An Inflection Point on Alternative Fuels?
On Tuesday afternoon, I attended a briefing on Capitol Hill of the House Defense Energy Security Caucus.
One of the best presentations I have seen on this topic was given by Peter Attia, a Vice President of Sapphire Energy.
Attia’s thesis was that we have been largely successful in developing alternatives to fossil fuels in electricity production, to the point where – if we made it a national priority – we could quickly move away from fossil fuels by replacing them with nuclear or alternatives like wind. I think he may have oversold that a bit – coal has a choke-hold on our electricity production right now that is proving very strong. But, I take his point: we have passed an inflection point on alternatives to fossil fuels in electricity production.
However, he said that, while we have options in electricity production, we don’t have any options in fuels for transportation. Oil provides almost 93% of the energy for transportation, and only corn ethanol provides a significant amount otherwise. And – that is probably not scalable to much more than what we’ve got now. So – in order to meet growing demand for transportation fuels, you need to develop new sources: that includes so-called ‘unconventional’ fossil fuels like tar sands and deepwater drilling, but it also includes things like efficency and fuel additives. Importantly, it also must include drop-in renewable petroleum biofuels.
He goes on to say that the best option for developing these biofuels is through investment from the Department of Defense. And – we need that investment now so that we are able to reach an inflection point soon.
Many of you who have read ASP’s “America’s Energy Choices” White Paper will be familiar with these arguments, but it is good to have more support for them.
