October 15th, 2009

Energy prices are about to permanently alter world history

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 9:02 pm

Categories: Blogroll, aviation & aeronautics, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, federal government, fossil fuel, law & politics, nuclear power, petroleum, renewable energy, research, solar

Tags: Afghanistan, Energy Price, Fuel Cells, Emerging Technologies, Harry Fuller

You think you pay too much for gasoline? How about $10 per gallon in Britain?

If you’re an American taxpayer you’re buying fuel for a helluva lot more than a mere $10 per gallon. How about $400 per gallon in Afghanistan. That’s right, $400. Of course, we can’t blame that all on Russia and Saudi. In some parts of that war zone fuel that costs less than $3 per gallon wholesale in the U.S. will have cost $1000 by the time it’s delivered in Afghanistan.

There are indications that the $400 per gallon average cost to get fuel to hummers or planes in Afghanistan is going to play into the impending argument over what the U.S. will do, or not, in Afghanistan in the near future.

Guess alternative energy is about to become even more political in America. Let’s not speculate about what would happen if hummers were all-electric, recharged easily at solar-powered stations. Or if we’d developed nuclear-powered planes, comparable to our nuclear sub fleet. You think the Pentagon is not intensely interested in quick re-charging, long lasting, light-weight batteries? Or hydrogen fuel cells?

Maybe the U.S. should have spent a little more money on alternative energy research and a little less on something else. Whatever ends up happening in Afghanistan, the $400 per gallon fuel pirce will have been a factor. Almost guarantees that Afghanistan will not become the 51st state or even a “protectorate” on the par with Guam or Puerto Rico.