On Tuesday night I attended a screening of the movie "Crude Awakening" at the Swiss Embassy in D.C. It was one in a series of energy-related movies they’re showing this week in the nation’s capital as part of the Environmental Film Festival.
My first thought this morning was to comment on the movie. But it was pretty much your typical peak oil scenario, followed up by a less-than-impressive review of renewables . . . and an even worse Q&A session.
Not that it has a whole lot to do with oil, as most of our oil is used for transportation fuels anyway . . . but one woman asked about the potential of geothermal energy during the Q&A.
The response she was given went something like this . . .
"Well, in my town in Switzerland they tried to dig a big hole for geothermal, but it caused an earthquake. So they stopped."
That was the answer!
I guess no one clued the moderator in on the fact that geothermal resources can provide over 50 percent of new energy demand for the 13 states that make up the western US.
Mild annoyances aside, the movie had no real surprises and nothing really worth discussing in detail. Though I did find it uncomfortably amusing to see the audience gasping at the visuals of dead oil fields and snickering at the old Esso and Ford commercials they dug up for the documentary . . . but extremely quiet and uneasy when confronted with the reality of just how fragile our energy infrastructure really is.
Then I started thinking. Even these environmentalists (because this was a clearly a group comprised primarily of well-off DC tree-huggers), these people who champion clean energy more than anyone, really don’t get it.
While they’re busy patting themselves on the back for hating Exxon and morons who drive Hummers in the city, machete-wielding Nigerians continue to murder . . . anti-American terrorists continue to fund their terror campaigns with the money we pay to buy their precious oil . . . and psychopathic dictators, like those scumbags Chavez and Ahmadinejad, continue to do everything they can, by any means necessary, to bring us to our oil-addicted knees.
The fact is, "Green is Good" stickers on the back of your Prius may help spread the word . . . but it isn’t going to stop the bleeding.
However, the integration of renewable energy alternatives that require very little or no oil at all can provide real solutions–and for our purposes as well, real profits.
A Short-Term Solution . . . NOW!
On Tuesday, President Bush toured a couple of Ford and GM plants and told the workers that their labor would help national security by reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
He then went on to push his own agenda that highlights ethanol, hybrid vehicles and hope for fuel cells.
Well, let’s get the "hope for fuel cells" out of the way first.
Hope doesn’t pay the bills.
Ethanol can and will continue to reduce our oil consumption by a small percentage. It may not be a silver bullet, but it’s something. And we need everything we can get.
Same with hybrids.
But there’s simply no denying that a full integration of electric vehicles is what can really deliver the most benefits in the shortest amount of time.
And isn’t that what we’re really after right now?
At this very moment, there are a number of highway-capable electric vehicles that use not a single drop of gas and can carry a charge long enough to get the majority of America’s commuters to and from work every single day.
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the average daily commute is 29 miles.
And these aren’t little tinker-toy cars either.
From the sleek sports car that Tesla Motors just put out to Phoenix Motorcars ‘ all-electric SUV, these things exist right now.
I’ve seen them. I’ve ridden in them. You can actually buy these things. They’re not in some lab at MIT.
In fact, I’ve even met with some of the companies that supply the parts for these vehicles. Most recently, UQM Technologies (UQM:AMEX).
This is the company that makes the electric propulsion systems for the Phoenix SUV.
The company also just got another million-dollar contract from the US Air Force yesterday.
Now, I’m not saying we should rush right out and buy stock in the company. But its performance over the past few months can’t be ignored.
Take a look:
Not too shabby!
I’m telling you, with the integration of electric vehicles, not only can we make a few profits . . . but we can also drastically reduce our oil consumption and strengthen our energy infrastructure.
That, my friends, is a solution I think many of us can live with!
For more on Electric Vehicles, and the companies profiting from this burgeoning market, visit Plugged-In Profits now.
Jeff
