The Answer to the Energy Crisis may be in the Wind:

Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens promoting his new cause - using American wind to alleviate the nation's energy crisis and wean itself from dependency on foreign oil.

Pickens' plan calls for investing in enough wind turbines to provide 20% of the nation's energy and reducing oil imports by a third in 10 years.

This initiative requires the immediate extension of federal production tax credits to encourage strategic long-term investments to bring large amounts of wind power from windy areas to population centers."

According to the DOE technical report, achieving a 20% wind contribution to U.S. electricity supply by 20% would:

 

- Reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 25% in 2030;

 

- Reduce natural gas use by 11%, which would in turn lower the pressure on natural gas prices;

 

- Support roughly 500,000 jobs in the U.S., with an average of more than 150,000 workers directly employed by the wind industry;

 

- Increase annual revenues to local communities to more than $1.5 billion by 2030; and

 

- Reduce water consumption associated with electricity generation by 4 trillion gallons by 2030.

 

Wind. It’s clean (wind power generates absolutely no greenhouse gases). It’s renewable. And it involves no production decline curve. Hence, 30 years from now we won’t be worrying about “Peak Wind” theories coming to fruition. It also can’t be hoarded by power hungry cartels. In fact, enough of it exists to satisfy global demand seven times over, according to a Stanford University study. North Dakota alone has enough of it to meet 25% of U.S. demand.

But perhaps most importantly, it’s finally coming of age. Just consider:

From 2000 to 2007, the size of the wind power industry increased fivefold.

Last year, records were shattered with $36 billion in total global wind investments with the United States leading the way with $9 billion.

In the next 10 years, the wind industry is expected to quadruple in size.

 

Hands down, wind is the fastest growing source of power. Wind power makes economic sense. If the price of oil drops to $50 a barrel (it won’t), the economics still work; even without government subsidies. You see, wind can be used to generate electricity for 6 to 8.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

For comparison’s sake, the cost of nuclear power runs about 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. Coal now costs north of 10 cents (without factoring in carbon capture and storage). And gas-fired power costs approximately 12 cents. Keep in mind, too, that just a few years ago, wind costs rested north of 15 to 20 cents. But today, costs are low enough in some markets to compete with conventional power generation methods. And future advancements will make wind power even cheaper.

Look no further than Denmark. It already generates 20% of its electricity from wind. And Spain, Portugal and Germany boast similarly impressive penetration rates of roughly 12%, 10% and 7%, respectively. The timing couldn’t be more perfect, either. While wind energy costs are dropping, costs for competing technologies – coal, nuclear and gas – are headed in the opposite direction.

 

Wind is the cost effective way our nation can start solving its oil addiction. And unlike many of the other far-fetched solutions to our energy needs … Wind is realistically attainable.

 

We can both save the economy by establishing policies that prevent other countries from doing to us what they would never let us do to them. Specifically,

•We must halt the sale of key assets to foreign entities.

•We must also close opportunities for foreign corporations to compete unfairly against our home industries.

•We should move immediately to curb our out-of-control spending on unnecessary programs and initiatives that are being financed by foreign debt.

•We should institute policies to cut back our consumption, and particularly consumption of imported products.

•We should look to the way other nations have established industrial superiority over us and try to copy their best policies.

•We should not allow individuals and companies to profit by selling out the United States.

 

No plan to revive our economic and industrial self-sufficiency will be pain-free. Because our industrial decline has already gone so far – it has been proceeding rapidly for more than 30 years already – restoring our industry to world-leading standards of competitiveness will require serious restrictions on trade and investment flows. Despite indisputable evidence that current policies have proved grossly inadequate or even counterproductive in the past, our leaders remain committed to a business-as-usual strategy that is doomed to failure.

 Our industries, assets, resources, and companies need to be protected from foreign countries and corporations seeking to gain control of key industrial processes and technologies. This would include preventing the sale of strategic US domestic companies to foreign companies and eliminating offshore outsourcing except in extreme circumstances.

 

Our trade treaties should protect our country from predatory foreign countries and companies seeking to weaken or destroy American industry. To that end, tariffs should be erected where needed and where practical. Experience has shown that it is futile to expect other countries to adopt our policies on, for instance, fair and free competition.

What we can do is control the impact of their policies on our economy. The most obvious tool we have is tariffs on their exports. No doubt our tariffs would set off retaliation abroad. We would also have to accept that demand for US debt would decrease. But in the long run, these negatives would be much more than offset by positive effects as American entrepreneurs and industrial executives enjoyed a massive incentive to renew our industrial base

In addition to establishing protection for our industry and country, we should properly align our companies with the national interest by changing the incentive system within which they operate. The tax structure should be changed to encourage industrial revival, particularly in industries which have been hit worst by unfair foreign competition. One simple but highly effective measure would be to shorten the depreciation schedules on capital investment and research spending. Meanwhile capital gains taxes should be increased to discourage short-term thinking and reduce the incentive for entrepreneurs to cash out.

