Let’s Create a Manhattan Energy Project

By DOLPH HONICKER

Democrats seek to slap a tax on the obscene windfall profits of U.S. oil oligarchs. Republicans brag that gasoline prices have fallen.

Where are the courageous Congressional voices who call for an increase in gasoline taxes of $2 to even $3 a gallon over, say, a 4-year period?

This would force Detroit to get serious about playing catch-up with the Japanese in producing energy efficient cars instead of going for “curb appeal“ and horsepower.

Considering that Scandinavians pay some $7.50 a gallon and Brits pay a shade less, Americans could learn to car-pool and use mass transit until Detroit gets the message.

Each political party professes a love for alternative forms of energy, ways to end what President George W. Bush labels our “addiction to oil.” But neither seems willing to take giant steps to end that addiction.

Rather than engaging in symbolic measures such as raising the minimum raise and cutting the interest rates on college tuition loans, Newsweek writer Robert J. Samuelson recommends more restrictive measures. For instance, he would have Congress enact an energy tax equivalent of $2 a gallon on gasoline enacted over a 6-year period.

He also proposes upping federal fuel-efficiency standards for cars from the present 27.5 miles per gallon to 40 mpg by 2020.

That’s too little and too late.

Toyota has a proven Prius hybrid on the road that gets 50 mpg and a Camry hybrid for those who prefer a larger model. Our 2003 Honda 4-door hybrid gets 42 to 48 mpg. Al Gore drives a Lexus hybrid.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Will American motorists wait 13 years for Detroit to get its act together while Japan continues to improve on its hybrid and other non-guzzling models?

Samuelson also proposes that Congress open the Arctic National Wildlife Refugee to oil production.

“This,” he says, “would help offset declining U.S. output elsewhere.”

Besides taking years to develop while endangering wildlife in the area, many experts say the oil produced would pan out in about a year. Republicans want to build more refineries.

Neither plan takes us off the oil standard. Paired, they make as much sense as running our vehicles on ethanol, which cost more to produce than regular gas, raises corn prices and takes food out of the mouths of babes.

Until scientists can distill alcohol from kudzu and straw, ethanol is a long-term losing proposition.

Well-paying jobs, not the minimum wage variety, are needed to pull American middle class workers out of the doldrums. They can be found in a Manhattan Project on alternative forms of energy.

Trim the National Aeronautics Space Agency into little more than a holding pattern. Use those brains to develop more efficient photovoltaic cells that turn sunbeams into electricity. It’s possible that nanotechnology could develop photovoltaic cells so tiny they could be embedded in paint, applied to a roof and provide a family’s entire electric needs.

Meanwhile, more efficient solar panels are in the offing.

Driving around Hilo in Hawaii last year, we spotted no more than three solar panels on the roofs of houses in a land where the sun shines almost the year round..

What a waste of solar power!

A Manhattan Energy Project (MEP) could find means to produce portable hydrogen units for clean hydrogen-powered vehicles now stymied by high costs and the large storage space required for hydrogen.

Put windmill farms where the wind is steady.

Britain has found marine turbines placed offshore a reliable source of electricity. The tide comes in and the tide goes out and the turbines turn. So far, there have been no adverse effects.

One of the greatest energy-saving methods is low-tech -- proper insulation and roofing.

Kick our oil addiction and we would not need a giant military to go into Iraq to “protect our oil lines” or into Iran or Nigeria, two of the most recent mentioned target possibilities. Saudi Arabia would be reduced to exporting dates to the U.S. instead of oil.

NASA scientists and engineers are a boon. Let’s tap their brains to solve earthly problems while we still have a planet. The moon and Mars won’t go away.

Copyright 2007, Dolph Honicker