Optimizing petroleium

One of the more promising new energy sources being researched and even now coming into production is Oilage or growing algae and using it to produce a high-grade crude oil. PetroSun is now producing in Texas and though researchers don’t think they can produce enough to replace crude oil, the resulting product can be blended with low grade crude to where it can be processed without retooling refineries and extend our supply exponentially

The recent rush to ethanol has proved the error of moving too rapidly to embrace a supposed alternative without exploring all its consequences, intended and unintended. The demand corn ethanol has put on this food crop, taking 20-25% of last years production, has fueled the rise in all grain prices raising fears of food shortages and bread lines around the world. This in a year of record crop yields. What will happen during a low yield year.

Now the multi-million dollar commitment investors and industry has made to this failed plan has politicians wringing their hands and instead of doing the right thing, backtracking this policy, they blunder ahead.

A better source of biomass would be switchgrass, but that wasn’t immediately available and would have required a season to plant and grow the source. That small delay would have staved off the drain on the food supply and the rampant run up in grain prices. But in the rush to deal with this problem in a short-term political way, another long-term problem has resulted.

And don’t forget the powerful agricultural lobby. Their strangle hold on Congress continues to funnel tax dollars in the form of crop subsidies, loans and more to these large corporate farm operations.

We must, in addition to finding new economical, reliable energy sources, continue to discover new ways to conserve energy in socially and economically friendly ways. One of the big problems with the environmental lobby is the constant call for actions that will harm the economy of industrialized nations and in the process bring hardship to the citizens of those nations.

Truly at its core, the underlying philosophy of environmentalism is to return industrialized nations to agrarian societies like the third world. Technology, industry and development must go to make way for the forests, the snail darter and spotted owl, and the grassy plains. To their way of thinking there is blight on the face of the earth and Humanity is its name.

Next post, new and old technologies visited.

If you haven't done so, visit American Solutions and sign the petition to let Congress know you want action on allowing exploration and production of our domestic resources. It's a national security as well as an econonmic issue.


"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson