Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil

by Robert Zubrin

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591025915
• ISBN13: 9781591025917
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

METHANOL is what Zubrin is recommending. Totally different from ethanol.

Zubrin's idea is to foster the use of METHANOL ... [ which is NOT the same as ethanol ]. Methanol is cheaper than gasoline, uses less energy to make than ethanol, it is less toxic than gasoline, easier to make than gasoline, ... and IT HAS BEEN USED AS RACING FUEL for many years!!! The technology for making methanol has been around for maybe a hundred years. What we really need are some catchy bumber stickers about Methanol. If each state governor would mandate that every car sold in his or her state had to be able to burn Flex Fuel, the problem of dependence on Middle East oil would be solved almost immediately. It would take only weeks to start rolling Flex Fuel cars off the assembly lines. And it would take six months to a couple of years for the production of methanol to ramp up. In fact, you wouldn't even need EVERY state governor to mandate cars be equipped with Flex Fuel-friendly fuel systems. Perhaps the Governors of California, New York and Massachusetts could start the ball rolling. The cost of modifying the cars would be minimal. And the free market system would automatically start providing the methanol as soon as enough Flex Fuel cars arrived on the scene. And if the other countries of the world were to similarly mandate that cars sold in their countries be equipped for Flex Fuel, they would then have the option of enjoying the virtues and benefits of competition between oil producers and methanol producers. Every country can produce methanol using waste agricultural products ... wood chips from fast growing hybrid poplars, for example. Or using waste streams from garbage. Or from coal. The technology is there. Everyone with an interest in Energy independence should buy and read this book. At the very least everyone on this thread should Google "Methanol" and read up on it. Also read here: http://www.methanol.org/contentIndex...ts & title=Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4316961.html http://www.energyvictory.net/ Finally, you can read this, but do not try this at home: http://www.jrwhipple.com/sr/fuel_making.html

Energy Salvation via Alcohol Fuel

Robert Zubrin's book could not be more relevant to the current political scene. The compromise energy bill is moving toward a vote in both the House and Senate. A simple majority is assured, but will it be filibustered to death or vetoed by the President? A few more Republican votes would assure passage over against such resistance, and Zubrin's book just might produce that effect. Zubrin is quite hawkish in his views about the current world-wide struggle by the democratic West against "Islamofascism." His critique of Wahhabism (the puritanical version of Islam widely affirmed within the ruling elite of Saudi Arabia) seems well grounded. (He draws heavily for his historical interpretation of Islam on the writing of Ibn Waqrraq, whom I believe to be quite reliable.) He then draws an analogy between the vulnerability of the Nazis and the Japanese to the American attacks on their sources of oil in World War II, to our vulnerability to "Islamofascism" in the current war on terrorism. (He opines, for example, that the reason the first President Bush did not provide air support for the Kurds and Shiites who rose against Saddam Hussein after the First Gulf War, was because the Saudi's were able to enforce their desires on us through back channel threats of oil disruptions.) What is his solution to this threat by the Saudis to our political autonomy? Simply develop bio-fuels in the form of methanol and/or ethanol as a substitute for petroleum as a transportation fuel. This solution has been on the table since the Carter admisistration. 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. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has emphasized there are two "platforms" for producing alcohol fuel from biomass. There is the "Thermochemical" platform and the ""Biochemical" platform. The former produces alcohol by heating the biomass until it breaks down into "syngas" (carbonmonoxide and hydrogen). Syngas can then be condensed into methanol (wood alcohol), or with suitable catalysts and refining it can be made into ethanol. The biochemical platform is what is getting the most publicity today as the preferred way to make "cellulosic" ethanol (ethanol produced from corn stover rather than from corn starch). Zubrin really favors the other thermochemical platform because we know it works with any kind of biomass, and because it can be used to make alcohol fuel from coal as well as from biomass. This shows that he is much more interested in energy independence as a way to defeat "Islamofascism," than he is in cutting carbon-

