The GET, Grand Energy Transition by Robert A. Hefner III, TheGET
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The Grand Energy TransitionThe consumption of energy is a fundamental component for the existence and growth of civilization. Today our principal sources of energy, coal and oil, have brought the world and America face to face with three intolerable consequences of their continued and growing use. The "three intolerables" are: 1. The oil price-shock related destabilization of the global economy,
2. The loss of energy security for America and other oil importing
economies that translates into total economic reliance on oil exporting
nations, as well as the loss of geostrategic advantage, and
3. The risks of costs equal to the Great Depression and both World Wars
combined, or even the end of civilization as we know it from the rapidly
increasing possibility of devastating climate change. The Grand Energy Transition, The GET, is an ongoing, powerful evolutionary energy transition that is bringing civilization out of a millennia long epoch of limited, unsustainable dirty, solid fuels, into the later stages of what history will record as a relatively short liquid transition to a future epoch of sustainable, virtually limitless, clean gaseous fuels - called by the Author, the Age of Energy Gases. The GET shows us how to accelerate the transition to the sustainable energy gases of natural gas, wind, solar and hydrogen that can eliminate the civilization threatening consequences of continued coal and oil consumption. By viewing energy consumption based upon its state of matter rather than the fuel itself, an ongoing powerful evolutionary transition is revealed that clearly shows our energy past, present and future. And most important today, as these potentially deadly "three intolerables" are materializing, The GET shows us which energy sources and technologies are likely to be the winners and which are likely to be the losers. Click here to read Chapter 9 - What Won't Work; What Will Work (108k PDF). By concentrating our best minds, capital, policies and national will upon the winners, we will be able to rapidly accelerate The GET - "Jet The GET." In his book, Robert Hefner, a life-time natural gas explorer, producer and energy thinker, explains the workings of The GET, and recognizing the long history in which natural gas has been considered a superior fuel, but of limited supply, he takes head-on the case for Natural Gas Abundance. He argues that natural gas supplies are not related directly to oil, and that natural gas is a much larger resource than liquid oil in both America and the world. Hefner also makes the case that America's attainable natural gas reserves are likely as large as or possibly larger than the U.S.'s remaining minable coal. Click here to read Chapter 7 - Natural Gas Abundance (184k PDF). Hefner proposes bold new policy initiatives based upon his belief that tax, economic, energy and environmental policies are inextricably and systemically connected. Basing his policy recommendations upon America's need for economic recovery and global competitive advantage in the coming decades, as well as a massive shift away from coal and oil energy consumption to forestall further costs of the "three intolerables", he calls for two bold policies. First is the elimination of taxes on labor and capital, which would be a large scale stimulus to the economy, to be replaced with a green consumption based tax levied initially principally upon the use of coal and oil, which is causing 80% or more of the growing costs of the "three intolerables." Second is an Energy and Industrial Recovery Plan to produce and retrofit half of America's vehicle fleet to natural gas by 2015. He shows that the essential part of the infrastructure is already in place with the existence of a 2.2 million mile natural gas pipeline grid that connects most of the metropolitan gasoline stations as well as 63 million homes where 130 million automobiles reside and can be filled with a home fueling appliance. This Energy and Industrial Recovery Plan will accomplish a number of important economic, strategic and climate goals because it will 1) pay for itself many times over in reduced foreign oil payments, 2) save millions of jobs in the automobile industry, 3) reduce oil imports by between 5 and 6 million barrels per day, 4) significantly enhance energy security, 5) save trillions of dollars in payments to foreign oil producers that can instead be invested in America, 6) stimulate our domestic economy by increasing natural gas demand that will trigger $100s of billions in new private sector capital expenditures, 7) add about 250,000 new jobs in the natural gas sector, 8) increase payments to American farmers and landowners by $10s of billions annually, 9) help America dodge the economically deadly peak oil bullet, 10) reduce CO2 emissions by over 200 million tons annually, 11) eliminate much of the pollution in major metropolitan areas and reduce related health costs, and 12) restore America's global leadership in energy and climate and help regain soft power.
via the-get.com
