Ludi
September 9th, 2005, 02:26 PM
From:
ENERGY EFFICIENCY -- (House of Representatives - September 07, 2005)
(edited to fit)
[Page: H7732]
...Mr. Speaker, we will transition to alternatives, because the age of oil will not last forever. And as oil runs down, we must move to alternatives. We will either move to alternatives because there is not any more oil available in the quantity we would like, and by the way we are not running out of oil; there will be oil for another 100 years. What we are running out of is readily available, high-quality oil produced in the quantities that we need to meet our current economic demands.
Now, we really are going to have to reduce our consumption here so that we will have some energy to invest in the alternatives, because you are not going to make the transition without investing three things: Money. Mr. Speaker, we do not worry much about money. We just borrow it, without permission, from our kids and grandkids. But we cannot borrow time and we cannot borrow energy. So we are going to need to have time and need to have energy. So what we are going to need to do is to conserve, so that we reduce our energy demands so that we have something to invest.
The next chart shows us, Mr. Speaker, that we really can do that. This shows through the years from 1960 to 2000 the energy use per capita, per person, in the United States. Now, on this chart, Mr. Speaker, we see something very interesting. We, and by ``we,'' me and everybody else in the United States and California, started out at the same place, about 4,000 kilowatt hours per person. We have been using more and more energy as we have lived better and better from 1960 until now. We have more labor-saving things that are using fossil fuels to help us. But notice what has happened. Because of their emphasis on environment and efficiency in California, the average Californian uses only about 65 percent as much energy as the rest of America. This shows, Mr. Speaker, that we can conserve. We can be more efficient. We can reduce our consumption of energy.
The next chart shows what we have available to us to transition from fossil fuels, oil, gas, and coal to renewables. We have some finite resources. These are things which we have that are not the typical petroleum product that we can rely on to give us some energy. Tar sands and oil shales and coal and nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Just a word about these...
[Time: 23:30]
...But this is really the problem we have had, because these fossil fuels are so good, they are so available, the energy density is so high that we have just come really to rely on them. So when we are looking for alternatives, if we are going to continue the lifestyle anything like the lifestyle we have now, we are going to have to find substitutes that have something like the quality of energy this our fossil fuels. That is not going to be easy, Mr. Speaker.
...
Once we have gone through these finite resources, then we come to the alternatives. I would like to look at the next chart and leave this one up, because I want to come back to it.
This now shows where we are. This is our total energy use in the little circle here, and three-fourths of that, the natural gas, the petroleum and the coal, if you add those up, they add up to 85, it should be 85 percent.
The other sources of energy are then 15 percent total. A bit more than half of that comes from nuclear power and so-called renewables. Here the chart has blown that up so we can see it. The biggest part of that comes from hydroelectric, and that is not likely to grow in our country, because we have dammed up about every river we should and maybe a few we should not and we are breaching more dams than we are creating now. So that is probably not going to grow....
Now, the chart on the left here was given to me by our Department of Energy. I am told by the experts that this is wildly optimistic, but this is at least this group's view of what we can get out of it. The Energy Conference had these two experts who said that you need to put in more energy than you will get out. And even this optimistic assessment says that to get a million BTUs out, you need to put in three-fourths that amount. Now, of course, the extra energy comes from the sun, which, by the way, is where the oil came from too, because the oil and gas all come from things that grew a very long time ago with sun.
On the bottom here is a really interesting chart. In this little pie-shaped thing here, it shows all of the energy that goes into producing a bushel of corn. And notice that nearly half the energy, Mr. Speaker, that goes into producing a bushel of corn comes from nitrogen. And that nitrogen fertilizer is made from natural gas, so that is natural gas energy there. And notice almost every other slice of this pie, we are talking about fossil fuel energy to grow the seed to haul, to supply the water, many of the chemicals come from oil, custom work, putting oil in the combine, natural gas that is liquefied or used as natural gas for drying your crop, electricity that is used for a lot of things; gasoline itself, diesel, the lime and the phosphate and the pot ash are all mined using fossil fuels, so essentially, for every piece of this pie, fossil fuels are used.
