New pump-less-gas linkedin group

Ever heard of linkedin? If not, you should check it out! Linked in is a great way to network with other people, connect with people you don’t know directly, get answers to questions and much more.

You should also know that I just created a special Pump-Less-Gas linked in group where people in the linked in community can exchange ideas and information. You can find the new group here- LinkedIn Pump-Less-Gas group.

Gore gas problem plan

If you follow any news, you’ve seen former Vice President Al Gore speak about Energy Independence with some specific ideas about it. Gore’s plan includes investments in solar, wind, and geothermal power. He calls for a promise to all coal and oil workers that they will have guaranteed jobs out in the sun and fresh air.His stand is one that why waste time and money on energy that will not ever decrease in price. Gore has chosen an opportune time to bring his proposals into the media spotlight.
The public is growing weary of all of the political posturing over the price of gas, but seeing zero substantial action coming from Capitol Hill. The most recent proposal from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would almost be humorous if it wasn’t such an obvious political stunt for the cameras. Releasing 10% of the reserves equates to about 70 million barrels.Many would love to see us use less fossil fuel for energy supply in our country. According to some expert, right now solar, wind and geothermal power are not reliable enough to supply enough power for our country.

What do you think??

Here’s a video of Al Gore speaking about his energy approach:

Shale oil the solution?

Is shale oil our salvation? I first heard about shale oil on a television news program. What the heck is this shale oil stuff anyway? According to Wikipedia, “oil shale extraction refers to the process in which kerogen, a mixture of organic chemical compounds found in oil shales, is converted into synthetic crude oil through the chemical process of pyrolysis. In this process, oil shale is heated in the absence of oxygen to a temperature at which oil shale is decomposed and kerogen is pyrolysed into a petroleum-like condensable shale oil—a form of non-conventional oil—and combustible shale gas (shale gas can also refer to gas occurring naturally in shales). The process also produces a solid residue in form of spent shale (char). Decomposition of oil shale begins at relatively low temperatures (300 °C (570 °F)), but proceeds more rapidly and more completely at higher temperature. What does all this mean? Well, to boil it down to my understanding, you see there are these rocks that have this oil in them…and we have tons and tons of these rocks available…and there’s a process we can use to get oil from the rocks..(If you have a “thirst” for more dry details about shale oil, check it out a wikipedia here.

Here’s some extracts of info from a site called shale oil now: “America has an Estimated 1 to 2 Trillion Barrels of oil locked in shale in the Midwest. That could be as much as 8 times the total proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. America could be energy independent within 5 years. (This is primarily in the Green River Formation, not the disputed Bakken Formation.) “Any alternatives to our oil economy are at least 30 years away (possibly never). While there are many ways of extending our oil supplies, and I vigorously support and promote all of them, we can not HOPE our way out of our energy challenges. You can’t run your car on a tank of HOPE. Suggested alternatives simply do not rise to meet the enormous quantity of energy we need. Alternatives are a drop in the bucket of what we need.” So what will it take to access this tremendous oil resource? I’m just learning about this alternative but will share info about it as I learn about it– it’s all part of posts I continue to write about alternative energy.

Watch Boone Pickens Plan

If you haven’t heard billionaire T Boone Pickens has taken out advertisements to promote a plan for energy independence. Here are some videos of Pickens:

Here’s a video of the Pickens plan:

Here’s a longer version of the plan:

Here’s Pickens on CNBC:

Billionaire Pickens High Gas Price Solution

clipped from www.reuters.com Tue Jul 8, 2008 3:16pm EDT By Timothy Gardner NEW YORK, July 8 (Reuters) - Texas energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens on Tuesday called for a massive switch to natural gas as a transportation fuel and a boost in wind power in a plan aimed at reducing U.S. foreign oil dependence by a more than a third. The Pickens Plan, which includes exploiting domestic natural gas supplies in new areas like East Texas and Appalachia, could replace 38 percent of U.S. oil imports, he said. “U.S. natural gas can replace foreign oil. It’s the only natural resource we have that can do that,” Pickens said during a press event for his energy plan. The 10-year plan would reduce the annual U.S. oil import bill of $700 billion, at oil prices of $140 a barrel, by hundreds of billions of dollars, he said. The country imports about 70 percent of its crude. Click here for the whole story

Energy independence argument

On this Independence Day holiday weekend, I thought it was only appropriate to share some thinking about energy independence- something this nation has ignored for many years. Here’s some videos about energy independence I thought you would find interesting:

Energy Independence

James Woolsey on Energy Independence

Wind Power

Glenn Beck- 30 Years of Empty Promises

This video provides a bit of a discouraging retrospective about how long we’ve talked about energy independence without doing anything about it. Don’t you think it is time we do something about this and approach it like the Manhattan project? There is now an Energy Manhattan project being talked about but will this really happen? We need the right leadership to make it happen.

