EOLECTRICITY = ECONOMY + EMPLOYMENT + ENVIRONMENT
by Peter Moss

Most Vermont candidates talked about creating jobs and growing the "free-market" economy and of course preserving environmental quality. Unfortunately, job creation verbiage consisted mainly of luring employers from other states by "improving the business climate," meaning tax giveaways, environmental leniency, and building the Circumferential Highway. Nobody said that growing unemployment is a national problem due to national policies of exporting good jobs and always maintaining surplus labor to control unions. Notable and completely absent were suggestion of really new industries, to be created and operated by the State of Vermont. Now I would like to propose a genuinely new set of industries based on eolectricity or wind mill driven turbine generated electricity. Aeolus was the Greeks' god of wind who gives us this free, clean, inexhaustible and peaceful energy bounty and the extra "o" in his kind of electricity recognizes Aeolus. All current "renewable" fuels (ethanol, wood, biodiesel) burn to CO2, the main green house gas causing global warming, plus some CO which kills if the garage is not open. Presidential candidate and ex-Governor Dean says: "We gave a ton of oil money to the Saudis. The Saudis used some of our money to buy off their religious radicals and pay for the madrasas, the Islamic fundamentalist schools which teach people to hate Christians, Jews and Americans. Those are the recruiting grounds for Osama bin Laden," said Dr. Dean. And it's all happening, he declared, "because we don't have a decent renewable energy policy in this country and we need one." The problem is much bigger than renewability. We have a 275-year U.S. coal reserve so renewability is not the main problem. If it was, we could fire locomotives and Stanley Steamers with coal and after A.D. 2300, replace coal with wood. The corn based ethanol interests have successfully confused the issue and hope to replace carbon containing fossil fuels with carbon containing "renewable" ethanol-from-corn which not only adds to pollution and global warming but must be blended with gasoline so it only reduces oil consumption and only delays oil wars, but it does not address the more difficult environmental problems. The most urgent problem at this writing is the imminent oil war against Iraq, but that is not because of any fuel shortage. The war is instigated by the transnational oil corporation executives who want to control Saddam instead of Saddam having any say in their business. Fortunately there is eolectricity and hydrogen but politicians in elections are interested only in winning, not in solving real problems. In a column titled Hydrogen, Not Fossil Fuels, I noted that BMW and other car makers have hydrogen cars on the road. Hydrogen is made from water and burns to water. A more inexhaustible fuel supply is unimaginable. More importantly, it is completely non-polluting: hydrogen car exhaust is at times cleaner than ambient air in Los Angeles. No air pollution, no global warming, no kidding. And needless to say, the Saudis, Iraq, Colombia and Venezuela have not cornered the world supply of water nor the world market for hydrogen. Wind mills coupled to generators already produce some eolectricity which can be used to electrolyze water to hydrogen and oxygen, each of which can be cryogenically liquefied and sold in insulated containers. We have current technology to replace gasoline and diesel cars, home heating propane tanks, diesel locomotives, and eventually we will fly hydrogen propelled airplanes (not hydrogen filled dirigibles). BMW actually has dual fuel cars using gasoline by the flick of a switch when out of reach of a hydrogen service station. But of course Detroit and other car makers are not ready to retool until they must. In the meantime we have oil wars, pollution and global warming, and dangerous old nukes whose license renewals should be denied before another Chernobyl. Vermont could grow its economy and create jobs if it would formulate a state program to manufacture wind mill generators and install them on well-chosen mountain peaks. Vermont could replace fossil and nuke generators, while saving consumers money and eliminating pollution. Excess eolectricity not needed in the power grid can be used to electrolyze water, cryogenically separate hydrogen and oxygen, and distribute the hydrogen through existing service stations. A second part of this state owned program would be a hydrogen pump and tank manufacturing and installation subsidiary. And a third part would be a subsidiary to develop retrofit kits to convert existing cars to dual fuel, then manufacture and install the kits. If Vermont goes eolectric and hydrogen, could Detroit and the U.S.A. lag far behind? A conversion tax to speed the program would tax fossil & nuke profits to help finance the program but it would have to be used judiciously to promote economic growth, full employment, and the elimination of global warming pollutants. A better world can be legislated with a little Yankee ingenuity to plan for it. Mr. Moss, a licensed professional engineer, was a technical advisor to the U.S. EPA for 14 years and is currently the only Vermont certified candidate for the U. S. Senate in 2004.