Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Increase mpg sooner rather than later
From the RoundTable blog
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Allen Louderback
Louderback, of Luray, served six years in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he founded the Cost-Cutting Caucus to eliminate government waste and improve efficiency.
There has been much discussion on how to wean our country from our dependence on Middle East oil while escalating costs continue to put a stranglehold on our economy. But what is the answer?
Some say drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on the continental shelf to produce more oil. For whom? Oil companies and the exploding demand of China and India? Should we tap our reserves for their benefit? If the reserves would be used solely in the United States, then we should give it serious consideration. Even then, it will take about 10 years to get that supply in the market.
Alternative fuels have been highly touted as our salvation, but again we are encountering some negatives. With ethanol, we are incurring a higher demand for corn, which is competing with our needs for grain for livestock and general food consumption. The energy used to produce ethanol from corn is almost as much as the energy created. However, we should not give up on this fuel source, especially using saw grass and other products. Ethanol is still not a short-term solution.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles have been growing in popularity and well may be the solution in the future. This product is again at least 10 years away due to the lack of large-scale production capability of the vehicles and distribution facilities nationwide.
With millions of vehicles -- cars, trucks, farm vehicles, etc. -- already in our system, we cannot immediately get away from oil. What should we do now?
All discussions focus on increased oil supply and futuristic solutions with no focus on increasing gasoline engine efficiency and increasing gas mileage. Oh, sure, Congress recently promoted increasing the average fleet mileage to 35 miles per gallon by 2014, but that is six years in the future.
The solution is to initiate a 21st century version of the Manhattan Project, where we brought the brightest minds together and created the atomic bomb. If we have the intelligence to create the atomic bomb, put men on the moon, find amazing scientific cures for diseases, then we can certainly create a product that will significantly increase gas mileage. This product needs to be adapted to existing engines to achieve our greatest results on reducing oil consumption. If we can merely double our gas mileage, we will cut our oil demand in half.
The argument will be that this cannot be done, we cannot get big increases in gas mileage, but that is simply not true. Since at least the mid-'60s, products have been brought forward capable of increasing gas mileage. The big question now is who has these patents and designs? Could it be the big oil companies are holding on to these patents to keep increasing oil demand and their huge profits?
I have suggested to members of our Virginia congressional delegation that the federal government take the lead in this critical project and pull our best scientists and engineers together in one location to share ideas and research to solve this problem. One potential location may be the closed Ford production plant in Norfolk or some other closed auto production facility.
In a concerted effort, not in fragmented research, we have the opportunity to bring back our auto industry, create jobs and give our country the time to phase in our new technology.
