Alternative Energy and Aviation - Flight of the Navigator is Still Big Oil

What animal goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening?

The Riddle of the Sphinx, solved by Oedipus

Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, is currently locked in a meeting with the British Prime Minister, David Cameron (do they have senators in the British Parliamentary system……research time!) based on the news article on The Journal, aired Wednesday July 21^st 2010 5:00 AM, DW-TV on Television Jamaica.

They are apparently in their first trans-Atlantic meeting, but a black cloud, made mostly of oil, is nebulous and ominous as storm clouds over the two men, as BP, the British Oil Giant, is responsible for the worst ecological disaster in the history of the United States of America. What is most ironic, is that the day before, the Alaskans were protesting that Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America was being unrealistic, even alluding to him as a “tree-hugger” as stated in the news article on The Journal, aired Tuesday July 20^th 2010 5:00 AM, DW-TV on Television Jamaica.

Which is not surprising, as he did go ahead with the promised six (6) month moratorium on Offshore Oil drilling as stated in the article “Obama: End dependence on fossil fuels”, published Wednesday June 2010, By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer, Yahoo! News.

Despite opposition from the Supreme Courts as stated in the article “Judge blocks Gulf offshore drilling moratorium”, published Tuesday June 22 2010 by MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer, Yahoo! News.

Big Oil apparently “Big Oil strikes back, slams Obama’s drilling plan”, published Tuesday June 22 2010 by JANE WARDELL and JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writers, hoping that a renewed proposal will be more amenable to the Supreme Courts position that his ban is in effect a knee-jerk reaction to an industry that contributes taxes to the United States of America Economy.

Albeit John Public knows it that in the short term it is in the best interest of the American to keep this economy going, John Public cannot help but wonder at the amusing irony of Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America investing so heartily in the Solar Energy Race to the tune of US$1 billion (US$1,000,000) as stated in the article “Obama commits billions to solar firms”, published July 4, 2010 11:34 AM PDT by Reuters, CNET News - Green Tech

Big Oil, those “lovers of money” who are also investing heavily in the Bio-Fuel Industry, with an aim to beat Brazil, the current world leader in Bio-Fuels based on a recent report by Hart Energy Consulting a stated in the article “PetroAlgae signs deal with Indian Oil”, published November 5, 2009 6:55 AM PST by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Green Tech. Indian Oil in India investing in the soon-to-explode Bio-Fuel Industry, in light of recent development on the world oil market, it appears that according to the article “IEA official warns of shrinking oil supplies: Report”, Sunday August 2^nd 2009, 9:04 pm ET, AFP, Yahoo! News.

Oil production is set to peak in the year 2015. To put that in plain English, that means that the oil production would have reached its maximum and cannot be increased to meet up with increasing world demand. This article’s dire warning were recently backed up by statements by Sir Richard Branson of Virgin as stated in the article “World faces oil crunch by 2015”, published Sunday 14 February 2010, AFP, The Jamaica Herald

Which effectively means that we must go Renewables by 2015AD – or face the collapse of our Social Order as we live in a world dependent on cheap Fossil Fuel based Energy.

Exxon Mobile thinks so too, and is also plunking down big bucks, as the Americans would say, to get in on the action since last year 2009 as stated in the article “ExxonMobile invests in algae Bio-Fuel project”, published Tuesday July 14 2009, 2:29 pm ET Yahoo! News, WASHINGTON AFP

This is similar to the PetroAlgae project, basically involving fish eating algae and the processing them for biodiesel, for which there is a huge demand, as their has been a trending for years in Europe towards biodiesel. Hedging their bets on the Energy future is what John Public suspects. In fact the Government of the United States of America Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy have been jointly giving grants to researchers and engineers in the Bio-Fuel Sector since 2010AD.

This to develop Bio-Fuels versions of:

1. Gasoline
2. Diesel
3. Jet Fuel

Anhydrous Ethanol production that doesn’t involve the use of corn, merely organic material or in some cases sewage as stated in the article “'Green' gas and diesel get boost in Bio-Fuel grants”, published December 4, 2009 12:33 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.

All this despite the fact that LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) is cheaper than Alternative Energy Sources such as wind and solar as stated in the article “Solar, Wind feel the heat from low natural-gas prices”, published January 29, 2010 12:43 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech, a more direct link to Big Oil, who now appears to either be playing with a fixed hand or just simply is a good Hedge Fund investor.

With all this money moving around, be it Venture Capitalist money or Government of the United States of America Venture Capital money or Big Oil Venture Capital Money in the Alternative Energy Sector, be it in Solar or Bio-Fuel, John Public will even go out on a limb as far as to say that Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, Big Oil and Prime Minister David Cameron are merely acting while shuffling money around among themselves, jostling for good positions in the next big moneymaker before the bomb drops as it relates to the truth about the level of oil reserves in Saudi Arabia.

The smoking gun?

