I’ll admit; I didn’t pay much attention to the hodgepodge of debates over the pros and cons of alternative energy sources like solar or wind energy, and something called green energy. In fact, I wondered who came up with it... probably never know. Actually, it's a bit whimsical, likely somebody’s colorful (no pun intended) imagination.

Now I know folks know energy isn’t a color; so what’s the connection? But if energy was a color, I’d like to think maybe it would be... a glistening silver, or better yet... a blazing white - kinda like the sun. Groovy huh... white energy, but they call it green energy so I guess we'll leave it that way.

Anyway, a conversation some time later led me to understand the term is intended to mean something like Environmentally Friendly in order to reduce global warming, green energy - hummm...

After all, we've been given the responsibility of taking care of our mutual home, green red blue or otherwise. But to think that power plants generating electricity, even collectively, could actually alter this planet's weather. This is akin to saying we could affect the sun's nuclear output. In my opinion, such ideas display the epitome of arrogance, but then maybe I’m wrong.

By the way, I needed to say this stuff because I believe it’s important. Anyhow, I was given the opportunity by a great company who really cares, take a look at their Website, you just might be glad you did. Click Right Here.

Anyway, several years passed, and Gas Pumps across the country were heralding increasingly Higher Prices. I started to get suspicious when they climbed past three dollars a gallon and then four. Now the darn things are looking at five. Now they're back down again - but (I'll bet) not for long.

Regrettably, I'll bet it won’t be too long before fuel prices slam into five maybe more. So with my attention at DEFCON TWO, I thought maybe it was time to look into the alternate energy sources green energy advocates promote.

Like so many others, I was troubled by the Rising Cost of Energy that was borrowing into my wallet to get the green but only casually concerned about the slow depletion of the world’s fossil fuel reserves... but that was when it was around three bucks a gallon, and I was only at DEFCON FOUR, but when it hit four $$... OOUCH!

Consequently, I decided to learn as much as I could about why the cost of fuel was climbing faster than an atlas booster rocket. Now I’m no expert, but I think I've discovered why the World’s Oil Prices are sky high. Wanna know what I think? Wellll, I’ll tell ya anyways.

OPEC keeps production low. China and India are growing fast and need more and more of the stuff. Futures speculators love to bet on commodities. And the spot oil market bounces around like a yo-yo. It’s Merely that old Supply and Demand scenario doing its thing. Or is it?

Perhaps we don’t have the big picture and there’s more to it. Perhaps the OPEC membership keeps production low because they don’t want us to know that their supply is really short. Perhaps they don’t have as much in the ground as they say they do. If they can keep us thinking they have plenty, we’ll drag our oil exploration feet. Then they can benefit from high oil prices. Food for thought – huh!

So, because everybody feels the pinch, everybody complains about those price gouging oil companies, like that really helps. Yet all the while, serious exploration is taboo, which makes OPEC happy. Oil exploration is disavowed and avoided like the plague. Congress sad to say, seems to only listens to the far out green energy fanatics, also maybe they’ve bought OPEC's story. Or maybe...

Succinctly, the price of crude is high simply because supply doesn’t match demand, or so it seems. What ever the reason; renewable alternative resources are becoming more and more attractive.

The fact is; the Green Energy Concept is okay with me, because I like the color green. And besides, the concept does encourage us to use our resources more wisely. Which is good.

Anyway, I decided that if gasoline prices were going to visit the ionosphere or even higher and stick around up there, I'd need to reconsider my source's for fuel. Hummm - why not have a look at green enrgy fuels.

So what about HYDROGEN, yep hydrogen. And what about the new diesel engines - they burn cleaner, get better mileage than equivalent gasoline powered vehicles, and they can run on a variety of Biofuels; i.e., you know, the stuff you just cooked your donuts in. That's green energy isn't it!

Meanwhile, there’s natural gas, mostly they burn the stuff off - what a waste. We have the technology to make LNG from it. And how about coal, there's plenty of it. In fact there’s enough around to last 300 years.

I know, I know, coal is dirty, leaves a carbon foot print and besides you can’t fuel a car with the stuff, not at all environmental friendly right? Wrong on all three counts. It can be cleaned up and it can power your SUV. Technology is just on the verge, that is: close, very very close at being able to liquefy the stuff for commercial consumption. Yep, coal technologies are on the verge of being used for automotive fuel.

Imagine, coal transformed into a clean burning automotive fuel. Now isn't that really green energy?

Alas alas, and alas, it's becoming increasingly apparent that our energy dollars are woefully akin to accelerated Exponential Decay. I'll bet, like me you're also following this thing with a degree of enthusiastic panic, watching energy prices gobble-up our hard earned green backs, the dollars we need to take home.

