Letter to the editor: Alternative fuels demands immediate effort

By Oliver D. Jeffords, PE (retired), Lacey, Wash.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 4:08 PM CST

With the current prices of gasoline, natural gas and heating oil at an all-time high, every household is feeling the pinch of an energy crisis. The country is hostage to Mideast oil and gas. It’s time to say enough is enough and to exercise some options to overcome the effects of rising energy costs.

Coal is the energy producer of 1/3 of our country’s electricity, but it has detrimental environmental effects. We put a man on the moon. We should institute a similar crash program to clean up this portion of energy production. This might entail adding other fuel in with coal or better scrubbers.

Another option is to look at South America with its change over to biodiesel and ethanol. This is one bright spot in the energy picture. This alternative-fuel-from-crops movement is really picking up throughout the country. For it to follow the pattern of South America, we should adopt a policy of planting idle land to canola or camelina including highway rights-of-way; roadways occupy 1/3 to 1/2 of the right-of-way and the rest of the land is idle.

France has demonstrated that the option of nuclear power can be successful with adequate safeguards. There’s been so much trouble with nuclear power that its expansion remains questionable.

Another option is promoting wind power. On wind power, a prime example is Denmark. Another well-refined source of energy is solar power, which should also be utilized in sunny climes.

A rarely mentioned energy option is power from the sea (wave and tidal current). This has such a great potential that I would suggest a crash program here, too.

I’d like to see an energy department doing research and development to find an answer to our energy crisis on a long term basis.

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