Dear Mr. Pickens,
My previous four messages dealt with "new" technologies (or more correctly old technologies that have not previously been used as a primary source of energy) and one old technology, nuclear, that you rejected. Today, I look at ethanol (ethyl alcohol). You said, in one of your videos, that ethanol was a joke (and I agree), but it is no longer funny because our Congress, in their infinite, unconstitutional, wisdom has mandated the use of ethanol in automobile fuels.
Here are the reasons that ethanol is a joke--somehow we've got to get the Congress to understand this.
First, it takes approximately 90% of the energy that burning ethanol releases to produce the ethanol. I don't know whether or not that includes the cost of growing the corn, transporting the corn, and transporting the ethanol.
Second, making ethanol from food is a really bad idea--people in India are starving.
Third, running a car on ethanol actually reduces the gas mileage (by 5% to 10% in my experience). FN1
Fourth, using gasoline containing ethanol in small engines (lawnmowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, weed trimmers, etc.) is causing damage that is expensive to repair.
Fifth, fuel containing ethanol is no "greener" than straight hydrocarbon fuel; that is burning ethanol produces essentially the same amount of CO2 per BTU as burning hydrocarbons.
Sixth, without a government subsidy ethanol laced hydrocarbon fuel costs more per BTU than straight hydrocarbon. Even with the subsidy, ethanol manufacturers are starting to lose money.
Seventh, using corn to produce ethanol has approximately doubled the price of corn (imagine that) which has increased the cost of everything made from corn.
Note that the problems with ethanol are presumably unintended consequences even though most of them are predictable. Everything we do has consequences; once an act is committed the consequences are unavoidable.
I have more to say, but this is probably already too long.
1) We would expect this just from chemical formula for ethanol, C2H5OH. Compare that formula to Ethane, C2H6. Ethanol is simply Ethane which has been partially oxidized (burned). The extra oxygen, O, atom in the ethanol molecule adds weight (and volume) to the fuel without adding (actually subtracting) energy. Gasoline is a mixture of different hydrocarbons of which Octane, C8H18, is the gold standard. The generic formula for saturated hydrocarbons is CnH(2n + 2). The hydrocarbons are chains of the form CH3:(CH2)(n-2):CH3. All the hydrocarbons produce about 20,000 BTU per pound when burned in air. If you don't understand this that's OK; this footnote is just to explain why ethanol reduces gas mileage.
Larry Brown
Your Eyes and Ears in SW Oregon
Now using a Mac Mini (Apple)
P.S. I saw your plan in two different You Tube videos. As a Caltech grad (MS in EE, 1954), I was impressed. IMHO, we, as a nation, should consider all of the energy sources that you enumerated along with any new, "out of the box" technologies, but the "playing field" should be leveled. All government interference in the energy markets should be stopped. This will allow all technologies to compete--the market will select those technologies that are most cost-effective. It was government regulations, subsidies, and taxes that brought us the "energy crisis."