COMMENTARY
Oil remains best source for daily energy needs
By Brian Barbata
Burying utility lines makes sense, but oil independence does not.
A popular feel-good myth is that Hawai'i can (or should) be independent of oil — "free" as some would like to characterize it, implying that we are currently imprisoned.
Is oil really doing anything bad to us? I suspect I just got the attention of a few thousand "Earth first" and "big oil conspiracy" folks, but give me half-a-chance here. There are two common complaints that get thrown at oil: pollution and expense.
Oil pollution can (and should) be controlled, whether from spills at the well or exhaust from vehicles. Switching the "demanded" energy to other means carries with it new and unknown risks.
France likes nuclear but we don't. They certainly thought a lot about the trade-offs. Some advocate hydrogen, which is as basic as you can get. But it is a huge task to invent and distribute systems to use hydrogen. Unlike oil, hydrogen for the purpose of energy does not even exist. It has to be made and transported efficiently and safely by means not even invented yet, and at a cost no one can contemplate.
For Hawai'i, hydrogen may be the worst alternative. The work being done on hydrogen energy sources relies on hydrogen-rich substances from which the hydrogen may be easily extracted — such as natural gas.
The only hydrogen source we have in Hawai'i in any quantity is seawater. Extracting hydrogen from seawater is both practically and economically unrealistic. So, if Hawai'i were to succeed in promoting a "hydrogen economy," it would become an importer of hydrogen or natural gas, both of which are expensive and dangerous to transport.
What about the other warm and fuzzy hopes: wind and solar? True, we are seeing a small resurgence in wind power but the problem still is where to put it. So far, there are no silent, pretty windmills that work in all winds. Unless you are Dutch, you don't want to be within a mile of one of those thumpa-thumpas.
The visual and aural pollution of wind and solar is not much of a trade-off for oil. Solar is heavily burdened by cost, but it also has environmental impact. Have you ever seen the massive solar arrays necessary to make a dent in electricity generation? They cover a huge amount of ground. Nothing grows and erosion is a problem.
The number required to displace a meaningful amount of oil-generated electricity would cover a good part of O'ahu. The photovoltaic panel some would like to see on your roof can only generate a small part of the demand for a typical home and comes with all sorts of design and cost considerations.
So what about "expensive"? We've been conditioned to believe that oil companies conspire to gouge us at the pump. Why do people all over the world pay radically different prices for fuels?
To some, a gallon of diesel is the cost of a family meal, while in other places it is incidental. When we complain that "fuel is too expensive," we have to be able to answer, "Compared to what?"
When considering oil versus the alternatives, petroleum fuels are the best deal.
I would rather depend on oil to power my house and my business, and to run my car and airplanes, than anything else. Oil energy is not going to disappear and trying to beat it into submission only shifts costs around and drives prices up.
Let's say tomorrow Ford comes out with a magic no-gas car and the government immediately rules that everyone has to drive one. There is an exchange program for your gas guzzler, and in a week you are humming along on warp drive, looking for a refill in 20 years. Of course, our roads are quickly packed with cars operating for "free". Gasoline demand drops to zero and drives the industry into an emergency with no revenue from a major product which comes naturally out of crude oil.
Meanwhile, you still would like to go to California, but Ford's technology doesn't fly airplanes. You'd also like to have food delivered to your market but it doesn't work for big trucks either. And you still want to watch TV and have lights.
The oil companies only have one choice: to cover their costs and lost gasoline revenue through the remaining oil products. Suddenly, your California ticket costs $1,000 (coach), your broccoli costs $5 a pound, and you need a meter on your TV to keep within budget.
Real-world proof of this effect can be found in the recent history of diesel fuel. Until the 1970s, diesel was less than half the price of gasoline. In the rush to produce diesel cars, gas stations began carrying diesel. Today it costs more than gasoline because it displaced gasoline revenue and incurred new costs bringing it to you.
A high school physics class teaches that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, just changed in form. What we have now is the most efficient, handiest, plentiful, multi-use form of energy there is.
By the time we run out, we will be living on other planets. From one source, we meet all our energy needs. That makes a huge difference, versus a little oil, a little hydrogen, a little solar, a little wind, etc., which would be a disaster.
Until someone figures out how to fly an airplane on coal, or invents a car that runs on seawater, Hawai'i had better hope we don't become "free" of oil.
It is not our enemy. Not only that, if we don't use it, all those dinosaurs died for nothing!
Brian Barbata lives in Kailua.
