Music to My Ears -- Robert Zubrin Solves the Energy Problem

I usually don't write about anything unrelated to music or the music business, but the logic and comprehensiveness of Robert Zubrin's plan to solve the energy problem (and a lot more) is music to my ears!

Aren't you turning off listening to ALL the current presidential candidates? I mean really. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH. Nobody is saying ANYTHING that makes me think they know how to save America from ruin. George Bush and company have put us in this mess...but no one has a way out.

I say this in all seriousness. I will vote for the candidate who embraces and implements the energy policy outlined in Zubrin's new book, Energy Victory.

Now, since I have not had the opportunity to read the book, but only watch Zubrin's presentation on C-SPAN, I won't attempt to review it. All I can say is, THIS GUY MAKES SENSE.

In this compelling argument for a new direction in US energy policy, world-renowned engineer and best-selling author Robert Zubrin lays out a bold plan for breaking the economic stranglehold that the OPEC oil cartel has on our country and the world. Zubrin presents persuasive evidence that our decades-long relationship with OPEC has resulted in the looting of our economy, the corruption of our political system, and now the funding and protection of terrorist regimes and movements that are committed to our destruction. Debunking the false solutions and myths that have deterred us from taking necessary action, Zubrin exposes the fakery that has allowed many politicians — including current US president George W. Bush — to posture that they are acting to resolve this problem while actually doing nothing significant toward that goal.

Zubrin's plan is straightforward and practical. He argues that if Congress passed a law requiring that all new cars sold in the USA be flex-fueled — that is, able to run on any combination of gasoline or alcohol fuels — this one action would destroy the monopoly that the oil cartel has maintained on the globe's transportation fuel supply, opening it up to competition from alcohol fuels produced by farmers worldwide. According to Zubrin's estimates, within three years of enactment, such a regulation would put 50 million cars on the road in the USA capable of running on high-alcohol fuels, and at least an equal number overseas.

Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror By Breaking Free of Oil shows how we could be using fuel dollars that are now being sent to countries with ties to terrorism to help farmers here and abroad, boosting our own economy and funding world development. Furthermore, by switching to alcohol fuels, which pollute less than gasoline and are made from plants that draw carbon dioxide from the air, this plan will facilitate the worldwide economic growth required to eliminate global poverty without the fear of greenhouse warming. Energy Victory offers an exciting vision for a dynamic, new energy policy, which will go a long way toward safeguarding homeland security in the future and provide solutions for global warming and Third World development.

Robert Zubrin argues that the United States is subsidizing a war against itself because of its dependence on oil, a resource controlled by its enemies. He says that if Congress passed a law requiring all new cars sold in the United States to be flexible fueled, OPEC's control on the world's transportation fuel supply would be diminished.

Robert Zubrin is the President of Pioneer Astronautics and President of the Mars Society, an organization dedicated to the exploration and settlement of Mars. He is the author of numerous nonfiction and science fiction books including "The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must," "Entering Space," and "Mars on Earth." This event [below] was hosted by the Ethics and Public Policy Institute in Washington, DC.

"...This solution has been on the table since the Carter administration. But it has been negated every time it has gotten close to implementation by two countervailing forces. The Saudi's have been able to reduce prices enough to make the transition to bio-fuels economically unattractive, or else the oil industry supporters have been able to use their money to sabotage such policies in Congress. Zubrin hopes there is now enough political support to push through a bio-fuels program despite such resistance. His book is part of that push to realize his ideas...

"Zubrin claims the technical breakthrough which made his alcohol liquid fuel program possible was the 'flex-fuel' technology first developed by an inventive woman engineer at Ford named Roberta Nichols. Her invention enabled an engine to run on any mixture of alcohol or gasoline. (It could not, however, tolerate mixing different amounts of methanol and ethanol. Later developments first used in Brazil allowed an engine to run equally well on any mixture of gasoline, methanol and of ethanol.) Flex-fuel vehicles provide the key to the Zubrin's alcohol revolution. All that is required is an additional $100 per new car for the flex fuel technology. Initially most cars will run on straight gasoline or on E-10 (10% ethanol). But as the price of oil rises, alcohol alternatives will become ever more cost competitive, and drivers will choose to 'fill up' on various mixtures of cheaper alcohol as they become available. This transition has already happened in Brazil, and Brazil has now become energy independent. Zubrin is proposing that we do the same." Fred W. Hallberg (Janesville, Iowa)

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Victory has its costs Not rated yet
Land for ethanol crops too often means less land for food crops. Any shift to alcohol fuels, without a simultaneous movement toward eating locally and ...

Concerned Citizen Not rated yet
I was very impressed by Dr. Zubrin and the range of proposals, ideas and concerns in this book.

Just before the financial crisis hit, GM CEO Rick Wagoner ...

A sane energy policy Not rated yet
This is a great book. Why send trillions of dollars to the House of Saud (which is funding terrorism) when we can have cleaner power where the money will ...

Music to My Ears—Robert Zubrin Solves the Energy Problem (and Hits Terrorism Where it Lives)

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