With an approval rating fluctuating between 9% and 14% this just has to be the most inept Congress this 61 year old has every SEEN! They literally cannot get anything done, and waste time and our money on non-critical issues.

Attention Congressional Representatives (including the Senate!) please get to work on the following issues NOW! We really don't want to see you on CSPAN talking about anything except:

1. Immigration Policy

2. The Energy Crisis and "how you are going to get out of the way"

3. Tax Incentives for renewable and conventional energy production

4. Elimination of the 40+ boutique state fuels and a reduction to no more than 8 types of fuel

5. Removal of the import duties on foreign produced ethanol-- and the elimination of it's addition as an additive to our fuel supply

6. The immediate construction of several hundred nuclear power plants with appropriate tax incentives- and the right of way for Boone Picken's wind turbine plan

7. Removal of all farm subsidies and the resulting tax savings applied to new energy technologies

8. The removal of all ethanol subsidies-- and tax savings applied as in #7 above

9. Removal of all drilling restrictions on public lands on and off shore- and a massive reduction in permit processing requirements(to less than 12 months for approval by ONE government agency and not 40 different agencies!)

The above should keep you plenty busy for the next few months. However if you persist in your current shenanigans, the BOSS --- we the people-- will vote your behind out of office. 

(just a small RANT by a citizen who is feed-up with virtually every elected official in the Federal government!) When will "the leaders" come forward AND LEAD?

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas

I decided to devote one entire blog segment on the supposed "easy" drilling on those 60 million acres the Democrats keep saying are available. Once you know the facts about this property (OUR PROPERTY)-- please call and complain loudly to your local Congressional representative. Here goes-

Revenue sharing- the link below describes the government "revenue sharing" for certain land and ocean leases-- with 37.5% of the oil revenue profits going to the states and another portion going to the EPA, and another portion going to the Federal Government. Once all these folks have taken their CUT-- no sensible oil company would ever consider drilling in these OPEN to drilling areas. The normal royalty payments vary from 1/6 to 1/8th of revenues.... or about 15%. So this is a BIG jump in government "fees" -- Ha. FEE!-- just another word for a TAX!

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/whatsnew/newsreal/2008/080527.pdf

http://www.loga.la/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Ad_Valorem_Tax&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=2799

http://www.loga.la/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Severance_Tax&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=2728

Virtually every state has these types of taxes imposed on oil exploration and oil profits..... they are in effect ACTIVE partners in the business -- sucking the life out of the oil and natural gas industry.

The current leases have many problems associated with them; least of which there is very little oil in those areas -- or they present almost insurmountable obstacles to exploration and recovery. Here is an article describing some Alaska oil leases.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/16/business/NA-US-Petroleum-Reserve-Alaska.php

Here is a typical application to be able to bid on a state oil land lease-- I love the first paragraph! This happens to be Florida.

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/lands/publicland/surplus/Applications/Ap-ogm.doc

And even after you have paid your money and filled out the form &$&$# happens. http://articles.latimes.com/2006/sep/27/nation/na-briefs27.3

PLUS-- dumb landowners and environmentalists get right into the middle of the lease process. Just in case you don't know, when you buy property you may or may not have mineral rights. If you don't have mineral rights then the "owner" my sell or lease these rights to a third party. It's the LAW-- and has served us very well for decades. Gee I wish they would do this on my land-- the oil companies put in improved roads-- clean up anything that happens-- and maintain the drilling site. They will pay a FEE to the landowner to enter the property and extract the oil or natural gas. Nice easy cash if you can get it!

Read this environmentalist - landowner article to get an idea of how really stupid some folks happen to be. Notice that the lease parcels are NEAR a park but not actually ON park land. You might not be able to tell from the wonderful scenic pictures on this website-- this is really really absurd and crazy.

http://www.lpfw.org/news/0606oilprotest.htm

This blogger has the Democrats pegged pretty well on their Lease Lands lie!

http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/80_of_government_oil_natural_gas_leases_not_being_used

Read this article for the typical political response to no drilling-- and an industry response. The oil companies PAY to lease these lands and are required to give them back and absorb all exploration costs if the land is unproductive for oil or natural gas. This is a big cash cow for the government.

http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080616124454.aspx

So --- do you think that you can be another T Boone Pickens? Then start reading the government regulations surrounding this critical Industry. It would be a great help if you were: a tax lawyer, a geologist, a petroleum engineer, an electrical engineer, an architect, a great businessman, a oil field roughneck, and a Las Vegas gambler!--- and you need to be a landscaper to put everything back like it was when you are finished drilling; before the EPA shows up!

