Post by
no1coalking on Mar 12, 2008 10:06am
Private Enterprise Works & So Does K-Fuel:
K-Fuel Developed with Private Funds & K-Fuel Works:
DOE Spending on Advanced Energy Technologies Yields Little
The Department of Energy has spent roughly $57.5 billion on R&D related to advanced energy technologies over the past 35 years. However, that spending has done little to reduce the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.
In 2006, fossil fuels accounted for 85 percent of the nation’s
energy supply as compared with 93 percent in 1973—the primary
difference in the portfolio was the growth of nuclear power in the 1970s and 1980s.
The report begins by noting the severity of the problem: “DOE projects that U.S. transportation demand will increase by 31 percent and U.S. electricity demand will increase by 35 percent by 2030. Furthermore, emissions from the conventional burning of fossil fuels have contributed to health problems––about 50 percent of Americans live in areas where levels of one or more air pollutants are high enough to affect public health.”
The report notes that this year the DOE “requests slightly less budget authority for renewable energy R&D, while seeking increases of 34 percent for fossil energy R&D and 44 percent for nuclear energy R&D.
This spending, combined with loans and tax credits to the energy industry, does not fare well in comparison to the efficacy of mandates passed by some of the states. Some 29 states have passed significant energy legislation. “For example, in response to the Texas renewable portfolio standard’s requirement that 5,880 megawatts of renewable capacity be installed by 2015, electric power companies had installed over 1,900 megawatts of new renewable capacity by September 2006—about 3 percent of Texas’ total electricity consumption.”
The report lists three areas of challenge: “There are key technical, cost, and environmental challenges in developing advanced renewable, fossil, and nuclear energy technologies to address future energy challenges.”
However, because it is unlikely that DOE’s energy R&D funding alone will be sufficient to significantly diversify the nation’s energy portfolio, coordinating energy R&D with other federal programs, policies, incentives, standards, and mandates that can impact the nation’s energy portfolio will be important for targeting any desired goals to change the nation’s energy portfolio.
A key factor to any sustainable deployment of advanced energy technologies will be to make them cost competitive, while addressing technical and environmental challenges, so that the market can support a more diversified portfolio.
Otherwise, without sustained higher energy prices for our current
portfolio, or concerted, high-profile federal government leadership, U.S. consumers are unlikely to change their energy-use patterns, and the U.S. energy portfolio will not significantly change.