A quarterly research and development magazine.
For the past 100 years, this country has been largely dependent on liquid fossil fuels — especially petroleum — for transportation, electricity, and even food production.
Today, with the price of oil becoming unpredictable, together with increased energy consumption worldwide — particularly in China and India — and oil being concentrated in volatile countries, it’s time to manage our fuels better, Robinett says.
“Energy is all around us — just look at the power of hurricanes and tsunamis,” Robinett adds. “It’s not the lack of energy that’s the problem, it’s a knowledge shortage of how to manage and harness that energy. We believe the energy surety approach is the best way to do this. If we don't follow this model, the whole world, including the U.S., could find itself living a lifestyle like that of the developing nations.”
Step one. Squeeze every unit of available energy from the current supplies. This goes beyond the implementation of higher-efficiency electricity-consuming devices (lighting, appliances, and motors) and vehicles (diesels and hybrids) to include waste-to-energy options such as the extraction of methane from landfills and the conversion of biomass wastes to liquid fuels. Making better use of limited fossil supplies will allow the country to “buy time” while it moves down the path towards energy surety, Tatro says.