Re: [Vo]: A new 'Manhattan Project' for energy innovation?

[Jed Rothwell]

Harry Veeder wrote:

I'm not an American, but if one goes by the name of the proposed new 
agency, "The National Energy Efficiency Development Administration", 
it appears to be poorly conceived. In my estimation, if efficiency 
is the goal it will not result in a reduction of the overall demand 
for oil. It will just shift the pattern of oil consumption habits.

I quibble with that. There is no use for oil except in transportation 
and feedstock. I used to be used for power generation but it is not 
anymore. In the first oil shock, in the 1970s, improved efficiency 
greatly lowered overall energy consumption in the U.S., especially 
oil. Improved efficiency would stretch out supplies. I do agree that 
what we really need is a replacement for fossil fuels, not methods of 
stretching supplies.

I do not think the Federal Government is the right organization for 
this job. It makes no difference whether the new agency is supposedly 
independent or not. The government is only good at implementing or 
financing specific technology after the exerts agree it is the right 
choice. The government has a stellar track record for doing this, for 
canals, steamships, telegraphs, the transcontinental railroad, 
airports, nuclear weapons, highways, digital computers and so on. It 
has had some large failures too, notably cost-effective fission 
reactors and plasma fusion. I think it should offer more support for 
wind energy, and much less support for fossil fuel extraction 
technology, which is where the bulk of Federal R&D dollars go today. 
The government, and everyone else, should immediately terminate 
biofuels programs which are net energy sink. This is a complicated 
way to waste oil and destroy the topsoil, the water table and the ecology.

- Jed