Its common knowledge that there's a lot of disagreement about how much Fossil Fuel, specifically crude oil is actually left, and how long what’s left will last. Personally, I think OPEC and the Saudi’s are fudging on how much they actually have in the ground. I think it’s less than they’re all telling us.

More likely than not the big three, Oil, Gas and Coal will out last our children, our children’s children and probably their children. Obviously oil will go first, but that’s too far ahead. Soooo, I decided not to worry about that either.

The question is; how fast will we go past $150 a barrel oil, gradually, perhaps a year or two, or overnight? - whoa - DEFCON ONE...

This low price glitch won’t last forever. And when the last hurrah is over (could be this one), I doubt we’ll ever see $30 oil ($1.50 a gal), or even $70 oil ($2.50 to $3.00 a gal) again.

No, we’ll never run out of oil, not really – “but we did run out of $2 a barrel, then we ran out of $25 oil, and now we’re about out of $40 oil." Ref.1

The fact is, $100 plus ($4.00 to $5.00 +) oil is probably here to stay.

Yet its almost humorous, prognosticators entertain us all but nightly with threats of the coming apocalypse. Evening news Anchors and reporters, echo the threats from these specially gifted virtuosos of blab, endowed seers, experts on the future, more specifically, experts on looming National Energy Crisis.

Other scientific oracles given ample airtime forecast more doom and gloom scenarios, only on a Global scale. They predict, should we fail to heed their solutions, that we will not be able to avoid a world wide cataclysm - eek, global warming.

The problem is most of their solutions like their predictions are as dissimilar as snowflakes. Basically, you can pick your own doom.

Meanwhile, those with plain old fashioned Horse Sense propose the merits of Renewable Alternative Green Energy solutions SLOWLY replacing Fossil Fuels; i.e., crude oil. Now that makes sense. And I like things that make sense - horse sense. An old fashioned commodity that seems to be in short supply these days.

Look, I think everybody understands that the world’s Fossil Fuel Reserves won’t last forever – that’s a given. Obviously, they’ll play out over time.

To this many scientific visionaries agree with gusto, pronouncing fossil fuel depletion a fact. It’s not that they believe the sky is falling; no - they fear that Global Warming will flood us out. To which I say hummm.

Tell ya what, fill a glass with ice cubes, then fill it to the top with water. What happens when the ice cubes melt - nough said!

So much for flooding. Actually there is a bit of irony here: you see we’re all culprits; just by breathing, CO2 is released into the atmosphere, and with the world’s population pushing – what, six, seven billion, not including animals; a lot of folks, mostly experts tend to fret a lot.

Now we can’t stop breathing – that’s an unacceptable solution. Besides, doesn’t all plant life need CO2 to exist and thrive? By the way, isn't that a form of green energy, growing forests and things? So I decided not to worry about it.

Then I wondered, is Global Warming Real or just Baloney. What should we do in case it is real? One needn’t be a rocket scientist to respond to this. The only logical answer Either Way is to get serious about replacing Fossil Fuels with as many of the Renewable Green Energy Resources as practical. The other option is place our hands under our duffs and wait until a barrel of oil passes the price of Platinum.

As for the Green Energy Alternatives, look what’s available to us:

• Solar Energy
• Wind
• Hydrogen
• Biomass
• Biofuel
• Ethanol
• Alcohol Distilling
• Methanol
• Woodgas
• Geothermal
• Biodiesel
• Digester Gases
• Thermoacoustics
• Water
• The Ocean
• Gas Hydrates
• Natural Gas
• Coal
• Nuclear
• And more at our disposal

Currently, every dollar we must spend at the Gas Pump, to Heat Our Homes, or for Electricity requires us to cut back somewhere else. Despite that, we still need to Drive to Work, Cook Our Sunday Pot Roast, Cool Our Milk, Wash Our Cloths, and Cut the Grass. Consequently, rising Energy Costs continue to consume more dollars, which we would prefer to use elsewhere.

Hummm - just think, if we could just Reduce Our Energy Overhead (hey, what about energy star appliances…), EVEN A LITTLE, then we could use that surplus ($$$) for something else.

Look, there are so many Economical Clean Green Energy Resources Available right Now, that it’s almost mind-boggling. LNG is a major source for electric power generation, and even Nuclear is getting a serious second look.

Did you know that you can purchase an inexpensive BioDiesel Processor? And that Hydrogen Generators are available right now? In many cases, using Hydrogen reduces fuel consumption by 45%. Think about it, an Off the Shelf Cure for the Gas ($$$) Pump Blues.

The Good News is, most of the Five Shades of Green Energy are Completely Affordable, and should Fit well within the most Frugal Budgets.

Ref.1
Henry Groppe

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