 

 

 

You might not believe it, but you can do many things as an individual to save the environment. Although doing something BIG might not happen, for example, discovering a new and abundant renewable resource that is both cost-friendly, and well, easily accessible and applicable, you can do little things that will have a greater impact on our environment as a whole.

 

 Here are a few ideas:

 

 

 -Plant trees and other vegetation to reduce the amount of CO2 in the air and produce more oxygen

 

 -Ride your bike short distances instead of taking the car so as to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced from a car (or take some sort of means of public transportation like a bus or subway to school which is very efficient) You can even car pool!

 

 -Plan a community clean-up day and pick up the trash and litter careless Neanderthals leave on the roadside and parks and the such that produces large waste buildup

 

 - Keep barbecuing, grilling, and bonfires outside to a minimum to not create so much air pollution with the smoke

 

 - Turn off the lights and other electrical appliances when not in use so you don't waste our very precious and mainly NON renewable resources that are terrifyingly dwindling

 

 - Use proper ventilation in the home to not waste any energy on air conditioning or heating to keep a nice temperature in the home without any heat or coolness escaping thus causing the need for an air conditioner or heater to go up. AND DON'T OVERHEAT OR OVER-COOL the house.

 

 - Watch out for PHANTOM LOADS! (Look it up!)

 

 - Watch out for those household aerosols (cleaning products and paints)! They contain VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) which can adversely affect your health by irritating asthma, and give you an increased risk of having respiratory problems.

 

 -Recycle! It's quite simple, really!

 

 -Have a compost bin! Saves trash and helps your garden!

 

 -Stay away from harmful pesticides that can seep into your ground and cause groundwater contamination!

 

 -Use organic fertilizers! Artificial fertilizers may contain chemicals that are harmful to both the environment AND YOU! They can even pollute the water, so watch out for those ferocious fertilizers!

 

 -Use energy saving light bulbs!

 

 - Watch your personal hygiene! Surprising, huh? But keeping your hands clean can help you from getting infected by diseases or from you spreading them to others!

Republicans and Democrats seem to be living on different planets when it comes to how to meet U.S. energy needs.

 

Republicans overwhelmingly push for more oil drilling. Democrats back conservation and new energy sources such as wind and solar power.

 

A survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that the polarized positions on energy that have divided Congress and emerged in the presidential campaign also run deep among the public.

While majorities in both parties say energy is an important issue, the poll shows that partisan identification is closely tied to people’s perceptions of the causes of the country’s energy problems and possible solutions. No other demographic factor — not race, age, gender or income level — is as consistently associated with opinions on energy as political party identification.

 

 For example:

—Three of four Democrats surveyed report that a major reason for the county’s energy problems is that industry does not do enough to support clean energy. By comparison 43 percent of the Republicans questioned believe that.

 

—Three of four Republicans in the poll cite government limits on drilling as a major reason for energy problems, compared with 34 percent of Democrats.

 

Also, 85 percent say it is a serious problem that the United States needs to buy energy from other countries, but there’s disagreement about why. Among Republicans in the poll, 65 percent say the U.S. does not produce enough domestic energy to meet demand. Yet just over half the Democrats say people use too much energy.

 

In my opinion, wind energy is the best option because, wind power is completely clean and consistently renewable. Wind will never cease to exist. Certain environments, or parts of the country are much better than others to harness wind power, but just about anywhere that experiences generally sustained winds, especially in mountain passes and canyons, can produce wind power.

Wind creates no emissions that can be harmful to the air that contributes to global warming. These harmful emissions also cause smog around many metropolitan cities, most notably Los Angeles with its constant orange haze that locks it in a perpetual fog. Wind power also renews daily; when one day ends, you don’t have to calculate how much wind you have used. There will always be enough tomorrow.

 

 Of course, some days will present days that create more wind that others, and some days may not create any wind whatsoever, but that has nothing to do with the total supply of wind. The force that is trapped by wind turbines those large modern-style windmills- on what are known as wind farms, is transmitted along power lines to a building that maintains that energy for distribution. During the course of any given day, wind power doesn’t provide the electricity for any towns or cities completely, but rather supplements the usual forms of electricity.

So, in effect, wind power is important to many people for the fact that it can save money, rather than the benefits it can offer to the global climate. Perhaps the greatest benefit that wind power can provide for people is that wind won’t cost more based on supply and demand, as is the case with oil or coal. Since it is a replenishing capacity of power, then any rise in the cost of using wind power would have to be justified for the rate of inflation, not because it is becoming scarce.

 

 Wind power is important for anyone who cares about the environment, or who wants to save money over the long-term.