After all, electricity is generated by plants that burn oil or natural gas.
First, natural gas is not oil, so I don't know why you guys (you & JF) lump them together.
Just over 1% of electricity in the US is generated by oil, so we could totally eliminate it without materially affecting our dependence on foreign oil.
While we do import a lot of gas, it does not pose the kind of energy independence issue that oil does --
a) We are more diverse in our electricity generation than we are in our reliance on Oil;
b) Supplies of natural gas are available from countries which pose no threat to us;
c) The development of wind as a clean, renewable electricity source is beginning to take off. To put it in perspective, a wind farm consisting of 500 of the new 5Mw wind turbines, available soon, could duplicate the output of Hoover dam.
d) There is always nuclear, which is a very clean resource, and can be done cost effectively if you get the federal government to take charge and streamline the process.
e) Most importantly, electric vehicles will largely be charged at night during off-peak hours, when excess capacity is available.
Obviously, the focus should be on trying to develop a cost-effective way of manufacturing Hydrogen (and one that doesn't involve Natural gas); once this is done, fuel cells pretty much solve the problem altogether. But electric cars pose no real problems in terms of energy independence or utilization. |
