On January 28, 1969 a major undersea "blowout"  occurred on the Union Oil company’s Platform A off the coast of Santa Barbara, California.  The incident resulted in a  200,000 gallon oil spill that coated both wildlife and beaches, and ignited the environmental movement in the United States with the first Earth Day, being a direct result.

       
Oil-soaked grebes on the beaches of Santa Barbara,California.  January, 1969 (left) and of the Gulf of Mexico.  April 2010 (right)

  2010  

On April 20, 2010 a  major undersea “blow-out” occurred on the state-of-the-art oil drilling platform Deepwater Horizon, while drilling an exploratory well for BP (formerly British Petroleum Company) in the Gulf of Mexico.  The still-burning platform sank on Earth Day, April 22. 

Oil spill from the burning Deepwater Horizon, April 22, 2010.  (Gerald Herbert/AP)

After the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon the well casing apparently sheared at the ocean floor, 5,000 feet below the ocean surface, and began leaking approximately 13,000 gallons of oil an hour (U.S Coast Guard) into the ocean.  An additional 700,000 gallons of #2 fuel oil (diesel) were said to be aboard the platform when it sank.

It is more important than ever in our history that we, as individual citizens,  “Learn, Teach and Act”.   It is our planet, and it is up to us to protect it.

Mankind has long relied on energy provided by other humans and animals to accomplish work.  But humans and animals can supply only a limited amount of power, for a limited duration and require a constant energy input of food and water.  Thus mankind sought to tap natural resources to overcome these limitations.  Perhaps the first successful utilization “natural power” was the addition of sails to ships, replacing or supplementing the power provided by oarsmen.  Sailing vessels are known to have existed in Egypt by 3000 BC, and the technology has been worldwide for most of recorded history. 

Just as it was over 5,000 years ago, wind is still being being used to power ocean-going vessels.  Perhaps the most recent example is the 20,000 ton MV Beluga SkySail which uses a bow-mounted “kite” to achieve fuel savings of approximately 30% while primarily carrying cargo between Europe and North America. 

The first known use of windmill to power a machine was in 150 BC by Hero in Alexandria, Egypt.  By the 9th Century windmills where widely used thought the Persian Empire to grind gains and pump water, applications that are currently in common usage throughout the world.   In 1887 James Blyth constructed a windmill powered generator in Scotland to provide lighting.   By the 1920’s the basic design of contemporary 3-blade windmills was fixed, with some of the windmills that supplied electricity on farms, islands and other remote areas during the 1930's still in use today.  A Jacobs wind generator installed  by Admiral Byrd in Antarctica on his 1933 exposition was found to be operating perfectly in 1955 after running in the severe Antarctic environment without maintenance for over 20 years.

In 1881 a water driven generator in the British town of Godalming,  used to provide DC electricity for street lighting, become the first public power supply.  While electricity was first generated by the renewable energy sources of wind and water, Thomas Edison added a third energy source in 1885 when he constructed a coal-fired steam DC generator in London, England.  Because direct current (DC) electricity could not be transmitted for any great distance early generating plants could service only local customers.  The distribution of electricity was revolutionized in 1895 when the work of Nikola Telsa made possible the construction of a large AC (alternating current) water driven generating station at Niagara Falls, NY.  The alternating current from the Telsa generators could be transmitted for long distances, and is still the system in common usage today.

Unlike wind–driven generators, steam plants can produce a uniform supply of electricity, and do not require a source of running, or falling, water.  Steam driven AC generating rapidly spread throughout the world, providing the majority of our electrical energy.  The only major variable is the source of heat used to generate the steam, with fossil fuels being the most popular.  Biomass, solar energy, geothermal energy and most recently nuclear energy are also used to produce the steam required to drive the generators. But all share the same design as a water-powered plant, with the steam driving a turbine connected to an AC generator. Coal, wood or nuclear the principle is the same – a “fire” boiling water to make steam which spins a turbine connected to a generator.

