December, 2013, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science: Solutoins, Part 2

Over the past week or so we have been discussing the fact that there is sufficient and sometimes overwhelming evidence that it is possible and rational to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science. Despite what Al Gore might scream, there are plenty of scientists and research efforts from prestigious scientists that prove not all scientists and all climate research definitively prove that manmade global warming or climate change is a reality.

That does not mean that global warming is purely fiction. We only proved that nobody really knows what is going on in our climate, if anything. And given that nobody knows for sure what is going on, the vile name calling and slurs from people like Al Gore and other environmental radicals does nothing to resolve any issues. The slander only hardens everyone’s positions into stagnation.

Thus, once we refuted the Al Gores of the world, we began yesterday with an approach to resolve both our energy problems and the global warming problems, if they exist. Rather than insult each other, we thought it better to resolve problems with logic, science, technology, and strategy. Our approach would make for a better environment for all AND address the global warming fact or fiction without massive government interference in our lives, our freedom, and our economic well being and potential.

The first post in this series can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/11/i-am-global-warming-doubter-and.html

The first part of our solution can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/12/december-2013-i-am-global-warming.html

The first part of the solution provided a logical and rational framework to reduce the world’s carbon footprint due to petroleum usage. It leveraged market place forces, minimized government meddling, and would provide cheaper energy, cleaner energy, and more varied sources of energy in a long term problem resolution process.

Today’s solutions start with what might be done with coal. Coal is plentiful in the ground. Coal is used plentifully across the world. Coal as an energy source that is not going away. Thus, the elephant in the room has to be addressed, how to make coal better.

The first step in the problem resolution process is similar to what we would do with oil. Yesterday, we recommended that the price of a barrel of crude oil be surcharged incrementally by $5 a barrel per year for the next ten years. Thus, after ten years there would be a $50 charge per year per barrel of crude oil. 

This would encourage car makers, energy providers, energy explorers, heating system makers, home owners, car drivers, and the whole world to either make oil more efficient and clean or switch to other, cleaner energy sources. The additional charges on each barrel would be rebated back to taxpayers, not wasted by the political class, in order to not stymie economic growth.

The same thing should be done with coal, placing an equivalent escalating charge on each ton of coal over a ten year period. However, these charges would be reduced if cleaner ways of burning coal could be found via science and research. This would encourage coal mining companies, coal processing companies, utilities, etc. to become more efficient, find new coal technologies,  or face every rising costs of traditional coal usage.

A few promising areas of making coal more efficient are underway. As just one example, according to an article from the September 3, 2013 issue of Business Week magazine, the same technology approach used in fracking for natural gas might also hold low pollution promise for Underground Coal Gasification (UCG). The technique has been used for over a hundred years, having been implemented in the 1860s to light street lamps in London and in the early 1900s in Russia. However, up until recently, it was too expensive relative to other, traditional coal mining approaches.

The technology works as follows:

• A well is drilled into a deep unmined coal seem. 
• Oxygen and steam are shot into the seam to actually ignite the coal underground. 
• The underground combustion generates hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. 
• The gases are piped to the surface, leaving behind the harmful elements arsenic, mercury, and lead, leaving them right where they are prior to the ignition. 
• The gases are cooled and then filtered, the hydrogen is separated out for use as fuel for electric plants or chemical factories. 
• Carbon dioxide gas is then pumped back into the coal seam and sealed so that it does not escape into the atmosphere. 
• If done properly, the process takes place well below the existing local water table, minimizing the potential for water pollution. 

How promising is this technology and science? Consider:

• The technology is already being used around the world in Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, and Uzbekistan. 
• U.S. mining companies are aggressively picking up the mining rights to domestic land that might be good candidates for this cleaner coal process. 
• The article says that environmental groups are cautiously optimistic, quoting a scientist from Natural resources Defense Council: “It’s a much smaller environmental footprint than conventional mining and consumes much less water.” 
• University researchers and scientists estimate that the technology could boost usable coal reserves by five fold. However, the article quotes a U.S. Department of Energy spokesman saying that UCG “as limited applicability across the U.S. because we have ample supplies of high quality readily available coal.” What he fails to mention is that we have ample supplies of high quality, readily available, highly polluting available coal. 

This is where the proposed charge for existing uses of coal comes in. If you make the high polluting, readily available coal increasingly more expense, then the market will look for ways to minimize its costs of doing business and make UCG and other technologies more attractive. These technologies would reduce pollution in China and elsewhere, reduce the world’s carbon footprint, and attack the global warming issue, if it is real. As with petroleum, the charges are fed back to citizens via their tax returns, not given over to the political class to waste.

Consider another technology and science example. Southern Company is building a new, state of the art coal burning plant in Mississippi. The technology will use a new coal gasification project that burns gas from pulverized coal. The process will remove the carbon dioxide and package it for sale to oil companies to help produce more oil from existing wells. 

The EPA estimates that the current process of burning coal for energy results in 2,249 pounds of emissions per megawatt of coal energy. This new technology educes those emissions to 850 pounds, almost a two thirds reduction. The challenge being for science is that the cost is much higher than the current processes. Which again is where our surcharge theory comes into play.

Two uses of science to reduce pollution and if true, help remedy global warming. That is how realists use science, not how Al Gore uses science.

A few additions steps are needed to fix the energy AND global warming issues, as outlined in “Love My Country, Loathe My Government:”

1. The United States should do none of these steps until the entire world, specifically China and India are on board and doing their fair share. As we pointed out in Step 25 in “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” those two countries alone were projected to open 800 coal fired electricity plants between 2007 and 2012. Unless they are on board with a comprehensive plan to rein in carbon emissions and pollutants from coal, none of the above solutions work since their savings of reduced carbon emissions would be wiped out by China and India’s current coal practices. This is where diplomacy comes into play, something the Obama adminsitration has not been very good at.
2. Step 23 proposed that a national panel of scientists, energy experts, economists, and other subject matter experts be convened, independent of Congressional, White House, and political meddling, to put together a detailed plan based on what we outlined here over the past two days. The Washington political class has proven time and again they are incapable of coming up with rational plans and are always influenced by crony politics and reelection antics and fund raising. This panel would work how the military closing panel worked a little while ago: subject matter experts coming up with a comprehensive plan that Congress could only approve in total or disapprove in total. That effort was a success and this one can be also as long as the experts plan and the politicians stay clear. 
3. Step 24 we have already discussed today, finding a way to install and promote the use of clean burning coal tehcnologies since coal is a primary component of energy needs going forward. Turn the issue and challenge over to the scientists to fix the carbon footprint issue with coal. 
4. And finally, disband, destroy, terminate, etc. the U.S. Department of Energy. For decades the Department has burned through trillions of dollars with no societal benefit to show for the expense. Shut it down and refund the annual budget dollars to taxpayers via the process we talked about yesterday with the oil barrel surcharge. Let consumers and the market place forces change the world. Lord knows the department of Energy did not change anything. 

There your have it. Seven days or so of posts that prove you can be a global warming doubter and still a believer in science. You can be a global warming doubter but still find a way to address the pollution and energy needs of the world and still positively affect global warming, assuming it is a reality. You can still be a global warming doubter but still have faith in science and scientists to come up with solutions to make carbon based energy sources more efficient, safer, cleaner, and cheaper.

All without Al Gore, the Washington political class, doomed to failure massive cap and trade bureaucracies, and the vile, hate slurs of those that insist global warming doubters do not believe in science but who in turn ignore the contrary science in the world.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w