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/feature_articles/2005/offshore/offshore.pdf    20 page document on regulations and examples of drilling areas

http://www.colleyville.com/files/Ch.%2003.1%20Gas%20and%20Oil%20Well%20Drilling%20and%20Production.pdf   a local exploration code

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title40/40cfr112_main_02.tpl  This is so big I cannot suggest where to start!

http://www.epa.gov/OEM/content/lawsregs/opprover.htm

http://www.fortcollinsnow.com/article/20080626/NEWS/729989435/1008&parentprofile=1054   And since we don't have enough laws surrounding oil exploration -- here is just what we need more regulations-- proposed by guess who-- THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS.

What I find interesting about my research for this short article-- is that we are doing just about everything necessary to PREVENT oil and energy independence. I know of no other Industry (other than the oil and gas industry) where an Act of God is needed to start doing business.

Think about this blog the next time you pay your electric bill or fill your car with gasoline. Then pickup the phone and tell Congress to GET OUT OF THE WAY and STOP adding more taxes to our cost of energy!

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas

Hydrogen fueled cars? Wind Power? Solar? Just how viable are these alternate forms of energy?

Let's start with hydrogen fueled cars.  Hydrogen is one of the most explosive and energetic forms of energy-- we even put it in our space vehicles! But-- can it be used economically for a source of power? Several current energy schemes are-

1. Fuel cell cars-- you can forget this scheme as anything but an episode from a Star Trek movie. Honda is currently building several fuel cell powered cars which it will begin leasing for about $600 per month(as a test). The vehicles cost Honda over $500,000 to construct. Honda says that in about 10 years they might be able to get the price down to ONLY $90,000. Now just how many Americans can afford to buy this $90,000 car (sometime in about 10 years)? Fuel cell -hydrogen propulsion is only a dream right now; and will do nothing for our current energy crisis.

Maybe by the time your grand children are about 40 years old.... but not anytime soon. http://world.honda.com/FuelCell/

2. Natural gas powered vehicles- the technology already exists to use LPG to power cars, trucks, and buses. The is the basis of T Boone Picken's plan to substitute LPG in cars, once we have replaced 22%  of our electric requirements with wind power. However, what might happen to the price of propane once millions of cars are using it for fuel is unknown. We have a LOT of natural gas reserves right here in the USA-- and even more off shore and in restricted public land lease areas. This energy scenario could be done in about a decade if we really got after it-- right now...... and if Congress passed enabling legislation.  http://www.pickensplan.com

3. Solar power-- this is an expensive but viable source of energy. Current solar cell designs are about 20% efficient. What we need are 40% efficient cells. These are currently under development but a cost effective design is still probably years away from commercial deployment. Currently it costs about $25-$30 thousand dollars to build a 100% solar powered home. The cells become less effective at generating energy after about 15-20 years, and need to be replaced to maintain their full rated capacity. While this might work for certain applications, a whole new level of solar cell technology is needed to put this "on every roof in America!".

4. Wind power-  Texas already leads the nation in wind power, generating about 25% of the USA's total capacity. The Texas megawatts should double again during the next 2-3 years. West Texas is ideal for generating wind energy and the Public Utility Commission recently authorized almost 5 billion dollars to construct the power transmission towers --- to bring the electricity from West Texas to our major cities. The issue with wind is that it must be connected to a LARGE grid so that the power can be sold to other states when it is not need here in Texas. If outlets for the power are not found the wind turbines are simply shut-down until they are needed. This is not a viable use of potential power generation. A second issue is that a reliable backup source of power must remain on-line for when the wind is calm. Both issues can be solved -- and Nuclear would make an excellent backup energy source.

5. Geothermal- I have written about this before in a previous blog. The new "hot rock" geothermal looks especially promising but is probably 5-10 years away from full commercial application. Hydro-electric probably is already peaked, as more dams would need to be built.

