Energy Everywhere
August 5th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics | 6 Comments »With the price of oil dropping briefly below $120 a barrel today, are we still in an energy crisis? Certainly so, this momentary lull in the price increase is because of a reduction in consumption combined with favorable environmental factors. Imagine if American’s start to see a reduction in the pumps? The immediate psychological concern would be to to take advantage of the cheap prices therefore boosting demand. Senator McCain is still pushing his plan for drilling which according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll is not what the American people want:
I am using this poll with the disclaimer that it does not represent the views of everyone but with a personal belief on my part that most Americans realize drilling for oil is a short term solution.Drilling for oil is at the most, part of American’s energy mix in the long term:
The Energy Information Administration says that once opened, leasing would not begin until 2012, production would not begin until 2017 and would not be of sufficient scale until 2030 to have any impact on the US oil or natural gas market. By this time offshore oil drilling would add approximately 250,000 barrels a day to the U.S. market, against an overall current demand of about 21 million barrels.
It would take 9 years until we see benefits from any offshore oil drilling and by that time, the increasing global demand would have negated any positive effects from such drilling. What is the solution? I have advocated in previous posts the Pickens Plan which I still stand by however Mr. Pickens plan does still not address the fundamental issue of increasing exponential demand and inadequate supply. If I had to take a stab at an answer, I would say the solution relies heavily on increasing funding for the development of new energy technologies. My personal pick of these technologies would be nuclear fusion where the Korean’s are pioneering real fusion conditions:
Korean scientists have successfully demonstrated a Korean-made “artificial sun” nuclear fusion reactor for first time, becoming one of the world’s first research reactors to create plasma.
Talking about fusion today would take the better part of the evening therefore I will leave that for another day. Summarizing we know that American’s want alternative energy, they realize offshore oil drilling is a long term solution and will support the candidate with the right energy plan. The problem is who has the right energy plan for America? I will let you decide as you know where my support lies 
