A new "Manhattan Project:" Energy challenges for the next president

The Brookings Institution held a discussion on energy challenges for the next president of the United States, where Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) spoke about his Seven “Grand Challenges” for the next five years. The 5-year proposal, which he calls “A New Manhattan Project,” includes integration of plug-in electric cars and trucks, carbon capture for coal-burning power plants, cost-competitive solar power, nuclear waste management, advanced biofuels made from inedible crops, green building construction, and fusion energy.

Alexander said that the idea behind the original Manhattan Project, which was implemented during World War II to help America secure a nuclear weapon before Germany, is relevant to today’s energy situation because “it needs to proceed as fast as possible along several tracks to achieve the goal.” Centralized leadership that channels the talent of many great minds, Alexander said, is necessary to the invention of revolutionary energy ideas so that America need not be “held hostage” by oil-rich foreign nations.

While some people feel that election year is “no time for bipartisan action,” Alexander said he “can’t think of a better time” and expressed his support for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) decision to dedicate this week of his campaign to energy independence discussion. Alexander called Republicans the “party of supply” and Democrats the “party of demand” in reference to their respective solutions to both energy independence and climate change.

Comments

[Dr David Hill]

Unfortunately the energy crisis is totally different to that of developing the atomic bomb in WW2 or anything else for that matter. The Manhattan project was specifically for the construction and solution of a single problem - a bomb that the Nazis may create before ourselves with catastrophic consequences. It was therefore oriented around a single entity solution. But the energy problem is so multifaceted that it would literally take hundreds of Manhattan Projects to solve. But again the greatest problem is that technological solutions take decades to evolve and make any meaningful impact. The reason, sheer logistics to construct fast enough and the distribution of such technology globally. In this respect it takes at least 2 decades to make inroads with even a new technology created today. Therefore no great change will come about to this solution for at least 3 decades and therefore the world is in for probably the roughest ride that it has ever had to contend with. But again, the real problem is the sheer lack of knowledge of our political classes in understanding the energy problem. In this respect energy and more so the sciences that underpins energy, is alien to over 90% of politicians and therefore the reason why they do not understand how to start to even solve the problem.
Indeed, scientists and engineers have known about the dire problem and the end-game scenario since mid last century but where politicians have never taken the warnings of scientists et al seriously enough to change things and the way we operate. That is basically the reason why we are in the mess that we are in today. Indeed, if our political leaders/masters had taken a long haul view of the problem some 50 to 60 years ago, we would by now have had many of the solutions at hand. But as usual, politicians are reactionary and not pro-active with their endeavors and where it takes many decades to change the direction of global systems and where now due to this political ineptitude of our leaders (since the end of WW2), we just have not the time on our side. Therefore this grave problem is decidedly at the door of politicians and no others, for they were warned decades ago about energy and the problems ahead but where they decided to do nothing about it.

The problem is global and only by constructing a centralized global research and development complex where all nations share in the solution will we as humans succeed. Without this cooperative thinking, we shall not solve humankind's most pressing problem. It is as simple as that to a very complex problem.

Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation Charity
Bern, Switzerland
Ps. The late Dr Glenn Seaborg (Element 106 Seaborgium) who was the head of the plutonium plant on the Manhattan Project was our Foundation's first president.

[Vince Beazel EnergyTalk Radio]

We at AlternativeEnergy.com are interested in a collaborative effort to promote EnergyTalk in a viral education forum, promoting EnergyTalk on high school/secondary and college campuses in various regions of the world.

I agree with Dr. Hill's assessment that the problem/challenge is many faceted, and requires a number of approaches to the solution. Some of the problems are as old as man's existence and cannot be resolved by adding new technology. Most of the fear related to the terror campaigns are driven by ignorance. That can only be overcome by a massive literacy effort, in computer training and languages; to help people to connect to other cultures...especially those whom we are taught to fear.

We offer no government fix; we believe that the innovation which put out the oil fires in Kuwait in five months - a non-government solution - came from a small private contractor who was committed to finding solutions. Most experts said that it would take closer to five years. The whole world stood back and watched this small Texas company use an innovative approach to douse the fires with liquid nitrogen, and the world marvels at the immediate results.

That is the innovation which governments can afford to hire; it seldom comes from government, who relies on paperwork and patronage to solve problems, or to shuffle the responsibility to someone else; usually on problems created by other governments! Thanks for presenting this on your program, and we look forward to hearing more about energyTalk on the radio.

Vince Beazel, Director
EnergyTalk LIVE Radio/Discussion
at BlogTalkRadio.com/vinbeazel