6. Assorted other sources-- wave and tidal current power, wind to hydrogen power, wind to battery,  ethanol replacement for gasoline, bio-fuels. While these can be made to work-  they will never be a large percentage of our total power and energy requirements. This includes such schemes as distributed power grids where everyone has their own power source either on their house or in their neighborhood. This sounds good here in Texas where our homes are large and our property is even larger. But in a typical home in Detroit or Chicago-- it won't work-- without a major technical breakthough ( in batteries- solar cell efficiency-- our some unknown power source still in "Bill Gates" garage).

7. Nuclear power-- I am personally convinced that we should immediately begin building a "common design" nuclear power plant that we can replicate rapidly; as I have outlined in my Open Letter To Congress. The waste disposal issue is NOT a technical problem, for the small amount of nuclear waste in our inventory. Many technologies are available to create more nuclear fuel, reduce the waste volume by 75%, and reduce the radioactive half-life of the more toxic (high level) waste. This is a social and political issue NOT a technical issue. As I have reported before-- ALL the nuclear waste from all US reactors operating since the 1950s would fit on ONE football field.

8. Coal- we have a 200-300 year supply. Oil and natural gas can be extracted from this resource. Clean coal technologies ARE available----- why does this HUGE US energy resource have such a bad reputation? Most of our current electric power comes from coal fired power plants. China, Russia, and India are building them as fast as they can! (but have carbon credits to sell because they are "developing countries")--- some of the most polluted countries in the world SELLING US CREDITS!

9. Shale- again we have a lot of shale in the USA. However Congress has put most of it off limits for BOTH exploration and drilling. Why?

10. Oil-- we still have a lot of oil on and off shore USA-- again --- WHY are these known reserves placed off limits for drilling and exploration? Fully 2/3 of the leasable land has exploration and-or drilling impediments. Only about 1/3 of the leasable land is fully open to drilling and exploration with similar rules as private property. WHY? The next time you hear a politician talk about 60 million acres open for drilling--- just ask this question-- "Excuss me-- is that land open to BOTH exploration and drilling without restrictions?" -------- "and will I be able to get the required PERMITS in less than 5-7 years?"  http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/291-federal-lands-in-the-us/#comments

I would be interested in their response.

Think about this blog the next time you pay an electric bill or fill-up the car with gas.

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas

Read this article in the Dallas Morning News -- PUC approved the wind power transmission lines to the tune of almost 5 Billion Dollars!

"The Texas Public Utility Commission Thursday approved $4.93 billion in new power transmission lines to bring cheap wind power from West Texas to consumers in north and central areas of the state."  Dallas Morning News quote--

This coincides with Boone Picken's massive wind power program for the Great Plains, discussed at   www.pickenplan.com  . Pickens wants to eliminate 300 billion dollars in oil imports by using wind power to produce 22% of the USA's  electric power requirements. 

This news will secure Texas's lead in wind energy for many decades to come. Texas already produces about 25% of the total US production of this energy form. This is good news for consumers as it will isolate us a little more from the dictators that run the global oil cartels.

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas

Nuclear power has an unwarranted BAD RAP in the USA. No one has ever died from nuclear energy anywhere in the West --- EVER! To compare our reactors with the Chernobyl style is comparing apples and oranges-- the designs are totally different and our building can CONTAIN any release and have already demonstrated that they can------- through earthquakes and the Three Mile Island event. (not one person was injured by the Three Mile Island event).....

BUT... Hollywood made a movie and virtually HALTED all nuclear plant construction-- and many Americans believe that the Three Mile Island reactor event is chronicled in the movie!

Even though we have not constructed a new nuclear power plant in several decades, the USA currently gets about 20% of it's electrical power from nuclear. The first nuclear plant at Penn State is still operating daily --- in a totally safe manner.

France gets about 70% of it's electricity from nuclear plants AND REPROCESSES the fuel reducing nuclear waste by 75%!! Our wonderful Congress under Jimmy Carter passed a Federal law preventing nuclear fuel reprocessing. (and  leaving us with 100% of the waste by the way--- instead of 25% of the waste!)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/readings/french.html

Let's talk about nuclear waste to dispel the Hollywood movie learning process of the majority of Americans. ALL the nuclear waste produced by all the reactors in the USA since the 1950s could fit onto a football field! Yes-- you heard right ONE football field! Figuring out what to do with this is a social and political issue -- not a technical issue.