Now, what do we need to do? This next chart, which is our last chart, shows us the challenge. And, Mr. Speaker, what we need is a focus that is equivalent, if you are old enough to remember the Manhattan Project, it is equivalent to the Manhattan Project, or putting a man on the moon. That was a real challenge. And I think we need to challenge the American people in a very similar way. We have to do something about our dependence on foreign oil. If you do not think there is going to be such a thing as peak oil, and I think we are probably here. I hope not. I hope I am wrong, I hope these world experts are wrong. But if we are right, then we face a very bumpy ride. But even if you do not believe that as a problem, you have to believe that getting two-thirds of our oil from overseas is a big national security risk. By the way, we need to do exactly the same thing to reduce the national security risk that we need to do to transition. We need to buy time, conservation, and efficiency. We need to use that very wisely. If you do the wrong thing, you may end up making the problem even worse.
I would encourage my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, to look into Jevons Paradox. Very interesting paradox. For some problems, the harder you work, the worse the problem gets. There will be real benefits to doing this. We will have technologies we can sell to the world, not just we, but the world, so we need to make this transition. We will create a lot of new jobs. It will be challenging to our people.
Whether we like it or not, Mr. Speaker, we are going to be a role model. We use 25 percent of the world's oil. We are a role model. We are going to be a role model. We need to step up to that.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to challenge our government and our people to step up to this challenge. There are those who believe that we cannot do this. One writer begins his article by saying, dear reader, civilization as we know it will end soon. His name is Mat Savinar, you will find him with a google search of ``peak oil.'' Please read the article. You will be genuinely frightened, having finished the article.
I am not as pessimistic as Mat Savinar. I think that the American people, because we have met every other challenge, I think we can meet this challenge. But, Mr. Speaker, we are not likely to meet the challenge if we do not know there is a problem. So I am very appreciative for this opportunity to speak about this problem, and we will be back again, because this problem is not going to go away, and we need to talk more and more about the solutions and the problem.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY -- (House of Representatives - September 07, 2005)
(edited to fit)
[Page: H7732]
...Mr. Speaker, we will transition to alternatives, because the age of oil will not last forever. And as oil runs down, we must move to alternatives. We will either move to alternatives because there is not any more oil available in the quantity we would like, and by the way we are not running out of oil; there will be oil for another 100 years. What we are running out of is readily available, high-quality oil produced in the quantities that we need to meet our current economic demands.
Now, we really are going to have to reduce our consumption here so that we will have some energy to invest in the alternatives, because you are not going to make the transition without investing three things: Money. Mr. Speaker, we do not worry much about money. We just borrow it, without permission, from our kids and grandkids. But we cannot borrow time and we cannot borrow energy. So we are going to need to have time and need to have energy. So what we are going to need to do is to conserve, so that we reduce our energy demands so that we have something to invest.
The next chart shows us, Mr. Speaker, that we really can do that. This shows through the years from 1960 to 2000 the energy use per capita, per person, in the United States. Now, on this chart, Mr. Speaker, we see something very interesting. We, and by ``we,'' me and everybody else in the United States and California, started out at the same place, about 4,000 kilowatt hours per person. We have been using more and more energy as we have lived better and better from 1960 until now. We have more labor-saving things that are using fossil fuels to help us. But notice what has happened. Because of their emphasis on environment and efficiency in California, the average Californian uses only about 65 percent as much energy as the rest of America. This shows, Mr. Speaker, that we can conserve. We can be more efficient. We can reduce our consumption of energy.
The next chart shows what we have available to us to transition from fossil fuels, oil, gas, and coal to renewables. We have some finite resources. These are things which we have that are not the typical petroleum product that we can rely on to give us some energy. Tar sands and oil shales and coal and nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Just a word about these...
