Hydrogen

Since the post war years there have been left wing groups of people who felt a certain connection to socialist societies. They were enamored by the Marx doctrine of, “from each according to his means, to each according to his needs”. These people, some of whom were celebrities, liked to be seen with leaders like Castro in Cuba and more recently Hugo Chavez. In the early years of the Soviet Union these groups looked to Russia as a prosperous communist type of government but the Russian leaders lacked charisma and after Nikita Khrushchev were aged rather unpopular types. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and he along with is sophisticated wife were just what these people were looking for and he became their new hero. I had a number of friends who thought more highly of Gorbachev than they did of Ronald Reagan. When Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire these people nearly went into apoplexy and predicted that Reagan had just started WW3. These people were masters at appeasement and felt that the Soviets would grow their economy to one day challenge the US. They were so enthralled with the concept of wealth redistribution that they overlooked the problems associated with central planning. When the Soviet Union collapsed these people were lost and had nowhere to call home so they migrated to the environmental area where they are alive and well today and society has announced that the new red is green. Their cause is being bolstered by our President and a whole bevy of intellectuals under the guise of climate change. There is no doubt that climate change represents a long term problem that must be dealt with, but not by politicizing the issue. The idea that the country can transition from fossil fuels to solar and wind is a pipe dream kept alive by certain groups who profit from government grants and loans. The grants going to scientist who promote the imminent danger and loans to businesses that manufacture solar and wind equipment. If these people could move away from the politics they would quickly realize that the path to solving the climate problem is hydrogen. It is almost providential that just when we needed it most, we have come into a large supply of oil and more importantly natural gas. It is well known that natural gas is cleaner than oil which in turn is cleaner than coal. In just the past few years the US has made great strides in this area by replacing coal fired power plants with natural gas. This not only reduces CO2 but does so in a profitable way. This one change has done more for the environment than all of the government regulations and loans combined. The US has now reduced its CO2 levels below what the Kyoto agreement called for using the force of law. The process to move to cleaner energy is now underway in spite of government efforts to derail it and it will continue as we move away from coal and then oil onto natural gas. There are already many vehicles running on natural gas and a most recent example is the buses in Los Angeles County. The next step is to replace diesel semi’s with natural gas. The cost to replace all 2 million trucks plus to install natural gas pumps at all 6000 truck stops is estimated at 60 billion which is less than half of the 150 billion that has been wasted on government sponsored solar and wind programs. The next step is to change over smaller trucks, buses and cars to run on natural gas and finally airplanes. While this is happening the government needs to open its lands in the west where there is enough oil to run the rest of the world for 100 years and we export that to balance our payments on our imports. By doing this we will invigorate our economy by providing good paying jobs and in the process replacing coal around the world with oil. Most people are not aware that natural gas is not contaminated with sulfates and nitrate and thus does not produce acid rain and with recent improvements in technology the cost has come down to the lowest level since 1970. Recall that a new home in 1970 cost $25,000. Now that heaven has sent us the gift of 100 years to develop an energy system that is pollution free, what will we do with this gift? The answer is hydrogen and the use of an internal combustion engine that runs on hydrogen to power our transportation industry. So the $64,000 question is where will this hydrogen come from and the current answer is three places. First we can develop a microbe that will turn garbage into hydrogen, second using solar power to make hydrogen and the final long term answer, fusion. Fusion not only gives us an almost unlimited supply of hydrogen but it also can change sea water into fresh water meaning all of the desert areas of the globe can be turned into fertile lands to feed the hungry. The mention of using solar to create hydrogen may cause some concern but remember the problem with solar is that you cannot store electricity but you can store hydrogen. For those who are not familiar with fusion it is the conversion of hydrogen into helium with the release a large amounts of energy. It is the process that takes place in the sun. The science for this has been around for some time just waiting for the engineering to catch up and that has always happened and will happen this time. The process of moving to natural gas is underway and will continue but if the government and industry would cooperate it would progress at a much faster rate. Some might question our exporting oil around the world saying we all live on the same planet and that is true but replacing coal with oil is a big improvement. What is currently happening here in the US is counter-productive. We are closing down coal plants here and using natural gas but we are shipping the coal to China. Our coal plants here while dirtier than using oil were better for the planet than shipping to China where there coal plants are not as clean. It is important to step back and look at the big picture and not just react based on some misinformation. In summery the long term plan should be to move from coal to oil to natural gas while we develop a whole new system based on hydrogen.