If re-processed this small amount of waste could be reduced by 75% --- and the remaining 25% waste is a SOLID! Buried 7 or 8 miles underground in a subduction zone or within a bore hole would eliminate this small amount of remaining waste virtually forever-- or at least for several millions of years. (and yes we can drill that deep-- to 40,000 feet!) Remember it is a SOLID encased in glass or other extremely durable material.

http://www.nrc.gov/waste.html  be sure to read the waste disposal section and especially reprocessing nuclear waste

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf69.html

Or this explanation of reprocessing (which is outlawed by Congress) to reduce the high level wastes to different isotopes-  this link  ------

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy99/phy99315.htm  -------

reducing it's danger to hundreds of years instead of hundreds of thousands of years.  As I said waste disposal is a social and political issue NOT a technical issue.

JUST IMAGINE- a world with 20% of our electrical requirements from wind-- 15% from solar and other renewable sources and the remaining clean --- NO CO2-- nuclear. Then we could use our oil and natural gas for products and fertilizer and lubricants rather than for power........... and by converting coal to a liquid form and to natural gas, we would have enough for hundreds of years -- RIGHT HERE ON and OFF shore USA. Nuclear power is truly the invisible ELEPHANT in the room that no one wants to talk about

http://www.mne.psu.edu/   Penn State's Reactor-- operating for over 50 years!

Finally, let's talk about uranium and how much we have. I continually hear that we only have 50-70 years of ore left. While this may be true, this is essentially a LIE! Using breeder reactors and reprocessing fuel, it has been estimated that we have from 1000-2000 years of nuclear fuel available. Now that should be sufficient for our immediate needs!

Be sure to visit T Boone Picken's web site to learn about his 22% wind power project-- that could save the USA 300 billion per year in oil imports from foreign countries.   www.pickensplan.com  

Think about this blog when you buy your next tank of gas, or pay your electric bill. Then get on the telephone and call your Congressional representative.

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas

If you have been reading my Energy NOW! blog you know I originally posted an Open Letter to Congress which contained my ideas for a comprehensive energy plan. This then is my 2nd Letter to Congress--

Joe's 2nd Open Letter to Congress

Ladies & Gentlemen of Congress:

We are well into this session of Congress with your "vacations" just ahead and nothing has been done to effect a comprehensive energy plan for the USA. I really do not know HOW you can head home leaving this critical national security policy without a solution or even a PROPOSAL.

I know that many of you have never actually held a normal job-- but your job performance in Congress to date would get you quickly FIRED just about anywhere in the business world. How can you even think that you are entitled to vote yourself a raise in pay--- based on WHAT? Total Congressional non-action? You need a vacation about as much as I need a 427 Corvette convertible with side pipes as a commuter car!

Please use the power of the Senate and Congress to enact this needed legislation. As I have previously written-- remove exploration and drilling restrictions from all public lands, enact generous tax incentive legislation for both renewable and non-renewable energy production,  place the scientific resources of NASA, and other government agencies in the hands of the Department of Energy; whose sole mission should be a moon shot style program to find alternative energy sources; and remove all bureaucratic and other government red tape from our exploration and drilling. In other words -- please GET OUT OF THE WAY!

I encourage you to investigate T Boone Pickens Plan for wind power across the central USA -- and ask for the right of way to build the transmission lines toward the East and West (possibly using our current Interstate Hwy system for the electric transmission tower right of ways). http://www.pickensplan.com   I also encourage you to investigate all other renewable energy resources such as solar, geothermal, wind, and water power resources and to place the scientific know-how of the USA's universities, and government labs, working with proper funding, on these national energy issues.

Finally, I ask that Nuclear energy be considered for our basic electrical requirements;  so that we can use our large coal and natural gas reserves for other power and energy needs.

Sincerely, 

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas

Now don't get all excited just yet. There has been an "executive" order preventing off shore drilling and exploration for decades. (really dumb and stupid in my opinion). All this does is remove the Executive Order-- Congress must still pass enabling legislation.

