T. Boone Pickens’ investments to solve the oil crisis will do nothing to provide more, cheaper gasoline for the 200 million cars in the United States. Only more oil development will solve that problem.
All power sources pollute in some way. Which pollutes the least and is the easiest to manage is the question and a tradeoff. At some point, the humans in the world will use up all of the fuels available if we continue down the present road of energy consumption. We will just wring the fixed assets in the world dry.
Wind and solar on their own cannot provide enough power to meet the electric demands of the world. However, working in conjunction with nuclear, we have a combination that has the least impact on the environment. Nuclear provides far more power than either wind or solar with the least impact on the viewshed or environment. However, even uranium is not an endless source of power.
Cutting the demand is one consideration. How?
By reducing the population of the world by half.
Electric public transportation.
Electric cars.
Increased efficiency.
Pickens’ huge wind farm in Texas is projected to provide 5 billion watt hours of power when the wind is blowing. That is the amount that can be produced by one nuclear power plant, which can generate 24/7.
What the world needs is a scientific energy plan and program not driven by the religion of environmentalism or the thirst for fossil fuel profits. A well-thought-out plan will, in the end, result in something of profit for both and reduce the drain on the energy resources of the world. If we use it all up here on Earth, where will we go to get more? The moon, Mars, Titan?
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 7, 2008.
