o Energy Self Sufficiency

Energy self sufficiency is the notion that the United States should rely on itself for sources of fuel and not on foreign countries. Would you feel comfortable if your relied heavily on another (possibly hostile) country for water, food, or as an extreme example air? Fuel is almost as important to people's livelihoods and standard of living than the items mentioned above.

Note that self sufficiency is both a supply and demand issue. The solution to self sufficiency must be attacked from both the supply side (e.g. nuclear power, wind, solar, ethanol) and the demand side (e.g. auto fuel efficiency, public transportation, efficiency standards in buildings and homes). This entry addresses the supply of fuel and is about one source of supply for car fuel, ethanol.

The U.S. consumes roughly 25% of the world's oil production. We are oil hogs!

• Geo Hive
• http://www.geohive.com/charts/en_oilcons.aspx
• EIA
  
• http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_psup_dc_nus_mbbl_a.htm
  

Roughly 50% of a barrel of crude oil is refined into gasoline, depending on the grade of crude oil. So if the US can devise a plan to replace gasoline distilled from foreign oil with a domestic source of gasoline, we can eliminate a huge percentage of our demand for oil.

Americans are really good at brewing, from moonshine to whiskey to beer. The solution is to have citizens distill their own ethanol either at home, using local distillers, or in large facilities. Ethanol can be produced from a variety of agricultural and non-agricultural crops. Biotech firms can create special enzymes to speed up the fermentation process.

On the political side, get rid of the "A" part of the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms). Let people home brew as much alcohol as they want. Now that I think about it, get rid or the "T" part as well.

Natural Gas Vehicles would be another alternative to explore since its a domestically produced commodity.

The US government will be the biggest blocker of this plan. Tax revenues are generated from gasoline purchases at the pump. The government does not want to lose a source of taxes, how else can they afford $700 billion bailouts?? The current system of taxing gasoline is impeding the progress toward using alternative fuels. The solution could be to cut spending as the fuel taxes decrease. I am being such a comedian today.

Here are some interesting reads about ethanol :

• Indy 500
• http://www.indy500.com/news/4105/Ethanol_To_Fuel_Cars_In_Indianapolis_500_Starting_In_2006
• Some nutty person
• http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/