A New Road Map: Tawhid in the 21st century
And your Allah is One Allah. There is no god but He, Most Gracious, Most Merciful (Q2:163).Archive for oil
Got Ethanol?
The Middle East is an unstable region by all accounts. With weekly bombings of Iraqi and Saudi pipelines and refineries we need to worry about the security of the US energy supply. Gasoline prices are sky-rocketing past $2/gallon and there has been resurgence in demand for SUVs and trucks low on the fuel-efficiency scale. Before matters get any worse, we need to ask ourselves some tough questions: how can we get out of Mid-East oil in a hurry? What are the alternatives to the status quo?
A shift in our primary energy supply is a national security necessity. Are there stable, clean and most importantly, domestic alternatives that we can tap into? What is our vision and what technologies will enable it? The Department of Energy posits a change some 25 to 30 years away- we cannot afford to wait that long. We need to develop strategies to dramatically and fundamentally change the shape of energy usage in the U.S. and the planet in the next fifteen years.
So, where do we start? The transportation sector relies almost exclusively on oil. Some 70% of all oil consumed in the US is for transportation (the rest is used for heating and industrial uses). 60% of this oil is imported. If we want to solve the problem of dependency on imported oil, changes must occur in the transportation sector first.
The world today- led by the U.S., Europe and Japan- is slowly moving towards hydrogen as a replacement for transportation in the long term. There are many promises hanging in the air and we need to start preparing for this transition. Some of the fundamental considerations in this road to changing our primary energy source are political and economic feasibility, environmental impact, utilization of existing infrastructure and potential geopolitical disruption.
We need a fuel that will be an alternative to oil today, and can also be used as a source for hydrogen when the promised cars of the future are developed. This fuel is ethanol. Currently made with domestic corn, in a few years time it will be made from any type of cellulosic biomass- from sawdust in paper mills to corn husk and grass. Our waste will become our savior.
What about our cars? Research at the Rocky Mountain Institute tells us that if the efficiency of our cars could increase by 6mpg today we would no longer need to import any oil from the Middle East. What can we do to make it happen?
As consumers we can put pressure on auto manufacturers to make more efficient cars with better mileage. However we also have other choices. Without making any changes, cars of today can run on up to 10% ethanol. Also, all auto manufacturers can produce engines that can run on up to 85% ethanol with no changes in engineering and manufacturing costs (E85 engines). They need to start doing so immediately. We need to lobby the Government to make domestic ethanol a priority rather than running the country on the whims of Halliburton.
Imagine the difference! Hundreds of thousands of new vehicles could be using ethanol instead of oil, a domestic fuel that can be distributed through the existing infrastructure with very limited changes needed.
Hybrid cars also have an important role to play. An increasing number of manufacturers already offer them (Toyota’s Prius and the Honda Insight etc). These cars use almost 30-50% less fuel than average cars. By next year almost all auto manufacturers will be releasing new hybrid cars and SUVs.
The ability to change our oil dependency lies in the hands of the consumers. A word of caution however is needed lest we do something foolish in haste. An ethanol and hydrogen future looks rosy and will provide energy independence for us but we will not solve all our problems.
If we pull out of the international oil market and become independent in a hurry we will cause significant crises in the other parts of the world. The unrest in economies that rely heavily on petro-dollars will cause regimes to collapse and the rich-poor divide to deepen. Emotions of our friends and foes alike could turn against us and the world will have terrorism problems for decades. A holistic view must be taken of the system.
We will need to encourage growth in developing countries so that the demand for oil shifts; as the developing world demands more oil from the suppliers our departure from the scene will be less noticeable. For the long term we need to encourage economic diversification for the oil-producing countries- they need to build new and different industries so that oil is not the major source of their income.
A safer America not dependent on imported oil is a hope for us, our environment and the world at large.
