Harness New Energy

Simple Version: Wind & solar are not enough. Oil & gas will run out. Let’s expand the conversation.

My Unfiltered Thoughts: We need to invest in energy sources that cause less pollution and will last longer. Professor Nate Hagans of the University of Minnesota cites that if we grow our economy at 3% per year, we will use the same amount of energy in the next three decades as we have in the last 10,000 years. That is impossible.

Those on the right don’t often like to acknowledge that we only have 40 years of oil and gas left. Those on the left often don’t like to acknowledge that wind and solar require enormous amounts of land (up to 72% according to Harvard Professor David Kieth.)

Energy is the basis of all of our reality. No matter what social system we re-design, or institution we develop, we will still need to solve the problem of our enormous differential in energy used vs energy acquired. In relative terms, we acquire a drop of oil each day through photosynthesis, we expend 100 million gallons. My college thesis was on “Energy Return on Energy Investment Through the Lens of Systems Thinking.” The point is, re-inventing energy systems is foundational to sustainable civilization. Solar and wind are important, but TOTALLY INADEQUATE without reductions in overall energy use.

I don’t have a blind faith that innovation and technological advancement will always be there to rescue us from resource depletion. Every civilization has fallen to this dynamic, and while technology and the discovery of fossil fuels has helped us stave off that fate, I foresee the possibility it catches up to us too unless we become conscious of the possibility in time.

  • Invest $30-100 billion in Manhattan Project style, “Swing for the fences” technological advances in energy storage and generation that makes our current best bets, solar, wind and nuclear look pre-historic. 

    This investment should include expansion on recent breakthroughs in geothermal and Hydrino technology.

  • Hard Fact- Solar and wind alone cannot replace fossil fuels. We must invest $200 billion in  a new generation of nuclear. Learn More.

  • Invest $5-25 billion into better mass transit and walkable city planning and infrastructure.

My influences: Project Drawdown, Dr Brian Von Herzon, MIT Solve, Echoing Green, Taylor Wilson, Greentown Labs, Michael Shellenberger

Other Priorities:

  • Weatherization- Efficiency is more cost effective than building new technologies

  • Tax polluting/short term energy

  • Educate impoverished girls!

  • Build solar and wind (on buildings, not suffocating our landscapes)