Electric Vehicles In An Electric-Centric World- Part 10- Wasting Time

TIME IS WASTING WHICH WE DON'T HAVE TO WASTE

The main ingredient in securing an electric-centric transportation future is the means and methods required to increase the capacity of sustainable ["green"] "base-load" power. Solar power, wind power, micro-hydro power and tidal power all have their role to play. They will be key contributors to the grid and will generate their share of the electric power that can be downloaded to charge batteries. They must be developed and used to their maximum capacity.

It is time to sober up and must face this music; we have a monumental energy crisis brewing coupled with greenhouse gas pollution and global warming, primarily and predominantly associated with providing societal mobility; i.e., vehicular transportation. We are fast approaching the day when one billion people will rely on automobiles on a regular daily schedule as their principle mode of getting around. This will soon to grow to two billion and up when the Chinese and Indian populations discover the freedom of motorized movement. At present, our nation alone has 200 million motor vehicles on the road at any given time, all spewing carbon dioxide, various nitrogen-based oxides, sulphur dioxide, etc. into the air we breathe.

Petroleum and coal nations should not despair. They should take a hint. Personal transportation is rapidly expanding. Sources and reserves of petroleum are not and coal too is a finite resource. More and more electricity will be needed to power more and more clean electric cars as world populations become more prosperous and add to the population of motorized vehicles. Even petroleum nations, located in areas of high solar concentration, can add to the grid via solar power expansion. They too can engage in deep-well binary geothermal power production, using oil revenue to pay for the cost of drilling instead of wasting their money buying warplanes. Remember, geothermal energy exists beneath the feet of every population on earth, Saudi Arabia and Iran included. They should be encouraged to enter the 22nd century now to secure their own economic future and the well-being of their respective populations, not only in terms of their own economic prosperity, but in recognition of the day when the petroleum wells run dry. They should do this simply to help preserve a clean environment, for global warming is just that; it affects the entire globe, the Middle East included.

If global warming and declining fossil energy reserves [particularly petroleum for transportation] are truly serious matters, we must take drastic action now. Not next year; not five years from now. This is a true emergency of almost incomprehensible proportion. We need a "moon shot" mentality. We need a modern day "Manhattan" project.³ We can not depend on mere market forces to push this envelope; too much money is being made from petroleum use [+100 billion dollars profit in 2007] and the energy market is not "free" given OPEC's monopoly position. We need government to get way out ahead of the curve on this one; government must drive this activity. If in 1942 we could in less than three years create something from nothing [fissionable nuclear power] with 1940's technology, it lacks credulity that we cannot within the next ten year period produce all of the electricity that this nation presently needs and will in the future require for electric vehicles, from vastly expanded use of "green" energy sources, particularly that which can be generated by deep well binary geothermal power systems. That is 3,650 days to full self-sufficiency in clean reliable electric energy production and a domestically sustainable mobile society.

Do not argue that this goal cannot be met in ten years. The interstate highway system was constructed in an equivalent amount of time. A single-minded focus and iron will is needed. We must demand that this be done, state it will be done, and it will be done. It is a matter of leading, following or getting out of the way. A diligent effort to advance a deep well binary geothermal energy program can place us on the right path now. We must start prospecting and commence drilling. To paraphrase the great Cleveland Browns football coach Paul Brown: 'this is not a matter of life and death - it is much more important than that.' Tomorrow is too late; today is the day. We must begin drilling and "mining" the earth's thermal energy potential to generate electricity. We need an "inner space" program similar to NASA's "outer space" program. Forget about going to Mars; the billions are better served here on earth deep drilling for geothermal energy. And forget about drilling in ANWR, with the limited energy benefits that environmentally-suspect enterprise is likely to produce. It is far better to deep drill in Holmes County, Ohio, mining for heat.

If you do not believe the forgoing assessment, please take the time to read the study prepared and disseminated by The Massachussetts Institute of Technology ["The Future of Geothermal Energy - Impacts of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) on the United States in the 21st Century": ]. What you discover just might electrify you to this huge source of energy. This report estimates that if the United States invests one billion dollars over the next fifteen years [about $65 million per year - or 1/6 the cost of a nuclear power plant and less than the cost to build a single "clean" coal power plant - enough geothermal power can be generated to power 25 million households by 2050. Imagine what could be generated if we became serious about this issue and invested 100 billion dollars per year [in the range of annual fossil fuel investment].

PROPOSAL TO KICK START DEVELOPMENT: OWNERSHIP OF RESOURCE

Who should own the resource: the people or the extractor? To move this project along as swiftly as needed, the government must be the primary drilling enterprise. Therefore, subterranean heat resources must be treated in a manner which is similar to the way we now treat the navigable waterways of the United States. The deep thermal deposits below three nautical miles of vertical depth should be considered equivalent to a "navigable" waterway and ownership should vest in the "people" as a federal matter. From the surface to a depth of one nautical mile below the surface, ownership of the resource may remain with the terrestrial owner. Below one nautical mile but above three nautical miles, ownership should vest in the state. Below five nautical miles, ownership should be split 50 - 50 with any private company that takes the initiative and drills on its own account. In all cases, a nominal royalty should be paid to the state or federal government to drill and develop deep geothermal systems. This approach will add clarity to the ownership issue and alleviate ownership disputes. Once the government has explored, drilled and developed the deep wells and reservoir systems, it can lease the wells to private industry through a competitive bidding process and private industry can be given the opportunity to build and maintain the plant, produce and generate the electricity, paying the government a fair royalty and/or license fee, just as petroleum companies pay royalties to obtain oil rights. Over time, the government will recoup its up-front capital contribution from the payment of royalties and taxes on earnings.

Private individuals and businesses have no reasonable expectation to ownership of deep geothermal zones; it is not a mineral nor it is considered water. It is natural heat generated from the thermal flow of magma that extends below all surface properties. The only thing a land owner possesses, and has a right to sell, is an easement on the surface or license to gain access to drill on private property. The government should be obligated to pay such an easement or license. The private land owner should receive no royalty for the heat produced or the electricity generated that is in addition to payments for granting the easement. If private industry choose to drill and develop the deep geothermal resource, it will pay any easement or license required to obtain access to the drilling site. The developer will then pay a reduced royalty to the government to tap the deep hot zones.

On federal lands, for those enterprises who chose to take on the financial risk of drilling deep wells, they should be afforded a "first come - first served" non-competitive grant to drill all development fields within a ten mile radius of any exploratory fields they have drilled show economic potential. However, the right to such an exclusive permit must have a time limit [perhaps two years] in order to prevent companies from "sitting on" promising geothermal sites without developing them to their full potential.

Toward this end, the government must take affirmative action to ease the permitting process and reduce the time of the permitting cycle. The time it takes from submission of a formal proposal to the issuance of a drilling and development permit should take no longer than 90 - 180 days depending upon the degree of environmental sensitivity of the location immediately surrounding the drilling/plant site.

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