Bismarck Tribune - North Dakota News - Solving our energy woes

Solving our energy woes

Jul 25, 2008 - 04:06:00 CDT

By EDWARD KLECKER
Bismarck

During World War II, our government learned that Nazi Germany was working to develop an atomic bomb. President Roosevelt established the secret Manhattan Project to counter that threat. A remarkable collection of scientists, academics, engineers, technicians, administrators and the Army Corps of Engineers worked together to create the world's first nuclear weapon, ultimately used on Japan, bringing that war to a swift conclusion.

Today, our country is faced with another crisis. Nearly every segment of society is negatively impacted by the price of oil. School districts struggle to find money to fuel school buses, airlines are going bankrupt, Wall Street is in a near-panic mode, food costs are spiraling upwards, the list goes on and on.

So-called experts are telling us that two factors are to blame: the economic law of supply and demand and foreign dominance of the oil supply. Neither is totally correct.

As far as the law of supply and demand, leaders of U.S. major air carriers recently stated that upwards of $60 per barrel of oil is driven by speculation with no delivery required, and with huge profits accruing to the speculators. That stock exchange loophole needs to be addressed immediately by Congress or executive order. The law of supply and demand is supposed to be driven in part by scarcity. It's difficult for consumers to buy into scarcity of our oil supply when all the gas stations are always open for business as usual.

In answer to the factor of foreign dominance over our oil supply, our president has gone on record asking that the Arctic Circle and the coast of Florida be made open for drilling. I have yet to hear the president comment about the mass of oil sitting under North Dakota in the Bakken formation, supposedly exceeding the richest oil field in Saudi Arabia. I understand there are technical problems with extracting much of the Bakken oil. Could not scientists, academics, engineers, technicians and administrators be brought together to resolve those problems? Critical times call for critical measures. Critical times also call for bold leadership. Where is our Manhattan Project?

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Comments

zzz wrote on Jul 25, 2008 5:16 PM:

" Actually the alternative-energy effort won't come from government, it'll come from entrepreneurs and may be like what happened in Silicon valley 20 years ago. Again, we still need oil and will for the foreseeable future. But the longer we wait to both explore for more oil here and to develop alternatives to oil means the longer we wait for any of this to do really do much good. Time for talk is over, now someone needs to act. "

BILL G-A-R-R wrote on Jul 25, 2008 4:34 PM:

" gg.... do you honestly believe what Rush Limbaugh told you to say? Environmental whackos? ''Big Oil'' has not built new refineries, no one has stopped them. No rag-tag group of tree huggers could stand up to ''Big Oil'', don't you understand that gg? There is no oil shortage! You and I are being manipulated by ''Big Oil'' and the current oil boys in the Whitehouse. So next time you want to blame anything on the ''whackos'' just remember you voted [twice] against your own interest. The blame goes to uninformed people like you and the rest of the populace in this red state. Invest in a mirror, you won't have to go to far to find someone to blame. "

Law wrote on Jul 25, 2008 3:50 PM:

" Razor, you are so correct, the people in this country who keep wanting the US to copy Europe never say "Lets go Nuclear like France" We have the means to stop all coal powered electric generation but the fearmongers are more powerful than the green freaks. "

gg wrote on Jul 25, 2008 12:49 PM:

" Edward makes good points but he is wrong on something. There is a ton of drilling activity in to the bakken and now the lower bakken as well. new technologies ARE being devleoped all the time. The piplines are full. However, the environmentalists stand in the way of newer refineries and more piplines to ship the oil. We dont need a manhattan project as much as we need the government and far left environmental wakos (Please note I believe we need renewable energy to, but the wakos i am talking about would rather us go back to the stone age) get out of the way of progress. "

Halatbis wrote on Jul 25, 2008 12:26 PM:

" Some say the Bakken has more oil than the richest field in Saudi Arabia? Where does that "fact" come from? There are things that are well said in the letter; however, they have all been said and have been part of the U.S. Energy Policies since Nixon and Carter. We have known for years that this day would be coming--to say that Bush somehow caused, or wanted, this gas crunch is ludicrous. That is one reason nothing gets done--Congress is so busy blaming the other party, and the two of them are blaming the oil companies. We need to look in the mirror--we are to blame.
Renewables are just great! The question is how do we get from here to there? A Manhattan Project for energy? With congress fighting like cats and dogs? Wake up! Get into the real world--it is all about money. Who will get the taxpayers money for which favorite project in whose district for the favored "energy solution". "

whatever wrote on Jul 25, 2008 12:06 PM:

" Speculation with no delivery is the part of this letter that all too many will overlook, and it is also an admitted part of the rising price of fuel that many will not bother considering. Commodities trading with not even an intent to deliver has created many artificial supply and demand vacuums. It has been a source of great profit for elite brokers. It has also worked to keep the prices of farm commodities low for years. Commodities speculation is in great part to blame for the price of oil. "

MamaMia wrote on Jul 25, 2008 10:42 AM:

" Bakken? Bring it on! I have plans for that vacation home in Hawaii! "

Razors Edge wrote on Jul 25, 2008 10:13 AM:

" I'm not sure where people think we won't need oil in 10 years? We should be drilling for oil not instead of arguing if we will need it in the future. We also need more nuclear, wind, water, solar, and geothermal. We can't afford to limit ourselves to just one technology. I'm not sure why people are so anti-nuclear. There hasn't been a nuclear accident in 30 years. Nuclear power provides 79% of France's power. 79% people. Do you hear them having any problems? Why do they embrace something that has NO greenhouse gases, and we won't even talk about it? "

BILL G-A-R-R wrote on Jul 25, 2008 9:49 AM:

" Excellent letter Mr. Klecker.....''Critical times call for critical measures. Critical times also call for bold leadership.'' bush and cheney are not the men we require to get this job done. They are too busy cashing in on their own private energy policy. It's such a shame that only a few of us saw this coming. His silence on this matter speaks volumes. Go to Youtube and watch as President bush talks about reducing America's dependence on foreign oil, cheney smirks deviously in the background. Hello to future room mate. "

This is nuts wrote on Jul 25, 2008 8:20 AM:

" Good letter! I read it somewhere and it really should tell us something; we got to mars on a tank of gas but my Yukon only gets 450 miles on a tank.

I have stated before that we should quit flying into space until we get our stuff together on earth and have all of the NASA scientists work for the auto industry, well add the oil industry to that.

If the oil companies and the auto industry were no so tight for the past 30 years things would be different. "

dante wrote on Jul 25, 2008 7:30 AM:

" when all the money that can be made, extorted at the end, is made, just ahead of a major crisis, the FOSSILS that run this money maker will allow new technology. dont hold your breath. "

zzz wrote on Jul 25, 2008 6:10 AM:

" He's right that we need something like the Manhattan project. But it needs to focus on renewables and alternative energy sources other than oil. There are all kinds of ways to generate electricity and there'll be new ways in the future. We have natural gas that could be used in cars while we work on fuel cell technology. Yes, we should keep looking for oil because we'll always need it for industrial production (for lubricants, for plastics, for fertilizer, for asphalt, etc.); we should be saving what we have for that production instead of turning it into fuel for cars and homes. Instead of just looking 10-20 years ahead we have to look ahead 50+ years. "

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