The superiority of capitalism and its motivating ability to catalyze creativity and innovation is magnificently exhibited on the Discovery Channel special “Addicted to Oil” by Thomas Friedman. Mr. Friedman has spent his entire adult life reporting on the Middle East. Our leaders, oilmen both, have proclaimed that alternate energy is decades away. Naturally, their fortunes are tied to imported oil. The Detroit automakers point out that the half a billion dollars spent on electric cars was a bust, there was not enough demand. That was then, this is now. Gas prices influence the work in alternative fuels, and when the oil sheiks felt threatened, they lowered the price of oil, but there is far too much demand for a substantial drop to be sustainable.
The Rocky Mountain Institute began working on carbon auto bodies in the 70s, and have perfected them: feather-light weight, stronger than steel. They have even identified switch grass as a better and more efficient biofuel than corn. It grows wild without the need to water or fertilizer. A company in Southern California is already switching out hybrid batteries and replacing them with plug-in batteries. With the use of biofuels, i.e. E85, present technology can build cars to get up to 100 miles per gallon of gas.
Why don”t we have them in mass production today? Congressional support is sporadic, not consistent. Brazil has offered to export sugar cane to make E85 but Congress put a 100-percent tariff on it. Of course, Hawaii has thousands of acres of abandoned sugar cane fields and thousands of unemployed kanakas who would appreciate their jobs back. Conversely, imported oil has no tariffs; in other words the sheiks are allowed to sell us their “bloody oil” for free. Advanced solar, wind and green technology is the future; will we grab it?
Dave Gebhard
Lakeport
