At my Alumni Day the keynote speaker was Daniel Yankelovich. Great speach which I enjoyed a lot. Excellent speach titled "The new pragmatism:" Coping with America's overwhelming problems".
A question came up about Energy Independence, and his answer was it was not possible in 10 years...
I disagree, it's possible, but not very likely.
What is required for Energy Independence:
1. Get nuke plants built. Likelyhood - little or none.
2. Drill offshore - to do this, share revenue with states. Likelyhood - little or none.
3. Increase the Gas Tax, to make Gas at a minimum of $4 or $5 a gallon. This decreases gas usage and increase fuel efficiency as people buy smaller cars. Use extra tax money to fund rebates for poorer families. Likelyhood - little or none.
4. Increase CAFE requirements.
5. Let states set Emission Requirements.
6. Set up a couple of X Prizes for alternate energy.
7. Build a nationwide High Voltage DC Grid.
8. Invest in MHD for burning Coal. So many advantages!
9. Require all cars in the US to be flex fuel.
10. Create fair incentives for plug ins. ie don't aim it at only GM's vehicle.
11. Build more coal plants in the US. Likelyhood - little or none.
12. Require Solar Thermal for hot water on all new houses and put in place subsidies so people put it in existing houses.
13. Increase efficiency standards for new houses and offices. ie Green Standards for energy usage. Huge potential savings here.
14. Make the tax code so it pays for improvements that reduce energy usage. Unfortunately companies unless their is an immediate ROI are not smart enough for the most part to put in energy efficient projects that require a payback of longer than a year.
15. For older cars that are gas guzzlers, offer a tax incentive to junk them.
16. Put a tax on incandescents to make them $3 each. LED's - Still at $17 for the cheapest one, but they have . Lighting uses 50% of the energy equivalant as used by autos. They are 2X as efficient as CFL's, and last 5 to 10X as long. CFL's cost around $3 now, Incandescent 50 cents. Haitz's Law saves every 10 years the price of LED's falls X10. Subsidize LED's by 50% to give a cost of $9 each, and with the increased production this will decrease the cost. CFL's are a short term solution until LED's become more cost efficient. So replacing all the incandescent bulbs with LED's would reduce the energy usage by a huge amount. Banning incandescents would be another approach.
17. Put the 55 MPH speed limit back in force - Likelyhood - little or none.
18. Make sure alternative energy can get needed capital.
19. Colorado Oil Shale - make it happen.
20. Tap Arctic National Wildlife Reserve for oil. - Likelyhood - little or none.
My opinion - I am a big fan of solar, LED's, and plug-ins must be my electronics background.
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