“IEA official warns of shrinking oil supplies: Report”, Sunday August 2^nd 2009, 9:04 pm ET, AFP, Yahoo! News stating that Saudi Arabian Oil reserves are shrinking and Peak Oil is upon us by 2015. Mere days later, like a good who-dun-it novel, Brunei later in August of 2009 began the building of a solar power plant as stated in the article “Oil-Rich Brunei to have solar power plant”, published Thursday August 6 2009, 3:33 am ET, AFP, Yahoo! News.

This should have struck John Public and the rest of the world following the Oil Futures Market as being decidedly odd, as with supposedly billions of gallons of oil still untapped, why would they be seeking to conserve, being as they had an abundance of oil supposedly able to last for the next 200 years?

Even more eyebrows should be raised at increasing interest in the use of Nuclear Power for Civilian Power by the Arabs, who have been having talks about setting up their own regional Arab Atomic Agency to legitimize nuclear proliferation by Iran ostensibly for Civilian Power as stated in the article “Arab Atomic Energy agency proposed”, published Monday March 29^th 2010, AFP, The Jamaica Observer.

European Union, which normally depends on Oil and Gas from Russia, investing untold billions in:

1. Wind as stated in the article “Europe's 'Supergrid' hopefuls cast fate to the wind”, published March 8, 2010 6:48 AM PST by Reuters, CNET News - Green Tech and as stated in the article “GE announces major wind investment in Europe”, published March 25, 2010 9:13 AM PDT by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Planetary Gear
2. Solar Energy as stated in the article “400-billion-euro plan to pump African solar power to Europe”, published Monday July 13 2009, 4:18 pm ET by Laure Fillon, Yahoo! News

So the news of the development of solar powered planes also falls into this odd turn of the United States of America. The US Military has developed drones that fly using fuel cells as far back as 2009 as stated in the article “Fuel efficient spy plane for sale”, published August 6, 2009 7:51 AM PDT by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Planetary Gear and as recently as 2010 as stated in the article “Phantom Eye 'spy plane' unveiled”, published Thursday July 15 2010, BBC News.

But the recent twenty four (24) hour test of an all solar powered plane as stated in the article “Solar 24-hour test flight starts”, published Wednesday July 7^th 2010, BBC News which ended successfully as stated in the article “Solar plane's night test success”, published Thursday July 8^th 2010, BBC News is a foreboding of things to come. It speaks of a world of flight using solar power and if anything, this early test with a successful night flight may bode well for the development of commercial aircraft that are completely solar powered in the future.

No doubt the solar panels are designed to use radiation Energy from ambient light, unless the aircraft plans to fly in the upper stratosphere all the time above the clouds where the sun is always shining. This use of fuel cells, solar panels and hydrogen being touted as environmentally friendly alternatives is nonetheless at an experimental stage, as the current aviation trending appears to be the usage of Bio-Fuel replacements for gasoline, diesel and in the case of aircraft, jet fuel, which is kerosene with LNG and its close variant LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) being cheaper and more readily available, again a coup for Big Oil.

Even space travel, which Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America has laid claims to reducing spending on not only Space Exploration at NASA (National Aeronautical Space Administration) by privatization of the delivery of payloads e.g. Commercial and Military Satellites into space by utilizing the same Military Contractors to:

1. Build reusable spacecraft to accomplish the job of the ageing, outdated and inefficient STS Shuttle Program
2. Focusing NASA on robotic explorations of the Solar System
3. Establish a permanent Moon Base and putting a Man on Mars by 2020

This as expounded in the article “Is NASA's New Space Plan Really that Radical?”, published Tuesday March 2 2010 by Clara Moskowitz, Senior Writer SPACE.com, Yahoo!.

Space Exploration may actually be going green thanks to solar power when in space, but LNG for reusable airplanes developed the Military Contractors to replace NASA.

The use of the stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun in the solar wind has been demonstrated by the Japanese using their aptly named iKaros spacecraft as stated in the article “Japan unfurls solar sail in space”, published Friday June 11^th 2010, BBC News, which deployed its “solar sail”, a deployment confirmed via a floating mini-camera as stated in the article “Mini-camera pictures solar sail”, published Wednesday June 16^th 2010, BBC News

Thus this proves that this type of propulsion is feasible, but the return trip will be either achieved by Hydrogen gas produced from water stored on board or CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) stored on board, whichever is lighter and cheaper and more feasible, which from the prices currently is LNG. Solar planes and solar planes using charge particles and LNG still beat them on price, ensuring Big Oil’s place in the Energy mix of the future, or at least for another two hundred (200) years, the estimated lifespan of LNG reserves.

Thus like the Sphinx I pose a riddle: Who is planning all of this yet is with power and powerless all at the same time and will we ever be rid of Big Oil and switch either to a Hydrogen Economy or and Electron Economy?

A puzzle then as John Public munches on his chocolate rabbit ears……….as flight will never be the same again, it too caught up in the Alternative Energy hype.