A path to oil independence

WITH THE PRICE OF OIL soaring to record levels, political instability in the Middle East on the rise, and little slack in the world oil economy, we need a new energy strategy. Two emerging technologies--gas-electric hybrid engines and advanced-design wind turbines--offer a way to wean the U.S. off of imported oil. If, over the next decade, we convert the U.S. automobile fleet to hybrids with the efficiency of today's Toyota Prius, we could cut our gasoline use in half--no reduction in the number of vehicles or miles driven; just doing it more efficiently.

At present, three gas-electric models are on the market: the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, and a hybrid version of the Honda Civic. The midsize Prius--a car on the cutting-edge of automotive technology-gets an astounding 55 mpg in combined city/highway driving. No wonder there are lists of eager buyers willing to wait six months for delivery.

Ford recently released a hybrid model of its Escape SUV. Honda is about to do the same with its popular Accord sedan. General Motors will offer hybrid versions of several of its cars beginning with the Saturn VUE in 2006, followed by the Chevy Tahoe and Malibu. Beyond this, GM has delivered 235 hybrid buses to Seattle, Wash., with the potential to reduce gasoline use there by up to 60%. Other cities slated to go this route are Philadelphia, Pa.; Houston, Tex.; and Portland, Ore.

With hybrid cars now on the market, the stage is set for the second step to reduce oil dependence, the use of wind-generated electricity to power automobiles. If we add to the gas-electric auto a plug-in option and a second battery to increase electricity storage capacity, motorists could do their commuting, shopping, and other short-distance travel largely with electricity, saving gasoline for the occasional long trip. This could lop another 20% off gasoline use in addition to the initial 50% cut from shifting to hybrids, for a total reduction in gasoline use of 70%.

This plug-in ability would give drivers access to the country's vast--and largely untapped--wind resources. In 1991, the Department of Energy published a "National Wind Resource Inventory" in which it pointed out that three states--Kansas, North Dakota, and Texas--have enough harnessable wind energy to satisfy national electricity needs. Many were astonished, since wind power had been considered a marginal energy source. They would be even more amazed today, since the DOE's projections were a gross understatement--as they were based on the wind turbine technologies of 1991.

The average turbine in 1991 was roughly 120 feet tall, whereas new ones are 300 feet high, the equivalent of a 30-story building. Not only does this more than double the harvestable wind regime, but winds at higher elevations are stronger and more reliable.

In Europe, which has emerged as the world leader in developing this type of energy, wind farms satisfy the residential electricity needs of 40,000,000 consumers. In 2003, the European Wind Energy Association projected that, by 2020, wind power would provide electricity for 195,000,000 people--half the population of Western Europe.

Wind power is growing fast because it is cheap, abundant, inexhaustible, widely distributed, clean, and climate-benign. No other energy source has all of these attributes. Moreover, the cost of wind-generated electricity has been in free-fall over the last two decades. The early wind farms in California, where the modern wind industry was born in the early 1980s, generated electricity at a cost of 38 cents per kilowatt-hour. Today, many wind farms are producing power at four cents per kilowatt-hour.

Unlike the widely discussed fuel cell/hydrogen transportation model, the gas-electric hybrid/wind model does not require a costly new infrastructure. The network of gasoline service stations already is in place. So, too, is the electricity grid needed to link wind farms to the storage batteries in cars. Yet, for this new model to work most efficiently, a strong integrated national grid is necessary. The need for modernizing the country's antiquated set of regional grids is widely recognized, especially in light of the blackout that darkened (no pun intended) most of the Northeast in August, 2003.

Some 22 states now have commercial-scale wind farms feeding electricity into the grid. Although there occasionally is a NIMBY problem, the PIIMBY response ("put it in my backyard") is much more pervasive. This is not surprising, since a single turbine easily can produce $100,000 worth of electricity in a year.

The competition among farmers in Iowa or ranchers in Colorado for wind farms is intense. Farmers, with no investment on their part, typically receive $3,000 a year in royalties from the local utility for siting a single wind turbine, which occupies a quarter-acre of land. This quarter-acre in corn country would produce 40 bushels worth $120; in ranch country, perhaps $10 worth of beef.

Communities in rural America desperately want the additional revenue from wind farms and the jobs they bring. Moreover, money spent on electricity generated from wind farms stays in the community, creating a ripple effect throughout the local economy. Within a matter of years, thousands of ranchers could be earning far more from electricity sales than from cattle.

Moving to the highly efficient gas-electric hybrids with a plug-in capability, combined with the construction of thousands of wind farms across the country feeding electricity into a national grid, will provide the energy security that has eluded us for three decades. It also will rejuvenate farm and ranch communities and shrink the U.S. balance-of-trade deficit. Even more important, it dramatically will cut carbon emissions, making the U.S. a model that other countries can emulate.

Lester R. Brown, Ecology Editor of USA Today, is president of Earth Policy Institute, Washington, D.C., and author of Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group