Eric Stubben
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Eric Stubben is a mechanical engineering sophomore and Mustang News conservative columnist. These views do not necessarily reflect the opinion or editorial coverage of Mustang News.
Just about every time I go to the gas station to fill up my car, I wither at the sight of gas that costs $4 per gallon. It seems like not long ago that I crossed the Canadian border after a long weekend up north to see that gas was more than $3 per gallon for the first time since the Cold War, but that was over eight years ago. I never thought the price of gas would stay that high for this long.
The realist inside of me knows there’s no way we’ll ever stop using oil. As expensive as it is, oil will forever be engrained in the backbone of our country, for better or for worse. However, the engineer inside me knows there are many ways to reduce our dependence on oil and other traditional forms of energy.
Now, I have to say, I’m just about the farthest thing there is from an environmentalist. I believe climate change is natural, and I basically embody everything an environmentalist despises when it comes to my climate views. Yet I do recognize our current methods of consumption have effects when it comes to cost and pollution, especially in big cities. That’s where I think alternative energies can have a huge effect.
Our country has been researching and investing in alternative energies for decades. We built hydroelectric dams before the Great Depression and have built nuclear power plants since the discovery of nuclear fission. In the last 12 years, private companies have invested $71 billion in clean energy, while the government has pitched in another $43 billion.
Today, cleaner and more efficient processes such as wind and solar energy are getting quite a bit of attention, and rightfully so. Both technologies are still primitive and can only be used as supplemental power sources, but they are a step in the right direction. Wind and solar “farms” do have a few drawbacks, as they must be placed in rural areas, forcing the energy they produce to be transported a long distance to larger cities. However, their potential and upside is worth noting. Solar energy is being incorporated into city structures to provide urban power to homes and businesses. Though their construction costs are rather steep, solar panels and their subsequent electricity are cost efficient for owners in the long run.
From another standpoint, alternative energies are encouraging because they create jobs and infrastructure for the rural areas that these “farms” must be built in. Some of the rural areas where solar or wind farms are built are helped by the increased in activity in their area. The new energy sector brings in money and business with workers and their families working on the installation of the farms.
Beyond solar and wind energy, other forms of new energy, including natural gas, need to be considered as well. Though the natural gas supply is abundant here in America, there is still opposition over its cleanliness. It’s important to remember that no industry is perfect from the beginning. Efficiency and cleanliness in natural gas extraction will increase over time, but restrictions must be lifted to allow research and create improvements.
Speaking from the political side of things, possibly the best aspect of alternative energies is that they create jobs — lots of them. British Petroleum (BP) predicts that in the next 20 years, global energy demand will increase by 40 percent. If we can’t find other energy sources to rely on, energy costs will continue to skyrocket. In the last decade, BP has created more than 5,000 jobs within their alternative energy sector alone. Accounting for other existing energy forms and thousands of other energy companies, alternative energy is a field that can aid job growth.
If for nothing else, many of these new alternative energies are just plain cool. A company in Idaho recently invented solar tiles that can be used as smart roadways. Of course, many car companies are looking into the prospect of solar cars somewhere down the road (pun intended). Startup companies are popping up across the country with innovative ideas and business plans. They need our support.
If we are going to burn our dependency on oil, we must first encourage the “Big Oil” companies to invest outside of petroleum. Many are already doing so, and the reality is these companies are the most capable of research and implementation of new, innovative technologies. Their money, along with the talent within their corporations, can create a huge step in the right direction in terms of increasing our domestic energy output and lowering energy costs at home.
Most importantly, the American people must support the idea of alternative energy. None of these sectors will be perfect from the start. Solar and wind energy can only produce small amounts of energy relative to coal and oil. Biofuels have a nasty odor, and natural gas is still primitive. But if there’s a better way of doing something, we need to be open to looking at it. We don’t live in history; we live for the future. It’s time to start taking our energy problems into our own hands.