Geothermal Energy took a big move forward as Google announced it was investing $10.25 million dollars in an energy technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS).

The investments will go towards three institutions: AltaRock Energy, Potter Drilling, and the Southern Methodist University Geothermal Lab.

The funding will also go towards geothermal resource mapping, information tools, and a geothermal energy policy agenda according to CleanTechnica

A report by MIT says that geothermal energy can provide more than 2,500 the annual energy use of the United States. As the technology advances, it will be interesting to see how an infrastructure is set up to use the energy for our everyday needs.

Crude oil has been the center of the economy for the past 5 years with no immediate end in site. The battle over the control of oil has pushed the world into a state of “oil shock” as prices have risen worldwide.

Oil rich countries such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran are using their control of oil to push their power around the rest of the world.

America will need to develop it’s own home-grown alternative fuel to become independent of these foreign nations and become the energy leader by example to countries around the world. The next president of the United States will need to develop and plan and execute their plan for this to succeed. I’ve already mentioned the two presidential candidates plans for energy. Both of the plans has pros and cons, but each of them will need to be revised for either one to succeed.

This plan will need to incorporate oil as a short term solution until the technologies of alternative energy are cost efficient and can be used by everyone which could still be 5-10 years down the road. We are at a critical point in the worlds history and unless the leaders take action, there will be an all out war against oil producing nations that will make the last 5 years of conflict seem like a children’s playground.

I believe we can do it! It will take effective leadership, strategic execution of an alternative energy plan, and a desire to change the future for the better.

Alternative energy is not about saving the planet, it is about saving ourselves. As George Carlin once said “The planet will be fine, it’s the people that are *&$#“. The planet has been around for billions of years, while humans have only been around for a hundred thousand years (give or take a couple thousand years). If we destroy ourselves, the planet will continue on without us, just like it always did before us.

World War III - The Energy War

Bill O’Reilly from Fox News wraps up some thoughts on his Talking Points:

Whether you like her or not, you have to appreciate the humor in the Paris Hilton Presidential Campaign’s video at FunnyOrDie.com. Even though she didn’t write the script, I have to agree (while I’m biting my lip) with what she says about energy.

We need to drill for new oil offshore while developing hybrid and electric cars. This would be included in the plan for a short term and a long term solution.

I have been covering some of the companies and cars that have signed a letter of intent to compete in the Auto X Prize with a winning prize of $10 million.

The Progressive Automotive X PRIZE is now officially taking registration for the companies that want to compete. The registration period began on August 1, 2008 and closes on January 1, 2009.

With the success that many of the companies have already had, I’m sure most of them will register their vehicles. It will be interesting to see which companies that have been in stealth mode come out and enters their vehicles.

I love the satire in this video on how many people feel at the pump:

A common argument you will here from people against us blaming Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or a number of other countries for the high price of oil is that we import most of our oil from Canada. Yes, that is true, we do get most of our oil from Canada, here’s the chart that illustrates that:

However, what those same people fail to mention is that we get the majority of our oil from OPEC. OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is a group of twelve states made up of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela and Ecuador.

OPEC takes up 7 spots in the top 10 countries that we import oil from. Even though we import most of our oil from Canada, we import 5.2 million barrels of oil per day from OPEC. The total from the top 10 is 8.4 million barrels of oil a day.

According to this chart, the U.S. imports 12.2 million barrels of oil a day, so that means just under half of our oil comes from OPEC.

This is exactly the reason why people blame OPEC for the rising costs of oil. They’ve had a monopoly on the market for the last 30 years, and as the world demands more, OPEC has a direct effect on the cost of oil.

This is just the reason why we need to end our dependence on foreign oil and develop alternative energy technologies to fuel our energy consumption.

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