The photovoltaic effect was first noted in 1839 by a French physicist, but it was not until 1883 that an American, C. Fritts, built the first solar cell; a selenium/gold device.  Early solar cells were highly inefficient, however recent advances have demonstrated efficiencies of 20% to 40%, under laboratory conditions.  As individual solar cells have a very low, DC, electrical output many cells must be connected together into modules or arrays to provide useful power.  Solar cells have undergone an application curve much like windmills, initially providing low voltage DC power primarily used to charge batteries in remote locations, but are now being connected to the public power supply grid.  Current solar cells typically have a life span of 25 – 30 years, and remain economical only with government subsidies. 

The history of automobiles is much the same.  While a great deal of attention is currently being focused on  “new, green” technologies these same technologies were  common place in the early years of automobiles.  Electric vehicles were popular in Europe in the late 1800’s, with the first major U.S. manufacturer being the Pope Manufacturing Company, established in Hartford, Connecticut in 1897.  Within two years Pope had built over 50 cars and in 1899 merged with two smaller companies to form the Electric Vehicle Company, which by 1904 was producing over 2,000 taxis, buses and trucks per year.  A subdivision, of the Electric Vehicle Company, the Columbia Automobile Company was selling hundreds of personal vehicles per year by the turn of the century.  During the early 1900’s electric vehicles were the most popular in America, followed by steam, and then gasoline.  

During a visit to the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY. (a celebration of electric lighting) President William McKinley was shot by an assassin.  McKinley was carried to the hospital in the electric ambulance pictured here, becoming the first U.S. President to ride in a motorized ambulance, and most likely the first to ride in an electric vehicle.  

In 1903 the Krieger Company produced a hybrid electric/petrol vehicle as did Woods Motor Vehicle Company of Chicago in 1917. Several other companies introduced hybrid vehicles, but none became popular due to slow speed, poor reliability and difficulty of servicing. 

Due to their durability many electric trucks were still in service during World War II, during which they found increased usage due to diversion of gasoline to the war effort.   If you ate the original Shredded Wheat breakfast cereal, your breakfast was transported from the factory in Niagara Falls, NY to the nearby railroad siding by a  fleet of electric trucks until the early 1950's.

With the introduction of the Ford Model T in 1908, and the “self-starter” in 1913 demand for electric vehicles declined.  The Model T and Model A Fords that rapidly became the most popular cars in the word, were both so called “flex-fuel” cars, using either petroleum products or biofuels such as ethanol for fuel. 

Meanwhile, the Wright brothers flew the first fixed-wing airplane in 1903, at Kitty Hawk, NC.  Most importantly they also defined the “three-axis” (yaw, pitch and roll around the center of mass) of flight dynamics, and designed the basic control systems which has made it possible to control all fixed-wing aircraft from their “Flyer” to the space shuttles.

Thus none of the technologies that we commonly rely on today for our energy and transportation are new, they are all over a century old, as are the so-called “green” or “alternate” fuels currently returning to popularity.  We might actually refer to such fuels as wind, electricity, ethanol as “traditional” fuels rather than “alternate fuels”.  

The current state of our energy and transportation technologies is the result of incremental development or “tweaking” over the past century, not innovation.  We are suffering from a lack of innovation, and radical innovation is needed if we are to address and adapt to climate change.  Innovation is rooted in education; a rigorous foundation in mathematics, engineering and technology is essential for innovation in energy, transportation, communication, housing and other fields.  However, we will also need innovation in governance, institutions, and other social fields.  No one country, or society, is going to solve climate change, nor will any one nation be able to adapt without global cooperation.  As a civilization, we cannot continue to be satisfied with incremental development, but rather must foster and embrace innovation.

The January 29th announcement establishes the targets required by the October 5, 2009 Executive Order 13514 (Federal Leadership in Environmental, energy and Economic Performance) mandated that Federal Agencies submit a 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target within 90 days; and, increase energy efficiency, reduce petroleum consumption, conserve water, reduce waste and increase recycling.

