Which Energy Independence Plan is Better — T. Boone Pickens or Google? Part 2

November 04, 2008

If you think it’s odd that a Texas oilman is proposing a plan to build massive wind farms to wean the U.S. from its dependence upon fossil fuels, consider this: He’s got competition from an even more unlikely player — a company that isn’t even in the energy industry. I’m talking about none other than Google, the search engine, online advertising and video giant that is currently angling to take over the software world with its Google Chrome browser and suite of cloud-computing applications.
(Here’s my previous blog on that subject.)

As it turns out, Google does alternative energy, too. Or rather, it wants to, in a big way. In October, the company unveiled its ambitious, multi-trillion dollar plan for weaning the U.S. away from the burning of coal and oil for electrical power and cutting the use of petroleum to power cars and trucks by nearly 40 percent by 2030. Jeffery Greenblatt the Princeton-trained researcher whom Google recently hired as its climate and energy technology manager, explains:

Google's proposal will benefit the US by increasing energy security, protecting the environment, creating new jobs, and helping to create the conditions for long-term prosperity. Some of the necessary funds will be public, but much of it will come from the private sector — a typical approach for infrastructure and high technology investments.

Here’s how Google would have us do it. In contrast with Pickens’ plan, which relies entirely upon wind power and converting vehicles to natural gas, the Internet behemoth would attack the problem from multiple angles.

Al Gore's Energy Challenge

August 08, 2008

Full disclosure here. While I am indeed extremely concerned about global warming and what we can do to avert a climate catastrophe in the too-near future, there’s an ulterior motive behind this week’s essay as well. I’m hoping, albeit improbably, that my favorite Futurama talking-head-in- a- jar, former Vice-President -turned- Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, will somehow stumble upon this page via Google Alerts and actually deign to post a comment on my blog. As you can see from this picture of his Nashville office, he’s got a few things on his plate right now. But hey, Mr. Vice-President, if you do happen to be reading this, it wouldn’t take too long to pound out a few words of encouragement or wisdom, would it? And while you’re at it, sir, please feel free to weigh in on the recent controversy in this space regarding the relative merits of Survivor vs. Night Ranger when it comes to 1980s Lite Metal mullet-rock. We all could benefit from a statesmanlike resolution of that question.

                     

Solar-powered Cars?

July 18, 2008

Based on the response to last week’s blog, I have to say that I’m impressed by the enduring popularity of early-1980s lite metal rockers. Lately, however, whenever I’m faced with the painful prospect of refilling the gas tank of the old Saturn sedan, I find myself thinking of “A Gallon of Gas," a bluesy late-1970s ditty by the Kinks:   

It's got power-assisted overdrive and carpets on the floor,
but it's parked out front just like a dead dinosaur.
And I'll be paying off the bank for 45 years or more.
It should go 100 miles an hour,
but it's never moved away from my door.

Ever-escalating gas prices, of course, are only one part of the pain. As I’ve confessed before, according to this carbon footprint calculator, my Saturn is pumping 2.1 metric tons of C02 emissions into the atmosphere annually, making me at least somewhat responsible for the shrinking of the northern polar ice cap and other nasty impacts of global warming.

So how do we solve my — or should I say, our — problem? In a previous blog, I raised the possibility of reducing both our fuel costs and carbon emissions by switching from gasoline to cellulosic ethanol to power our vehicles. However, as a skeptical reader estimated, to meet our present fuel consumption needs, the U.S. would have to grow 584 million acres of switchgrass, which is about 150 million acres more than the total amount of cultivatable land in the nation. Oh well. Switching to gasoline-electric hybrid cars or, better yet, plug-in electric vehicles is another idea. But even that solution has a big potential pitfall. How do we generate the electricity to power the cars? According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, more than half our national supply comes from coal-burning plants, which have become the nation’s  biggest source of greenhouse gases.

So here’s a better idea. How about switching to solar-powered automobiles?