Earth Sustainable
 
Search this site

Declaration of Independence from Oil

As individuals, as a nation, there are actions we can take toward winning our independence from oil:
1.    Inspire and mobilize the country by talking in the national forum about energy alternatives and how we can come out of this oil/terrorism crisis better off in the long run.

The Chinese have only one symbol for 'crisis' and 'opportunity.' Just a few short years ago we had a potential computer crisis with the Y2K bug. By working together and doing all we could in anticipation of failures, the opportunity was made available for us to upgrade our computer software, our hardware and our mental awareness of our technology. We came out of that crisis better off.

We have seen how we can come together as a nation and as people in tragedy, now it is time to come together and strengthen our economy while helping to bring about peace and improved national security.

2.    Change the way we think about our energy needs.
We will always have energy requirements, but our energy need not come from oil. It has been calculated that the sun gives us enough power every day to satisfy all of our energy needs for more than a year. Plantlife evolved to convert much of that energy into a usable fuel source. An immediately obtainable renewable energy source is biomass. We currently pay some farmers in the United States to not grow anything in order to keep prices inflated. Wouldn't it make more sense to pay them to grow crops which could be refined into fuel for our cars?The energy industry makes profit from the money we pay at the gas pump. Does it matter if that fuel comes from other sources?  We do not need oil to keep our cars running or to heat our homes!
[See article #3]

3.    Make choices to improve your life and the environment in which you live.
The people of California faced an energy crisis in 2001. Blackouts were threatened in this state which is Earth's 5th largest economy by itself. Their power bills jumped by up to 300%. With no terrific effort, they turned off lights here and there and relied more on natural light whenever possible.
By relaxing office dress, they needed less electricity for air conditioning in moderate areas.  They remembered to turn off their computers. It wasn't really very hard for them, but they used 11% less electricity at some points than they normally would have. Some found that riding their bicycles 10 minutes to and from work was much more pleasurable than even 23 minutes in freeway traffic.

4.    Call on our leaders to help the oil companies convert their infrastructure to refine other fuel sources.
The energy industry may need financial incentives to make this transition. This would have to come from governement and so we need to convince our leaders to invest in a renewable future. Existing energy companies could play a vital role in our transition to a biomass fuel source. With modifications (capital investments), refineries could process an agricultural fuel source.

5.    Call on our leaders to devote resources to encourage mass production of  fuel cells and to fund the installation of widespread hydrogen fuelling stations.
Fuel cells are a proven technology which uses an organic fuel source (gasoline, ethanol, refined discarded cooking oil) which has been refined into pure hydrogen fuel you can buy at the gas station. Inside the silent power generator, the liquid fuel is reacted with a catalyst and passed through a membrane which only allows protons to pass.
This produces an electrical current since the protons carry positive charge. This electrical power can drive powerful electric motors on each wheel. While parked, it is a silent, quiet generator for all your electrical needs. It is far superior to a battery, because like a tank of gas, it can be refilled at the nearest hydrogen fuel equipped gas station.  Using pure hydrogen fuel, the only by-products are pure drinking water and heat, with no polluting emissions.

6.    Call on our leaders to provide real incentive for automobile manufacturers to produce hybrid and fuel cell vehicles.
The efficiency of the internal combustion engine cannot be dramatically improved above current standards. Hybrid vehicles are the best alternative we now have. Getting twice the fuel efficiency is worth the modest extra cost.  We obviously love the utility part of our Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs).  What if your SUV got 30, 40, even 50 miles to the gallon without sacrificing style, safety or power? Wouldn't you love to drive one of these guilt-free? With progress in fuel cell technology, original models designed for large scale power generation have been modified for use in any motor vehicle.

SUVs have a reputation for consuming an inordinate amount of gasoline and in doing so, polluting inordinately.Using fuel cells would eliminate this issue with no polluting emissions.  Fuel Cell SUVs could easily produce household power too. Picture this: When the vehicle is parked at home, it could be plugged into the electrical grid and would partially or totally power your house while it is parked in its garage, producing only heat and pure water as "waste."  And what about performance?  We need to build robust fuel cell powerhouses that can drive electric motors that are quiet and powerful. Electric motors actually have better acceleration without needing a transmission. This translates into better performance for driving enthusiasts (which most of us are, aren't we?)

