commy Jane Flounder, we would have less problems. Take the coal out of power plants turn it to oil (oh yes it can be done) and Oil out of the power plants we have plenty of gas.

HOWEVER!!! The best thing going is diesel. I have had 7 machines diesel. Take the spark plug out of the engine as diesel was invented in Germany over 100 years ago to burn soybean oil. I can burn peanut oil, turpentine, benzene, soybean, peanut oil, saffron, mineral spirits, you name it. It will not burn gasoline or water. Not only that, it burns it 100% and oxygen comes out of the exhaust. What you see in large diesels is carbon-black that falls on the ground and will not hurt anything as we are all carbon based.

We do not have a fuel problem. We have an engine problem. I ran out of fuel once and rolled into a parking lot. I put two quarts of charcoal liter into my tank and drove it to a station. You can’t do that with your Toyota.

This fuel thing is an educational thing. I have a VW four banger and it can lay rubber and pass on a hill no problem. WHY are we stuck with low compression engines?

The engine of today burns only 80% of the gasoline so the residual will go and feed the catalytic converter as it fires up to burn the impurities in the gas for our tree hugging nitwits who want a GREEN world. This is the best way to get a GREEN Country, make the spark plug illegal. Just my opinion. ‘Hub

[AngelinaCatHub]

P.S.
When I had to change the hydraulic oil in my tractor, five gallons worth, I put it into the gas tank, not in the river. I then mowed my yard with the old hydraulic oil. I have strained our grease after deep fat frying and added it to the mix of oil and to date, other than filters, my tractor is five years old without a problem and runs well on grease.

[JRScott]

His plan is better than the government's no plan.

In truth the Energy Dept probably should be abolished, control of energy is not an enumerated right of the Federal Congress therefore by the bill of rights is an enumerated power of the states.

What we need is a sweeping energy plan. Pickens is correct that for the foreseeable future oil will remain most important and we need to drill for what we have while we still can afford to. It will not eliminate our dependency, we just use to much but it can at least help us diminish that dependency.

Next we have to look at other alternatives.

Sen. Kennedy blocked a wind farm proposal out towards cape cod. That shows what the main problem is. We need these things, that area is very windy and would produce a good amount of electricity.

In the upper midwest you have a lot of wind as well as coastal New England. These areas would be ideal for wind turbines.

In the southwestern USA you have desert, lots and lots of desert that isn't doing anything. The one good thing it is good for is sunshine. Solar power plants here could supplement the power needs of the states in that area. We need to research more efficient solar cells though.

Along the gulf coast and Atlantic and Pacific coasts you could make wave generation plants that harness the oceans waves to make power which could be used to provide a portion of the power there.

In the Rockies you could take the tremendous amount of coal we have and make liquid coal and use it like the Germans did in WWII. Still not clean though but could tide us over.

Next as mentioned above more Nuclear Power Plants. The United States is not as geologically sound as France though and I'm not sure we could build enough Fission Reactors to supply 80% of our power. Of course we could fund research of a Fusion Nuclear Power Plant. Probably the Southeast would be the best place for a nuclear power plant, it would have to be inland enough not to be threatened by hurricanes as well so you are probably looking Tennessee Kentucky Arkansas and in that area. Making sure to avoid the faults that run under St. Louis and surrounding areas.

Next using our natural gas we could replace oil and gas within a generation. There are 2 problems. First lack of infrastructure. It is very hard to get natural gas outside of certain metropolitan areas. Second is cost of replacing vehicles. The technology needs to be such that even someone with below median income can afford a new vehicle as gas to natural gas conversion I don't think is possible.

[banca rotta]

drill, Drill, DRILL!!!

[Scott50]

drilling is NOT a long term solution to this problem.. we import 70% of our oil and have about 3% of the worlds oil reserves. even if if we drilled in the Artic reserve and ramped up off shore drilling we would still need to import the majority of our oil..

[AngelinaCatHub]

JR, we are speaking from the same microphone. YES and drill of course. Do you not think that after we get that 'alternative' fuel (nuke, water, whatever), oil just may be a hazard which we donot wish to deal with except to grease wheel bearings and make plastic baby chairs?

We have more oil right now on our own soil to drive anything for hundreds of years. It is stupid politicians and tree huggers stopping us. Oh don't drill off of Florida, the "spill" will kill our tourist trade. How about drilling, employing MANY, building refinery in Tampa or someplace, and hell with the Yanquee tourist trade. If they can't swim in Clearwater and wash the oil off when they come out of the surf, so what.

WHEN did we ever have a disaster with oil? One drunken tanker captain and nature cleaned it up, not man. Nuclear; two mishaps, no deaths here and several hundred in Chernobyl due to cheap tech.

As I said above, diesel engines are efficient powerful and can burn anything but water and gasoline. We have no problem with fuel except politics, money and power. 'Hub

[JRScott]

All oil accidents have been transportation accidents like the Valdez which is most famous but not the only example. Look at Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav, no leaks from oil refineries in the gulf etc. That shows how really safe they are. The fear of one accident cannot hold us back.

Same is true with Nuclear, however there have been more than two nuclear reactors that failed, there were a couple test ones too. We should strive to build more nuclear plants but we need geologically stable areas to do it. I've even seen proposals of small nuclear disposable reactors that could generate considerable energy but are buried deep in the earth in seismic jackets. Basically they'd be good for 30 years, and provide power sufficient for a rural setting.

[epiphany]

drilling is NOT a long term solution to this problem.. we import 70% of our oil and have about 3% of the worlds oil reserves. even if if we drilled in the Artic reserve and ramped up off shore drilling we would still need to import the majority of our oil..

Hmmmm, I don't think so.......this has nothing to do with reserves....while I agree that drilling is not an immedate solution to the current problem, because we need to build the refineries, etc... we (the United States of America) are sitting on MORE oil than the rest of the world. Don't just think Artic reserve, think California, Rocky Mountains, etc.....

We just aren't allowed to tap it due to environmental laws. Blame the 1982 Exxon Mobil spill. To which I would reply, we've come a long way baby in learning how to not let that happen again. Let the oil taps free!

ep