Energy and the Election

     I promised a post before the election and here is: Neither candidate really has a workable energy plan. Both are telling people what they want to hear on each side, but neither addresses any of the issues to the point of application in reality. The manpower and construction issues, grid stability, transmission lines, and readiness of the technology all are ignored. It is either “Drill for oil” or “we’ll use green power” cheerleading.

     The only person I have seen to day that has put somewhat of a workable plan out there is Boon Pickens and the Pickens plan. This plan is somewhat flawed though as it depends on wind power alone (Which Pickens plans to financially exploit). If other forms of power generation such as hydroelectric or nuclear were added to this it might work. (But Pickens can’t directly profit from them so he will never speak of them).

     Right now oil has hit a low which is good to a great extent, but also bad. Supply now far outstrips demand and low fuel prices will help get the economy back on track. The pad part is however the spigot is still flowing and the oil supplies are slowly depleting, just now within the parameters of our economic use for the time being. Also now that there is relatively cheap oil energy will take a political backburner, that is until demand rises again and that magic supply and demand cross comes into play.