Breaking the OPEC hammerlock
Breaking the OPEC hammerlock
By KURT HAUGLIE
DMG Writer
HOUGHTON — Sen. Carl Levin wants the United States to get over its century-old dependence on fossil fuels for environmental, economic and political reasons. To spur that goal along, he’s working to make certain alternative energy research programs get as much federal money as possible.
Levin, D-Detroit, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, recently announced that a $4 million appropriation for biotechnology research is part of the 2007 energy and water appropriations bill. The bill was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee and will soon be considered by the full Senate.
If approved, the $4 million would go to the Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, of which Michigan Tech University is a member.
During a weekend tour of Upper Peninsula communities, Levin stopped into the Tech Advanced Technology Development Complex on Sharon Avenue Monday to listen to a presentation about the efforts at the university to develop alternative fuels and power systems.
Tech has several programs researching the development of fuels, such as ethanol, made from plant products, and David Shonnard, professor of chemical engineering, talked about the Wood-to-Wheels (W2W) program.
“We feel that biomass is a valuable resource for energy,” Shonnard said.
Converting from a petroleum-based fuel economy to one based on biomass will significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide entering the air, which will in turn reduce air pollution.
“The use of fossil fuels is unsustainable to meet our energy needs,” Shonnard said.
Unlike fossil fuels, Shonnard said, biomass is renewable, less polluting and has a lower impact on the environment generally.
Some byproducts of biomass fuel production can be used to power the plants where the fuel is made, Shonnard said.
Levin asked several questions during Shonnard’s presentation, one of which was whether the Wood-to-Wheels program included the development of enzymes to break down plant fiber making the production of biomass energy more efficient.
Shonnard said enzyme research is part of the overall W2W effort.
“Our vision is to become an internationally recognized leader (in biomass energy research),” he said.
Shonnard said an estimate from the Department of Energy shows that there are about one billion tons of plant matter available in the United States every year for fuel production. That much biomass fuel could replace about two-thirds of the domestically-produced gasoline.
Levin said many vehicles sold in the United States have the ability to burn fuel that’s 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent ethanol. The highest ratio is 85 percent ethanol, so it’s important that the technology for ethanol-burning engines be advanced to make them run as efficiently as possible, and that’s an area in which Tech could be involved.
As biomass and other alternative fuels become more available, Levin said petroleum companies and members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) won’t just sit by passively.
“I’ve seen the oil industry’s response to ethanol,” Levin said.
That response has been to denigrate the fuel by pointing out all the things that they see as wrong with it, he said.
There is a much more forceful step the oil companies could take to try to reduce any challenge that may be brought by the growth of ethanol and other alternative fuels, Levin said, and that’s something consumers may find impossible to resist — they could drastically reduce the retail price for gasoline.
“They’ll do it,” Levin said.
That drop would only be temporary, however, Levin said, and soon OPEC and the oil companies would have consumers back in a “hammerlock” with high prices.
That dependency on fossil fuels is why Congress must fund as much research into alternative fuels as can be done, Levin said.
“We’re going to have to have the courage politically to convince the American people (to fund research),” he said. “We’re going to have to have a government that will take the long-term view.”
The interest in Congress now for funding that research is high, Levin said, not only for alternative fuels but also for developing alternative power, such as wind and solar.
“This isn’t one of those things that is going to come and go,” he said. “This is going to be with us for awhile.”
Kurt Hauglie can be reached at khauglie@mininggazette.com
Previous page: Help just a new phone number away
Next page: MDOT awards top honors to Sikkema, six other employees