[Time: 23:30]
...But this is really the problem we have had, because these fossil fuels are so good, they are so available, the energy density is so high that we have just come really to rely on them. So when we are looking for alternatives, if we are going to continue the lifestyle anything like the lifestyle we have now, we are going to have to find substitutes that have something like the quality of energy this our fossil fuels. That is not going to be easy, Mr. Speaker.
...
Once we have gone through these finite resources, then we come to the alternatives. I would like to look at the next chart and leave this one up, because I want to come back to it.
This now shows where we are. This is our total energy use in the little circle here, and three-fourths of that, the natural gas, the petroleum and the coal, if you add those up, they add up to 85, it should be 85 percent.
The other sources of energy are then 15 percent total. A bit more than half of that comes from nuclear power and so-called renewables. Here the chart has blown that up so we can see it. The biggest part of that comes from hydroelectric, and that is not likely to grow in our country, because we have dammed up about every river we should and maybe a few we should not and we are breaching more dams than we are creating now. So that is probably not going to grow....
Now, the chart on the left here was given to me by our Department of Energy. I am told by the experts that this is wildly optimistic, but this is at least this group's view of what we can get out of it. The Energy Conference had these two experts who said that you need to put in more energy than you will get out. And even this optimistic assessment says that to get a million BTUs out, you need to put in three-fourths that amount. Now, of course, the extra energy comes from the sun, which, by the way, is where the oil came from too, because the oil and gas all come from things that grew a very long time ago with sun.
On the bottom here is a really interesting chart. In this little pie-shaped thing here, it shows all of the energy that goes into producing a bushel of corn. And notice that nearly half the energy, Mr. Speaker, that goes into producing a bushel of corn comes from nitrogen. And that nitrogen fertilizer is made from natural gas, so that is natural gas energy there. And notice almost every other slice of this pie, we are talking about fossil fuel energy to grow the seed to haul, to supply the water, many of the chemicals come from oil, custom work, putting oil in the combine, natural gas that is liquefied or used as natural gas for drying your crop, electricity that is used for a lot of things; gasoline itself, diesel, the lime and the phosphate and the pot ash are all mined using fossil fuels, so essentially, for every piece of this pie, fossil fuels are used.
Now, what do we need to do? This next chart, which is our last chart, shows us the challenge. And, Mr. Speaker, what we need is a focus that is equivalent, if you are old enough to remember the Manhattan Project, it is equivalent to the Manhattan Project, or putting a man on the moon. That was a real challenge. And I think we need to challenge the American people in a very similar way. We have to do something about our dependence on foreign oil. If you do not think there is going to be such a thing as peak oil, and I think we are probably here. I hope not. I hope I am wrong, I hope these world experts are wrong. But if we are right, then we face a very bumpy ride. But even if you do not believe that as a problem, you have to believe that getting two-thirds of our oil from overseas is a big national security risk. By the way, we need to do exactly the same thing to reduce the national security risk that we need to do to transition. We need to buy time, conservation, and efficiency. We need to use that very wisely. If you do the wrong thing, you may end up making the problem even worse.
I would encourage my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, to look into Jevons Paradox. Very interesting paradox. For some problems, the harder you work, the worse the problem gets. There will be real benefits to doing this. We will have technologies we can sell to the world, not just we, but the world, so we need to make this transition. We will create a lot of new jobs. It will be challenging to our people.
Whether we like it or not, Mr. Speaker, we are going to be a role model. We use 25 percent of the world's oil. We are a role model. We are going to be a role model. We need to step up to that.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to challenge our government and our people to step up to this challenge. There are those who believe that we cannot do this. One writer begins his article by saying, dear reader, civilization as we know it will end soon. His name is Mat Savinar, you will find him with a google search of ``peak oil.'' Please read the article. You will be genuinely frightened, having finished the article.
I am not as pessimistic as Mat Savinar. I think that the American people, because we have met every other challenge, I think we can meet this challenge. But, Mr. Speaker, we are not likely to meet the challenge if we do not know there is a problem. So I am very appreciative for this opportunity to speak about this problem, and we will be back again, because this problem is not going to go away, and we need to talk more and more about the solutions and the problem.