The announcement does not include any emission reductions by federal contractors and suppliers, or resulting from employee commuting as called for by the executive order.

The full text of the White House announcement is:

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

January 29, 2010

President Obama Sets Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Target for Federal Operations

 

Target to Drive Energy Cost Reductions in Federal Operations, Creating Clean Energy Jobs

WASHINGTON, DC – President Barack Obama today announced that the Federal Government will reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 28 percent by 2020.  Reducing and reporting GHG pollution, as called for in Executive Order 13514 on Federal Sustainability, will ensure that the Federal Government leads by example in building the clean energy economy.  Actions taken under this Executive Order will spur clean energy investments that create new private-sector jobs, drive long-term savings, build local market capacity, and foster innovation and entrepreneurship in clean energy industries.

As the single largest energy consumer in the U.S. economy, the Federal Government spent more than $24.5 billion on electricity and fuel in 2008 alone.  Achieving the Federal GHG pollution reduction target will reduce Federal energy use by the equivalent of 646 trillion BTUs, equal to 205 million barrels of oil, and taking 17 million cars off the road for one year.  This is also equivalent to a cumulative total of $8 to $11 billion in avoided energy costs through 2020.

“As the largest energy consumer in the United States, we have a responsibility to American citizens to reduce our energy use and become more efficient,” said President Obama.  “Our goal is to lower costs, reduce pollution, and shift Federal energy expenses away from oil and towards local, clean energy.”

Federal Departments and Agencies will achieve greenhouse gas pollution reductions by measuring their current energy and fuel use, becoming more energy efficient and shifting to clean energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal.  Examples of agency actions that are underway are available on the White House Council on Environmental Quality website and can be found at www.whitehouse.gov/ceq.

On October 5, 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13514 on Federal Sustainability, setting measureable environmental performance goals for Federal Agencies.  Each Federal Agency was required to submit a 2020 GHG pollution reduction target from its estimated 2008 baseline to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget by January 4, 2010.  The Federal target announced today is the aggregate of 35 Federal Agency self-reported targets.

Greenhouse gas emissions serve as a useful metric to measure the effectiveness of agency energy and fuel efficiency efforts as well as renewable energy investments. Agencies are already taking actions that will contribute towards achieving their targets, such as installing solar arrays at military installations, tapping landfills for renewable energy, putting energy management systems in Federal buildings, and replacing older vehicles with more fuel efficient hybrid models.

As a next step, the Office of Management and Budget will validate and score each agency’s sustainability plan, assuring a long-term return on investment to the American taxpayer. To ensure accountability, annual progress will be measured and reported online to the public.

The entire range of plastics, from those used to replace human body parts to the bags for our garbage are petroleum products.  But perhaps one of the most critical uses of petroleum, in addition to providing energy, is as a lubricant. Without lubricating oils the worlds machines would simply, and rapidly, grind to a halt.  There is no substitute for petroleum lubricating oils, even the so-called “synthetic motor oils” are specially refined petroleum products.

We are now burning fossil oils, and emitting greenhouse gases,  at a rapidly accelerating rate, and at a rate that will increase as consumption in the developing nations continues to increase. The world’s supply of oil is limited and scarcity is assured at some point in the future.  In fact, some of the oil-rich middle eastern countries are now preparing for an energy future based on nuclear power.

It may well be that the it will be impossible to reverse the world’s burning of petroleum; but considering that it is a essential component for so many products required for human health and well-being it would appear prudent to conserve this vital, and limited resource.  After all, how will we lubricate our windmills, hydro- and nuclear-powered generators after we burn the last drop of oil in our SUVs?  Even more critical is the role of carbon emissions into the atmosphere upon our climate.

Fossil fuels are indeed too valuable to burn, and their combustion is too dangerous for our climate.  We must conserve this valuable resource and protect our atmosphere, or we will indeed be toast!