Energy: Solutions for the Future

Everybody seems to want more oil, and they say that drilling for more will ease gas prices. But this is not exactly true. It might help a little, but it will not be enough. Like Nancy Pelosi says, it truly is "a drop in the bucket."

Drilling for More Oil -

Drilling for more oil will almost certainly change nothing. America used about seven billion barrels of oil in 2007, while the rest of the world used about twenty-two billion barrels of oil. Add the two together, and that comes to about twenty-nine billion barrels of oil for just one year.

If we drill in ANWR, then we may gain ten billion barrels of oil. If we drill off the US coasts, then we will potentially gain another eighty to ninety billion barrels of oil. Keep in mind that this is not per year; it's altogether. Then again, we might find much more or much less. It's a guessing game at this point. And this would only help a lot if we were the ones to receive the oil exclusively.

The oil companies will almost certainly place the oil on the world market, which means even less for the US (the highest bidder receives the oil). If the rest of the world continues to increase its consumption of oil, then the price of oil will be relatively unaffected. And don't forget about inflation.

If by some miracle the US does receive the oil exclusively, then we will have bought ourselves a few years or maybe even a dozen years if we are really fortunate.
And then, we will face the same problem in another decade or so (at best) unless we get really lucky. Really lucky basically equates to the US finding a trillion barrels of oil or something like that. Even then, it's not a permanent solution. The weak dollar doesn't help the situation any either. Also, it will take several years for this drilling to even begin. And by that time, inflation and demand will have raised the price even more.

Drilling for more oil could create more jobs, though. That's about the only good thing about this idea. Unfortunately, the oil companies apparently lack the equipment to begin drilling. This would have to be rectified in order for jobs to be created.

Oh, and there's always the occasional oil spill to worry about (sorry Florida). But most people will not think about that until it directly impacts them. So feel free to drill for more oil, but you're probably going to be disappointed with the results. But the oil companies will appreciate your efforts. They're set for life folks.

Nuclear Energy -

McCain and Barack seem to love nuclear energy, and they are always touting that it's a clean source of energy. Unfortunately, they're both mistaken. Nuclear energy is not clean energy; it's even a worse idea than oil. Not so much because of a nuclear explosion, but mostly due to the nuclear waste that is produced.

Some of the nuclear waste breaks down quickly, but some of it lasts for millions of years. Fortunately, nuclear waste can't be used to create a weapon. However, if everyone starts to use nuclear energy then we will have more and more of this nuclear waste to deal with. This could lead to long-term problems. Here's some dumb ideas that the government thought up on how to deal with the nuclear waste.

1.) Leave it in its temporary shelters. Never mind that these temporary shelters will eventually break down; thus, we could have radioactive leaks to deal with one day.
2.) Bury the nuclear waste in the polar ice caps. Never mind that they're melting.
3.) Shoot it into space. Brilliant. Never mind the fact that rockets can fail, or that the nuclear waste could fall back to the planet.
4.) Bury the nuclear waste deep in the ocean. Again, radioactive leaks could become a problem.
5.) Bury the nuclear waste deep within the earth. This is probably the best idea of the bad ideas. Alas, this sounds expensive; thus, it will probably never be done.

Home Energy -

Fortunately, the price of oil will not change your home energy costs too much. Most of our homes are powered by coal and natural gas. They cause pollution, but we seem to have enough for a few hundred years. Hopefully, in the future, people will use more renewable types of energy and use less coal/natural gas. But this is probably a decade or two away. At least, when it comes to the mainstream public.

Those of you who rely on oil to heat your homes will have problems, and the temporary solution for this dilemma is to purchase electrical heaters to heat your home. This will still cause you to rely on pollution producing power sources like coal, but you will probably save some money. In the future, hopefully, renewable energy sources will replace coal. This will then allow you to heat your homes cheaply, and help save the environment.

The rising costs of oil are troubling for almost everyone. Drilling for more oil will likely result in little to no temporary relief, and very little long-term relief. Nuclear energy has its own host of problems. The solution is to use "true" renewable sources of clean energy such as solar, wind, hydroelectric; etc. But it's still going to be a long and difficult journey no matter what is done.