Energy Independence is Critical to Beating Islamofascism

This is a great book! Dr Zubrin lays out a plan to achieve Energy Independence, defeat the Terrorists, improve the environment, and support Third World development. Does he square the circla as well? Nope. But he does deliver on the others. Dr. Zubrin proposes biomass as the source of alcohol fuels (ethanol and methanol) to power our automobiles. He describes the program in Brazil which went from 0% market share to 100% market share for flexfuel vehicles in three years. Currently the Brazilians use ethanol to satisfy 40% of their transportation fuel requirements. Third World farmers could grow crops designed for conversion to methanol just as Brazil developed a strain of sugar cane which was optimized for ethanol production. Currently Third World farmers are shut out of Western markets for Agricultural products. Methanol crops would provide them with export opportunities without hurting our farmers. Every dollar we dont spend on oil is one less dollar which could end up in the hands of terrorists. We talk about stopping the flow of funds to the terrorists but every time we fill up at the gas station we are sending them a care package. Alcohol fuels are also much better for the environment than gasoline. They are soluble in water and are biodegradable by common bacteria. There is also a great chapter on oil and WW2. After reading this chapter, I am sure that you will want to achieve Energy Independence as soon as possible. A similar approach to that proposed by Dr. Zubrin uses nuclear power to produce electricity, substitutes electricity for natural gas for heating, and converts the freed up natural gas to methanol for transportation.

At Last-An Author Who Understands Both the Problem and the Technology

As a chemical engineer, the unqualified cabal of lawyers, economists, and journalist who seem to be directing the nation's energy policy continually shocks me. With no understanding of engineering problem solving or the path of progress of technology, they are not able to visualize a prioritized path of solvable steps. Zubrin accomplishes this for them and creates a clear path of action. Our energy problems break down into three areas 1. The disastrous effects of the bleeding of our economy and strategic positioning due to the reliance upon petroleum from unstable sources for transportation fuels 2. The adverse environmental effects of a coal based electrical system 3. A longer-term possibility of severe global climate change. A massive disinformation campaign against any solution that would reduce the power of the global petroleum industry has added to the confusion. Zubrin also clearly addresses this problem. Zubrin breaks these issues into a prioritized plan directed at all three areas in order of urgency and our ability to solve. It is essential that (1) be immediately solved to establish the strength to attack (2) and (3). He states that this can be largely accomplished by shifting a significant portion of our transportation fuels to an alcohol mix of methanol and ethanol, using existing technology. One simple but far reaching requirement for this is to mandate that all new vehicles sold in the US immediately be flex fuel capable. Add in some price protection for biofuels in the case that OPEC would drop prices drastically to try to kill the industry and US enterprise and competition will take over. The mandate would resemble that for safety belts and emission standards and would not be expensive or amount to massive interference in the "free market" by the government. The book is filled with historical and technical backup for immediate action along this line. If you want to discuss these urgent issues intelligently, you must read this book.

A Blueprint for Energy Independence through Alcohol Fuels

Zubrin forcefully postulates that a complete switch to ethanol and methanol fuel, replacing Mideast Oil, particularly from the Saudis, is America's answer to true Energy Independence. Starting with forced conversions to flex fuel for all new vehicles sold in the U.S.--doubly more ambitious than the Administration's exhortations to the Big Three Automakers that half their annual production be flex-fuel- capable by 2012--alcohol fuels based on flex-ubiquity, Zubrin contends, would quickly supplant petroleum as the dominant fuel source. Using a methodical historical narrative, Zubrin traces the flow of petrodollars from the U.S. to Osama Bin Laden. A petro-feed to hatred of the West, the route carries us through the Saudi Royal Family's support of radical Islam, its strict fundamentalist teachings and zealotry traced to Ibn Abdul Wahhab and Bin Laden. 7.5 million barrels a day of alcohol fuels, a tough but attainable goal, is the counter balance that leads us to Zubrin's Energy Victory. Laced with facts and figures and some easy math, it's sure to devolve to the policy points of some presidential candidate.