Ebessette.com

Part 1: Overview

Right now, gasoline, petroleum diesel (petro-diesel), and jet fuel prices are steadily increasing to a point were many alternative transportation methods and fuels are becoming economical.  There are many reasons for the increase in price; shorter domestic supply, China and India becoming automobile based economies, commodities speculation, etc.  The point here is that those fuel prices are going up with no end in sight.

For decades, the world has used crude oil, or petroleum, as the raw source for almost all transportation fuels.  Crude oil is basically decomposed micro organisms from millions, maybe billions, of years ago.  So, when we burn a petroleum based fuel, we are releasing carbon that has been stored, or sequestered, naturally for a long, long time.  That carbon is now in our atmosphere and is not be able to escape.  Carbon dioxide, the main component of exhaust, is a Greenhouse gas.  It floats up into the sky and while it will let sunlight down to earth, it traps the heat trying to escape.  This slowing increases the temperature of the Earth, hence the term Global Warming.

Not only are petroleum based fuels bad for the environment, they are also bad for our health.  Petro-diesel, for example, releases particulates through the exhaust.  These particulates cannot be broken down by our bodies, making them very cancerous.  In addition, all of the fuels release other, non-carbon, gases that lead to smog, acid rain, etc.

In today's world, energy policy is directly linked with national security policy.  This is a dangerous partnership and already Congress is trying to lessen our dependence on foreign energy sources.  I won't get into the political issues here, but it's safe to say that the more energy we can produce domestically, the more secure we will be.

So the question is, how do we stop burning petroleum based fuels?  The most popular answers today are the alternative fuels; biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen, and electricity.  I believe the future of transportation needs to incorporate all of them for us to entirely replace our petroleum dependency.  But for this to work, each type has to be created in a renewable manor.  By that, I mean that the creation of the fuel has to use a large percentage of the carbon dioxide that will be expended when it is burned. And while each alternative fuel has many benefits, each has it's own drawbacks too.

Part 2 coming soon...