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Senator Reid Recaps Another Successful Energy Summit

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Last week in Washington you hosted the National Clean Energy Project. Tell us who attended.
We had everyone. We had Democrats. We had Republicans. We had Speaker Pelosi, the Secretary of Energy, and the Secretary of the Interior. We had Vice President Gore, President Clinton, and T. Boone Pickens. The academic world was represented. The financial world was represented. It was a great conference.

From what you saw and heard, do you get the idea that Americans are starting to understand how important it is to end our addiction to foreign oil?
I think it’s starting to sink in. America can never be a secure, safe nation either from an economic standpoint or from a military standpoint until we fully develop our own abundant energy resources. Right now we’re importing 70 percent of the oil we use. Think about that. Last year we spent half a trillion dollars buying foreign oil, and a considerable portion of that went to unstable countries in the Middle East and to Chavez in Venezuela.

What conclusions emerged from the Energy Forum?
We need to build a bridge to get us where we need to go with renewable energies, but we can’t do it immediately. It’s at least a 10-year process. So I was so happy to hear Vice President Gore and Boone Pickens singing from the same hymnal. For small vehicles, that’s going to be batteries. And for the big trucks that’s going to be natural gas. We have 6½ million big trucks on the road in America today, and we need to get them running on natural gas. We just need to give incentives for companies to buy these new engines that will be powered by natural gas. The sooner we start doing this, the quicker we stop using imported diesel oil.

Tell us about the legislation you announced to develop the country’s energy transmission lines.
More than a century ago, this country needed to build a rail line across America, and the federal government stepped in to help. In the 1950s, during the Eisenhower administration, we decided we needed to build an interstate highway system. Again the federal government stepped in to help. Now we need the federal government to build a new super highway, one that will allow America to produce energy all over this country and then take it where it’s needed. We can reduce our dependence on foreign oil by transforming our energy policy. In the process we can create millions of jobs. There’s no reason we can’t have a clean environment and create lots of jobs. So why shouldn’t the federal government help? That’s the purpose of my legislation.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED, AND EDITED BY ERIC O’KEEFE

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 9:00 am by Eric in In the News, Pickens Plan.
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Comments2 Responses to “Senator Reid Recaps Another Successful Energy Summit”

March 14th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

MeINC


"We have 6½ million big trucks on the road in America today, and we need to get them running on natural gas. " I agree wholeheartedly that the Tractor Trailer Fleet that services the continental United States is going to play a key factor in our nrg demands. For the foreseeable future they are the front lines of North American shipping. A more efficient power plant for this fleet is necessary to maintain current economic activity in the western hemisphere, as well as grow that activity by achieving growth of domestic nrg resources. My suggestion is that a truck that runs directly off Natural gas is not the most efficient use of the resource. Let us remeber that natural gas while more prevalent in North America is by no means an infinite resource. This means it is our responsibility to use it as efficiently as possible. I believe the power of Natural gas lies not in it's ability to produce mechanical nrg but in her statistical nrg quotient. By harvesting the Basic Thermal potential of natural gas (see pyro- and piezo- electric effects) and driving that electromagnetic potential into either a battery bank or directly to a high efficiency electric motor a hybrid system in which Natural gas serves as a Power Plant while an Electric motor serves as the drivetrain. could be created. This has the advantage of functioning a a much higher efficiency than a system which harvests the potential mechanically. Current Internal combustion engines run at up to 40% efficiency due to mechanical friction and heat losses. An Electric system can run into the 90% range. As an example I point to America's railways. Onboard large diesel generators power electric motors which drive the train forward. Electric motors are able to withstand the torque stresses of moving a mile long shipment of goods. These same forces would blow an equivalent Diesel engine apart. So while I feel that your plan has accomplished much I also fear that with current technology it is doomed to fail and serve only as a publicity stunt for large corporations. Remember the motto of generation O, the devil is in the details. Policy change is wonderful but we must not fall derelict in our duties of pushing technological innovation to support our green revolution otherwise we'll all be watching "Who killed the Natural Gas powered Tractor Trailer".

April 10th, 2009 at 2:04 pm

Ben Beaty


Peterbilt has hybrid trucks available now, they are working on LNG, fuel Cell and Electrical powered Engines. They have in place waste heat recovery and ultra capacitor starting modules. Their recycling program has eliminated 4.2 million pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere. Go to Peterbilts website. They are selling hybrids now to large fleet owners.

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