If you know of any other interesting videos about energy independence, let us know…Perhaps we’ll finally “get real” about addressing energy independence!

Car fueled by air!

From the “hard to believe” department, how’s this for cheap fuel- car fueled by air! No really- until I read it in the magazine POPULAR MECHANICS I laughed and thought “no way”. Well, apparently it is true! Last year, POPULAR MECHANICS reported that the Air Car caused a huge stir when they reported that Tata Motors would begin producing it in India. Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com on Thursday that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year.

Energy Manhattan project?

Why aren’t we treating the high priced gas crisis like we treated the need to develop the A bomb during World War II? The Manhattan project was an all out effort by the government and private industry to develop the atomic bomb…we did it in record time and the course of history was changed forever!

We put a man on the moon because Kennedy inspired us and dedicated talented folks made it happen even though some people laughed and said it couldn’t happen…Why the hell don’t we have a Manhattan like project going on at this very moment but for alternative energy? The lack of an effort like this makes me mad as hell!…Mad for the sake of the security of this country…mad about what these high prices are doing to our economy and the people on tight budgets who are struggling now because of these prices.

Before we decide on who will be President, we should demand that the candidate we choose commit to an alternative energy Manhattan project…and not just rhetoric but a comprehensive detailed plan for how to make it happen!

Here’s a thought- a group of bright…no… brilliant minds from multiple disciplines from private industry should develop a written position piece and proposed plan for the Manhattan project starting right now.

Some say we should begin drilling in more places now to give oil prices some relief…If this is our only alternative, perhaps we should…but only as an interim measure. We need a longer term comprehensive Manhattan type project that is more environmentally friendly but with limited impact on our free enterprise system.

Why don’t we have the Oil Manhattan Project? Is it too controversial for our politicians? Are lobbying groups blocking this? Has no leader in business or government suggested this idea? Is the public not smart enough to demand that a project like this begin now? What do you think???

Learn about Ethanol

Ethanol is a clean-burning, high-octane motor fuel that is produced from renewable sources. At its most basic, ethanol is grain alcohol, produced from crops such as corn. Because it is domestically produced, ethanol helps reduce America’s dependence upon foreign sources of energy. Pure, 100% ethanol is not generally used as a motor fuel; instead, a percentage of ethanol is combined with unleaded gasoline.
This is beneficial because the ethanol decreases the fuel’s cost, increases the fuel’s octane rating, and decreases gasoline’s harmful emissions.

E10 is approved for use in any make or model of vehicle sold in the U.S. Many automakers recommend its use because of its high performance, clean-burning characteristics. Today about 46% of America’s gasoline contained some ethanol, most as this E10 blend. E85 is an alternative fuel for use in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). There are currently more than 6 million FFVs on America’s roads today, and automakers are rolling out more each year. In conjunction with more flexible fuel vehicles, more E85 pumps are being installed across the country.

When E85 is not avaialble, these FFVs can operate on straight gasoline or any ethanol blend up to 85%. It is important to note that it does not take a special vehicle to run on “ethanol”. All vehicles are “ethanol vehicles” and can use up to 10% ethanol with no modifications to the engine. If these higher percentages of ethanol could be used in standard automobiles, the U.S. could use a dramatically higher amount of renewable fuel, thus significantly decreasing our dependence on petroleum.

New research (”Optimal Ethanol Blend-Level Investigation,” released 12/5/07) shows that mid-range ethanol blends can in some cases provide better fuel economy than regular unleaded gasoline - even in standard, non-flex-fuel vehicles. Previous assumptions that ethanol’s lower energy content directly correlates with lower fuel economy were found to be incorrect.

From the local communities where the crops are grown and processed to the metropolitan areas where drivers fill up with a domestically produced fuel, American-made ethanol propels the economy. With an approximate cost of $60 million for one year of construction, an ethanol plant expands the local economic base by $110 million each year.

Because it is made primarily from corn and other agricultural products, ethanol increases demand for these crops, increases the prices farmers receive for these crops, and brings economic development opportunity to the rural areas where the ethanol is made.

Over the past decade, farmer-owned and locally-owned ethanol plants have driven the dramatic growth in the U.S. ethanol industry. American-made, renewable ethanol directly displaces crude oil we would need to import, offering our country critically needed independence and security from foreign sources of energy.

Current U.S. ethanol production capacity of 6 billion gallons per year can reduce gasoline imports by more than one-third and effectively extends gasoline supplies at a time when refining capacity is at its maximum. According to the Energy Information Administration, the 7.5 billion gallon ethanol production level minimum set in the Renewable Fuels Standard could reduce oil consumption by 80,000 barrels per day.

To learn more about Ethanol and the American Coalition for Ethanol