June 01, 2008
Coal Energy Efficient, Cheap, Abundant
courtesy Wikipedia
With fresh-pumped oil in Saudi Arabia coasting $128 a barrel last week -- and regular gasoline selling for a national average of $3.96 per gallon in the United States – the era of King Coal stands ready to hold sway.
Our European friends – with little or no coal – got panicky over the sudden hike in gasoline prices. Protests raged in London and all the main cities of Europe.
Target of displeasure was not the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) which control Mideast oil.
Ire was directed toward the heads of state of the various European Union nations. Gasoline taxes there are generally twice that of the United States.
A gallon of diesel fuel in London costs a bit more than the U.S. equivalent of $9 per gallon. This includes a “fuel duty” of $3.77 a gallon topping a 17.5 percent “consumption tax—a tax on a tax.
Our British friends had better lighten up. Petrol today, tea tomorrow.
Gasoline Addicts
The sudden jump in oil prices has awakened sleeping gasoline addicts right here in the good old US of A.
First to be assaulted are gasoline refineries -- but then it is remembered that such facilities are curtailed by Congress.
Next hip-and-thigh mayhem is directed to companies that drill for oil -- but then it is remembered that oil wells in Alaska are stymied by environuts.
No matter, we will shift to ethanol converted from Corn. What’s that? The price of food has gone up! Not to worry, we will give everyone a “rebate” from the Internal Revenue Service.
There goes that “law of unintended consequences.” Everything that can go wrong, will!
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.Ga.) who gave us the sensational, money accumulating “Contract With America” -- has the right solution with his new bumper sticker: “Drill here, drill now, and pay less.”
Coal Back In Style
There is another quick and inexpensive substance to break our dependency on oil – coal.
That dirty, smoky, “high-pollutin” mineral is coming back into style.
There are still a few years remaining of natural gas and oil. However, the end is in sight to even the most indifferent consumer --and the most concerned environmentalist.
Long-range solution to the U.S. energy problems is coal and atoms – according to my interview years ago with Frank Zarb, then federal energy director.
He recommended the deregulation of gas and oil as a means to stimulate production – and make coal more competitive.
The steam locomotive – on iron rails – is more efficient and cheaper to haul bulk freight long distances.
Eventually, as the cost of diesel oil and gasoline increases, coal-fired steam gets more attractive to shippers. That includes ships hauling oil.
At home, we will enjoy once again the comfortable, even heat of a gravity warm-air coal furnaces – or electric heat generated by clean-burning coal or nuclear power plants.
Coal Research
President George W. Bush has long advocated research to produce clean-burning coal.
Rudolf Diesel – the German inventor who a hundred years ago invented the engine bearing his name – knew that the concentrated energy of coal more potent than oil.
Rudolph Diesel
Courtesy Wikipedia
When he started up his first engine – fueled by powdered coal – it exploded with such force it destroyed the engine, his laboratory and very nearly Diesel himself.
Diesel was elated that he could release enormous energy. However, he switched to oil that could be more easily contained by the simple steel then available.
High strength steel is available today. The United States is estimated to have a 500-year supply of coal in the ground.
Great strides have been made in liquefying coal and in burning it without harm to the air we and plants breathe – carbon dioxide for trees and grass, which use it to provide sugar and oxygen for us.
The time has come for people everywhere to start weaning themselves from petroleum – and start developing ways to use coal efficiently.
It’s a win-win approach.
By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist
