Shorten the War

Entice the Markets to Find New Energy Source

Money is the fuel of war. Without money, today’s terrorist or yesterday’s cold warrior is just some guy looking for a job.

Shortening this new Hundred Years War on Terrorism comes down to taking one of the two fuels that makes this war run hot – hate or money. Democracy will help reduce hate, but it’s a very slow process. It may work in Iran. In Saudi Arabia, it will take a few mis-steps to get it right. Iraq – well, there is plenty of hate and money to go around.

So that leaves the money. Most of the dollars come from oil. Whether the checks are from Iran to Hammas, or a Saudi Prince to Wahhabi schools in Pakistan, the predominance of terror funding is derived from oil profits. The Middle Eastern economies are oil-based. Take away oil and oil profits, and the war won’t end, but its length will be severely diminished.

The West still needs to hunt down financiers. The CIA and FBI needs to track down bad guys. We need to find a way to win in Iraq. But we really need a different energy supply to lamp off oil dollars. So who does that?

Three choices. The government, business or you and I. I am voting for the latter. The government does almost nothing well, and having had some chance to direct energy policy over the last 6 years we have a big ZIP. Which is actually probably a good thing. More important, the government shouldn’t be in the business of picking product winners. Business solutions, well, that hasn’t produced much either.

With government targeting tax breaks and research dollars and laws mandating specified percentages of types of renewable energy sources for feeding the general supply of energy, we are still held hostage to purchasing most of our energy from overseas. If the environmentalists start scaring America about gasoline as much as they did with nuclear energy, offshore drilling and drilling at Anwar, we’ll be riding horse and buggyies shortly and we’ll all have a big windmill in the back yard.

The problem with most non-gas solutions is they are not affordable. Even Hybrid autos don’t have a payback for the better fuel mileage for years.

So what is the right solution? Good question.

History says humans generally find good answers. First, there has been a long steady road of human choice for energy source. For millennia, wood filled our needs. As humankind dug itself out of the Dark Ages and began to proliferate in Europe, the landscape was scrapped of its woodlands. Other sources were going to be required because it was farther and farther to the nearest tree to fuel the fireplace.

Coal was the answer. Coal dominated the market, with wood as a second source. In the United States where there were still lots of trees, wood still played a large roll. And then there were cars and gasoline. And lots of electricity. Lots. Coal fired plants. Natural gas fired plants. Nuclear plants. And a tiny bit of wind and photo electric.

So how do we find the next energy solution. Know one thing, science and technology will get us to the next solution. Well into the future energy will be freely available, clean and extremely cheap. Although fissionable nuclear energy is available today, and cleaner than any of our other sources of energy, clearing the environmentalists back to their caves will be difficult. Strangely, the environmental impact of nuclear plants are miniscule compared to the gases cars spew out.

Harnessing the strong nuclear force via fusion will likely occur later this century or early next century. The fuel for these plants, like stars, is hydrogen. Building a star on the surface of the earth has its share of technological hurdles, but we will get there, just not in time for this war.

There is some possibility that we may be able to harness the power of gravity, a hugely available source of energy. There is a ways to go here. Scientists have known what gravity is and how to measure since Newton. What they don’t understand is how it works. Once they figure this out, the possibilities for gravity based energy production becomes possible.

In the mean time, the opportunity to bring America’s best and brightest to the forefront of energy production is now.

There is nothing like a contest to bring out the best in us. The X-Prize for sub-orbital flight (to the end of space) engaged a significant number of entries. The winner, Burt Ruttan, that renegade aerospace engineer came up with the winning solution. We need this contest to continue.

A contest for energy solutions would not hurt us and it could provide prizes for several different categories: increasing efficiencies in gasoline engines, new fuels and alternative fuels, hydrogen fuel cells, any time of fuel cells, batteries, etc.

My recommendation is raise $100,000,000 to be put in a prize kitty for all comers; big business, small business, and scientists working independently – everyone with an idea needs to get involved. Even you and I. Folks with an idea without the time to execute the science should publish ideas for others to execute.

So let’s have a contest: Here are some suggests prizes

Increased fuel efficiency for cars – 50%

o Engine Efficiency

o Engine Alternatives

o Hybrids

o Formerly unheard of solutions

New technology/Improved Technology

o Hydrogen Fuel Cost Reduction (50%-100%)

o Hydrogen Fuel Cell Efficiency (Over 50%)

Alternate Fuel Cell Solutions (Must Be Equivalent of Better than Gas Engine Efficiency at same cost.)

Alternative Battery Solutions (Increased Efficiency, Reduced Cost)

New Solutions

o Alternative Energy Source (near zero pollutants)

§ Car

§ Electricity Production

§ Other Concepts

Let me know your ideas. We’ll get this thing going. Find new clean energy and turn off the money spigot in the Middle East.