7.    Purchase electricity produced useing other renewable fuel sources.  In many power markets you can choose to purchase power only from renewable sources. In many places wind farms provide endless clean power. Geothermal power is produced using the heat content of the Earth. Solar panels can significantly reduce electricy bills and with tax incentives can pay for themselves in 8 years. From then on in, it is free energy every day!
Consider the purchase of renewable energy products and systems. Early adoption  provides funding for research into developing these technologies. This  could greatly accelerate progress towards utilizing these forever renewing, free energy sources.
[See article #4]

8.    Lessen the environmental impact of other non-petroleum energy sources.
We cannot give up all fossil fuel use at once, but if we can wean ourselves from oil, other polluting energy generation can be eliminated. In the near term, we can vastly improve these power generation methods by requiring that the energy industry use the best available technologies to prevent pollution. Don't buy Clear Skies! Enforce the existing Clean Air Act as intended and regulate CO2!

Strict enforcement of emissions standards applied to modern coal burning power plants can produce power from lower quality coal once abandoned because of pollution concerns. New technologies allow us to cleanly burn this softer coal in the near term, until we can complete the shift to a renewable energy economy.

Unfortunately, nuclear power is with us until it can be replaced with renewable energy. The grim realization of the responsibility of storing waste for 500,000 years causes most respected scientists to advise not generating any more.

9.    Do your own research!  Read up and form your own opinions.  Encourage others to do the same.

10.  Write letters to your governmental representatives.
Feel free to send this URL to your representatives at the Local, State and Federal levels. The Senate is now debating energy policy. Now is the time to make your voice heard. You can find contact information for all U.S. Senators at the United States Senate website which contains lots more information that is related to the legislative body.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is collecting signatures to keep misguided energy policy from damaging natural resources.
I encourage you to sign their Declaration of Energy Independence.

11.  Send your message through your spending choices, where it makes the most impact!
Move your investments away from oil companies without a vision towards alternative energy. Invest in those companies willing and ready to convert to fuel sources other than oil. Companies who refuse to change will become extinct. Buy an alternative energy source car! Perhaps we should refuse to buy new cars until the manufacturers have made fuel cell vehicles a viable, powerful, economic option for car drivers.

We must make it our first priority to elect a President who will see the plain logic of the need to convert our economy and who will chart a safe course for our Nation and the World. We must defeat Bush!

Alternative energy solutions are before us and making the choice to convert  will take courage and investment, but this is win/win if we can just gather the political and public will to make it happen.

I would never condone terrorist acts, and I will not turn away from my country. I  propose that we put our efforts into what may help us to rise above our current troubles.


About this site:
Earth Sustainable is intended to be an informative and provoking website for earth-wide energy sustainability. It is entirely not for profit.

This page's content is thanks to the help of many listed and unlisted authors, scientists and friends. The founder of Earth Sustainable is Karl Banks, a professional civil/environmental engineer working to transform our relationship to energy:

Philosophy – We can have prosperity, we can have luxury, we can have abundance and we can have it all sustainably, based upon an energy source as clean, free, and endless as we can get: the Sun.

The Sun gives us endless free energy in the form of solar energy directly and indirectly, such as photovoltaics, wind power, harnessing tidal energy, lower impact and "micro" scale hydroelectric (serving 100 homes or fewer), biofuels and architecture using passive solar heating and cooling concepts. And all of this will be pollution free or neutral. In the case of biofuels, crops take up CO2, and steps can be taken to prevent CO2 from being released during processing into pure hydrogen.

The hydrogen economy is coming and hydrogen will be the best fuel to use for transportable energy. However, this hydrogen must be generated using renewable energy such as wind or solar, (technology of TODAY, not tomorrow) a configuration which could operate on your property, giving each household its own energy generating capability. The grid is not a long-term sustainable system. Consider not paying an energy bill to anyone but yourself.

Please email me all your cool new energy suggestions at: karl #at# this domain name
Thanks to all the friends who have assisted me with EarthSustainable.org

Thank you to my highly intelligent and highly critical wife Cynthia who helped immensly with editing and "proper" American English.

Special thanks to our good friend Sharon, and also a right smart engineer. Thanks for all of her efforts on this site and for being my primary technical reality checker.

Sustain

Miles per Dollar
Here is my personal crisis:
I AM one of the ugly polluters on Earth. I drive my car, I use fossil fuels, I am part of the problem.
My wife and I both work hard, we earn good money, but we can’t seem to get out of the cycle. We are still part of the problem.

What am I hopeful for? The bright bright spirits of our children which, if kept intact, will fill the World with light and burn away the rot of the past.

What concerns me the most? The death throes of the power structure of the 4th Sun. Those corporate dinosaurs who see profit as their god and an economic system which demands constant growth might still spell doom for our environment. You know the place, the only place we have, to live.more

Lulled to Sleep.
For less than 100 years, the soothing, warm hum of a car has been amongst many people’s first sensations, along with mom and dad on the way home from the hospital. more

Hubbert's Peak describes how the total quantity of oil on Earth is finite. Petroleum production will reach a peak, after which it will never surpass that maximum peak. (U.S. oil production has already passed its peak.) Oil production will fall as the most economical reserves are exhausted. Oil prices will rise. If our economy is based on a non-renewable fuel source and the production falls, then our economy will decline. We have to adapt our economy to run on renewable energy.

For  Our  Information:
U.S. Oil
According to the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration:
The United States had 22.4 billion barrels of proved oil reserves as of 1 January 2002.
During 2002, the United States is estimated to be producing around 8.2 million barrels per day, among the lowest in 50 years.
In 2000, there were 534,000 producing oil wells in the United States.
The United States is consuming about 19.7 million barrels per day of oil in 2002; nearly half is motor gasoline.
The United States imported 11.2 million barrels per day in the first 9 months of 2002, around 57% of total U.S. oil demand.
As of 12 November 2002, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve contained around 590 million barrels of oil.
That quantity is enough oil for the U.S. for around 30 days at current levels of consumption. Even with rationing the reserve is only good for months and would be mostly used by the military anyway.
Independence from Petroleum!
We will always have energy requirements, but
our energy does not have to come from petroleum.
We send vast amounts of our wealth overseas for oil.
We pollute our environment by burning oil.
We invest vast human and military resources to ensure our oil supply.

Viable, renewable alternatives are available now!  more  steps to take

A community project: Renewable Black Rock City
UPDATE!!

Web Links that Lead Us Ahead:

  • New Plan for Government Investment in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Cuts Persian Gulf Oil Imports in Half
    "The Apollo Project" is a 10-point plan for energy independence proposed by A HISTORIC COALITION of labor unions, environmentalists, and peace advocates.  If adopted by our government it would:
    * Create three million jobs
    * Protect the environment
    * Improve public health
    * Cost $30 billion/year for 10 years (7% of the Pentagon budget)
  • MoveOn.org MoveOn.org is committed to moving the progressive agenda forward. They are well organized, concise and to the point. You feel your action is being rewarded since it is one of the largest grass roots organizations providing the prod to the governmental process we so desperately need.
  • EarthAction is building a global action alert network which can mobilize people simultaneously around the planet to speak out for a better world.

  • The California Fuel Cell Partnership is a unique collaboration of government, auto manufacturers and fuel cell manufactureres dedicated to bringing viable fuel cell vehicles to the market.

  • The Natural Step is an international organization that uses a science-based, systems framework to help organizations and communities understand and move towards sustainability.

  • The Earth Charter is a set of nonpolitical global principles for coexisting on and with the Earth, developed through a world-wide collaborative process set in motion by the UN Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

  • The Natural Resources Defense Council is collecting signatures to keep misguided energy policy from damaging natural resources..

  • The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is a national organization dedicated to advancing the use of  solar energy for the benefit of U.S. citizens and the global environment.

  • The California PUC is deciding whether to tack on a tax on distributed power generation which would effect small-scale renewable generators adversely. Take action now at: VoteSolar.org

  • U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) was created in 1983 to act as watchdog for the public interest in our nation's capital, as much as PIRGs have worked to safeguard the public interest in state capitals since 1971.
  • Geothermal Resources Council encourages the development of geothermal resources worldwide.
    • li> Ecotalk is a prime example of motivated people acting locally to help positive transformation to occur in the way we view our place in the environment. With their current drive to collect signatures to prove that soccer moms don't want polluting, dangerous cars, but rather safe, energy efficient and useful vehicles, these great people warn us: Don't be fueled!
  • The Buckminster Fuller Institute is the organization dedicated to the advancement of the revolutionary vision of R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome. He also invented this view of Earth, which is a projection of the round Earth which has the least distortion of the landmasses. The continents are all connected or nearly connected giving this view of Earth as One Island in One Ocean; Our Spaceship Earth!