According to DOE and Industry estimates -- there are 86 billion barrels of oil off shore USA.

http://www.mms.gov/offshore/

" The offshore areas of the United States are estimated to contain significant quantities of resources in yet-to-be-discovered fields. MMS estimates of oil and gas resources in undiscovered fields on the OCS (2006, mean estimates) total 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of gas. These volumes represent about 60 percent of the oil and 40 percent of the natural gas resources estimated to be contained in remaining undiscovered fields in the United States."  quote from Government report.

We all need to write to our representatives and ask for quick action on enabling legislation so that this USA energy resource can be fully utilized. It is totally beyond belief that foreign countries can drill this resource while US Companies are prevented from drilling by BAD Congressional legislation. Tell Congress to GET OUT OF THE WAY!

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas

Geothermal is a very old form of renewable energy. It is being used all over the world to generate reliable -- and clean energy. BUT-- here is the new technology twist-- if you drill down into the ground (anywhere) deep enough the temperature of the rocks goes UP! How deep you must drill depends on where you put the drill and make the hole.Just so you understand, this heat does NOT come from underground water but from the ROCKS! Underground aqufers are not used for this power process.

http://home.clara.net/darvill/altenerg/geothermal.htm

A further problem is that as temperatures rise the current crop of drill bits cannot handle the temperatures-- the metal starts breaking down and the drill becomes useless. All that is now starting to change-- the DOE recently funded research on HOT ROCK capable drill bits and other drilling tools. These new tools should come on-line very very soon and permit this energy process. 

By the way temperatures go up about 1 degree for every 36 meters of depth-- and we already have drilling rigs that can go 7 miles or more down into the Earth. Water is pumped into the deep hole and extracted as steam which runs an electric turbine-- the energy is almost free once you get the hole to a sufficiently deep HOT rock strata.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dry_rock_geothermal_energy

http://www.aussiehotrocks.com/

So start reading about this wonderful new energy source that takes the Earths natural heat and converts it to power! Once the proper drilling tools are developed power plants can be constructed that take up very little space, generate no CO2, and are self-replenishing. WOW -- almost sounds like perpetual motion!

http://www.p2pays.org/ref/36/35408.pdf   Report on hot rock geothermal with map of prime drilling areas in the USA. Nevada appears to be almost in the center of the hot rock drilling areas.

Where are the Congressional "leaders" in this new process-- where they always are NOWHERE to be found! Except maybe on a Global Warming FACT FINDING tour to the South Pacific island of Fiji.

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas

Unless you have been living somewhere under a rock, you have noticed Boone Pickens the famous Texas oil mogul on both CNN and Fox News pitching his energy plan.

http://www.pickensplan.com   Check out this link and watch the video to learn more about his plan.

Mr. Pickens is not only in the OIL business -- he is also in the wind energy business in a big way. His plan invisions replacing about 22% of our energy requirements with wind power, and then diverting that amount of energy in natural gas to power our cars. He says this will eliminate about 300 BILLION each year in imported oi, and go a long way toward lowering the 700 BILLION dollars we send out of the country every year --  buying oil from foreign countries. 

News article:  http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5330139&page=1

I encourage you to find out about his plan-- and to participate in the discussion section of his new web site:  www.pickensplan.com 

By the way Texas leads the nation in wind energy and will see a doubling of current capacity during the next 2 years!

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas

I thought it appropriate to post a link to this article in the Mountain Xpress newspaper. It discusses in simple terms just how much energy we waste every night all across the USA.

As an extension of my previous article on "Wasted Light, Wasted Energy" -- I give you this LINK to read---

http://www.mountainx.com/news/2008/070908dusk_to_dawn

The power company representative in the article is just DEAD WRONG. More lights do not make for better safety-- and their glare is a detriment to safe driving by momentarily blinding drivers. Plus-- police cannot see into the dark shadows bad lighting creates where criminals can hide. Look at the picture above-- I could be hiding right around the corner of the building, and you would never see me with that bright light shinning in your face! LED lighting is a great energy saver IF the fixture is properly shielded and DIRECTIONAL with full cutoff.

We all need to work toward correcting this energy issue as quickly as humanly possible.

Joe Lalumia

Rockwall, Texas