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Mon 3 Oct, 2005 08:43 am
Op-Ed Contributor
The Other Black Gold
Quote:
By BRIAN SCHWEITZER
Published: October 3, 2005
Helena, Mont.
AMERICA has a substance abuse problem, and Montana may have a cure.
It is easy to forget, but before the hurricanes bumped up already outrageous fuel prices, President Bush was forced to ask the royals of Saudi Arabia - the country that gave us 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers - to lower the price of oil so Americans could afford to drive. He was refused.
In truth, he had no choice. America is addicted to foreign oil, and like any addict we are at the mercy of the pushers and require an intervention. Montana, among other states, is trying to help America get clean by promoting a range of modern domestic energy strategies. Yet our biggest idea is actually a very old recipe: gasoline made from coal instead of oil.
Most people are surprised to learn that we can produce gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products out of coal. Indeed, the process was used in America as early as 1928. In World War II, 92 percent of Germany's aviation fuel and half its total petroleum came from synthetic-fuel plants. South Africa has used a similar technology for 50 years, and now makes 200,000 barrels per day of synthetic gasoline and diesel.
"Synfuels" have remarkable properties: they are high-performing substances that run in existing engines without any technical modifications, and they burn much more cleanly than conventional fuels. The synfuel process, which is nothing like conventional coal use, removes greenhouse gases as well as toxins like sulfur, mercury and arsenic. And the technology has other applications: a synfuel plant can generate electric power, make synthetic natural gas, and produce the hydrogen that many (including President Bush) believe is the energy source of the future
CONTINUED
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/opinion/03schweitzer.html?th&emc=th
It would seem to be on the face of it to be the answer to the energy crisis. Is it just wishful thinking on the part of a governor or an administration controlled by the oil interests refusing to recognize the process.
the latter. no matter how bad things get there will be gas and oil for the super rich, and the point of the bush exercise is to ensure that insular super rich status. That's always been the idea, and it's no more complocated than that.
There is some point where oil from coal and oil shale compete in price with oil from crude. When that point is reached, the technology will become commerical. It would be best to support that technology with pilot plants before that time arrives, if it hasn't yet.
Hopefully the next administration will produce a real energy bill. One that would free us from dependency on foreign sources. Where we can tell the sheiks to eat their sand and drink their oil.
au1929 wrote:Hopefully the next administration will produce a real energy bill. One that would free us from dependency on foreign sources. Where we can tell the sheiks to eat their sand and drink their oil.
It will be a long, arduous and difficult process. Too many politicians and corporations are under the employ of, or partners with, the foreign sources.
Blue
True. Too many of our supposed representatives are in business for themselves.
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