Category Archives: Energy Investments

Energy Victory, Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil, Part II

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Part I of the book by Robert Zubin was a summary of the current situation and the consequences of our dependence on foreign oil. This part discusses some of the wrong turns we’ve taken in our energy policies and suggestions given by the author on how to overcome the problem. I found the author’s approaches to solving the problem to be intriguing, and intend to start there. It is my opinion that Chapter nine, “The Brazilian Experience,” is the best part of the book, although there is a wealth of information throughout.

Brazil is described as a microcosm of the world with a diverse, multiracial society with wealthy and poor. General Ernesto Geisel was inaugurated as President in 1974, and immediately began to attack the economic devastation caused from the cost of importing 80 percent of the oil needed by the country. He issued an edict that all gasoline had to contain 10% ethanol produced from sugar cane at a time when sugar prices were dropping. The government then paid for a pump dedicated to ethanol installed at every existing station, and domestic manufacturers began producing cars that could run on ethanol. OPEC cut oil prices, Brazil responded by subsidizing ethanol, and the International Monetary Fund pressured them into dropping their price supports. OPEC raised oil prices in 1999, and Volkswagen’s Brazilian division began producing flex-fuel vehicles. Brazilians could drive using gasoline, ethanol, or a mixture depending on what OPEC decided the price of oil should be. Brazil became an energy exporter by making ethanol from sugar cane and burning the woody “cane” to generate electricity. Continue reading →

Energy Victory, Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil, Part I

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This book by Robert Zubrin details our current dependence on foreign oil, the consequences of that dependence, and what we could do about it. There is too much information to cover in a single review, so this part will be about the current situation and the consequences. The first sentence of the Preface warns, “America is losing the war on terror.” The author lays much of the blame for that on the wealth being looted to buy oil from the Mideast as a result of our failure to have a competent energy policy, and that money is financing the war against us. Petro dollars have been and are funding Islamic schools that graduate the fanatics who will plan and execute future terrorist acts. Iran is developing nuclear weapons with the proceeds from oil.

The author is no fan of Saudi Arabia, and he provides a history of that country to back up his position. Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammed ibn Abd al Whahhab formed a partnership in the mid-eighteenth century to foster their belief that the Islamic world had a duty to wage jihad. Their religion deemed that humanity was divided into Muslims, infidels, and polytheists. Once the Muslims conquered an area, the infidels (including Christians and Jews) would be allowed to live as inferiors. The polytheists (Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and “insufficiently orthodox Muslims”) were to be killed without delay. Saud married Wahhab’s daughter, and the Saudi royal family was formed. They began their jihads, and inhabitants of Shiite areas were massacred. In 1932 Ibn Saud proclaimed the conquered areas to be Saudi Arabia and all inhabitants to be personal property of the royal family. He formed alliances with American businessmen to avoid the imperialistic British. Roosevelt signed a treaty with him in World War II to ensure America’s fuel supplies. Continue reading →

Merchant of Power, Samuel Insull, Thomas Edison, and the Creation of the Modern Metropolis

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This book by John F. Wasik is an ideal follow up to the one by Petr Beckman about the best way to produce electrical power, because it is an excellent reference to understand how electricity became so important in our lives. The book tells the remarkable story of Samuel Insull, who escaped an impoverished childhood in England by travelling to America to become the trusted secretary of Thomas Edison. His willingness to work tirelessly combined with his ethical nature endeared him to Edison. He became Edison’s accountant and marketer responsible for finding investors. He had to be aggressive and creative in the constant search for money, because Edison was often on the verge of being broke. Edison arranged to lay the power lines to light Wall Street, but he did not have a method for measuring electrical usage. He made his profits selling light bulbs.

Insull eventually split from Edison’s endeavors, moved to Chicago, and built an empire with power generating capacity and a power grid to light Chicago and other metropolitan areas. He saw everyone without electricity in their homes as a potential new customer. (Sinclair Lewis’s Babbit mocks the residents of Floral Heights and their desire to keep up with the neighbor’s most recent electrical purchases.) Insull built General Electric with financing from J.P. Morgan, and marketed electrical appliances. He became a very wealthy man, which set him up to lose massively in the Depression.

Insull pioneered “massing production,” which was later shortened to “mass production” by Henry Ford. His plants made generators and distribution systems, and he developed and implemented the idea of the government regulating electrical rates. Continue reading →

The Health Hazards of NOT Going Nuclear

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This book written by Dr. Petr Beckman was published in 1976, which was several years before I had the pleasure of meeting him. He escaped from Czechoslovakia during the Cold War, and knew plenty about repression. He was Professor of electrical engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and therefore also knew plenty about the generation of energy. I was a subscriber to his “Access to Energy” forum, which advocated that plentiful, inexpensive energy was and is the key to maintaining the incredible freedoms created by a powerful economy. Access to Energy continues to be an excellent pro-energy forum, and it is currently published by Dr. Arthur Robinson.

Dr. Beckman’s acid wit shows up in his dedication of this excellent book, “To Ralph Nader and all who worship the water he walks on.” He then proceeds to discredit Nader’s positions opposing nuclear energy.

The primary point of the book is that there is no safe way to make energy. “Energy is the capacity for doing work, and as long as man is fallible, there is always the possibility that it will do the wrong type of work; to ask for safe energy, therefore, is much the same as asking for incombustible fuel.” However, nuclear energy is “far safer than any other form of energy.” Continue reading →

Where are New Jobs Created from “Green” Energy Investments?

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I recall speeches by politicians describing how investments in “green” energy technology would create jobs. I was mistaken when I thought the jobs would be created in the United States. A company named Evergreen Solar had received $43million from Massachusetts to begin its business, and had grown to become the third-largest maker of solar panels in the United States. The New York Times reports the company is now, “…closing its main American factory, laying off the 800 workers by the end of March and shifting production to a joint venture with a Chinese company in central China.” Solar power experts “say that after many years of relying on…the Middle East for oil, the United States now looks likely to rely on China to tap energy from the sun.”

If that story doesn’t outrage you, try this one. The Associated Press  reported, “General Motors is investing $540 million to build fuel efficient engines at its plant in central Mexico. Labor Secretary Javier Lozano says the plant in the city of Toluca …will provide 500 new jobs.” The United States bailed out GM with many billions of dollars, and I thought that was done to save jobs in this country.