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Want Energy Independence? Quit Burning Oil In Cars

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 1, 2008

Former Energy Department official Joseph Romm (writing in Gristmill) concisely answers the offshore drilling hoax: "... Lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling can't possibly reduce gasoline prices. After all, two years ago, we opened most of the Gulf of Mexico -- with its estimated 41 billion barrels of oil -- and oil prices then doubled."

In a recent letter, Tom Cannariato, after saying he's all for conservation and alternatives, asks: "What do we do in the meantime?" I refer him to the Energy Information Administration report on lifting the moratorium on drilling near the beaches. The EIA forecasts no new oil until 2020, and from 2020 to 2030, the extra oil production averages 150,000 barrels of oil per day. That's less than half of what we export. The U.S. uses 20 million barrels per day.

Drilling in that 100-mile wide coastal protection strip is no short-term fix. It isn't a fix at all.

Mr. Cannariato seems to believe that electric and natural gas powered cars are futuristic and impractical. (I presume he doesn't really believe that they run on seawater.) But such cars exist now. Toyota actually used to sell an electric RAV4, powered by its innovative EV-95 nickel metal hydride battery. Unfortunately, Chevron Oil acquired the NiMH patents, sued Toyota and forced it to stop production of the car in 2002. Chevron won't license any NiMH battery large enough to power an all-electric car (although it does license batteries for the Prius.) The Chevron patents expire in 2014.

Meanwhile, Tesla Motors is manufacturing an electric sports car, powered by lithium ion batteries, that accelerates faster than a Ferrari and has a range of 250 miles between charges. Tesla hopes to have an electric sedan ready within five years.

Contrary to Mr. Cannariato, I believe that any firm that mass produces a reasonably priced highway capable electric car will be able to sell all it can make.

What's the timetable on oil? Well, consider BP's Thunder Horse platform, which sits over a billion barrels of oil in the Gulf off Mississippi. Oil was discovered there in 2001. Thunder Horse started production in June 2008. BP expects it to produce for just 20 years. Or Chevron's famous Jack 2 well. Oil discovered in 2001. They hope to start producing oil in 2010. Look up any oil development. It takes five years between acquiring leases to exploratory drilling. Five to 10 years after that to produce oil.

We could convert a large chunk of our automotive fleet to electricity long before we see any oil from drilling off the beach.

Our existing electric grid has an enormous amount of spare capacity to handle peak loads. If electric cars are recharged during off peak hours, the grid could handle a huge number of cars. We wouldn't need "a few dozen nuclear generating facilities next Thursday," as per Mr. Cannariato.

Nor would we have to "...convert existing oil-fired generating plants to clean coal or natural gas," as Mr. Cannariato fears. We started doing that during the Carter Administration. In this century, fuel oil plants produce only 1.6 percent of U.S. electricity.

Of the nearly 20 million barrels of oil the U.S. uses, 75 percent goes to transportation. Forget drilling off the beaches and in wildlife reserves. If you want energy independence, quit burning oil in cars.

Dallas Dunlap

Brooksville

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