––– Our Plan –––    

  The United States Today...

The clock is ticking. We have no room for error. America is broke. Real wages are falling. Volatile energy prices whipsaw our economy. We're dangerously dependent on foreign oil. Most scientists say CO2 emissions play a role in climate change.

America must quickly implement a comprehensive, transformative energy plan. If we don't – or if we get it wrong – our children and grandchildren will likely lead lives of increasing hardship and desperation.

  Energy Goals for USA

• Cheap, plentiful energy
• Clean energy with low environmental impact
• Reduce carbon emissions by 50%
• Reduce reliance on OPEC by 50%
• Global energy leadership
• Significant progress in ten years

  Proposed Thirty-Year Energy Plan

• Convene a transparent, objective American Climate Truth Commission
• End most energy subsidies to level the playing field
• Double the number of carbon-free nuclear power plants in fifteen years; double them again in following fifteen years to total of 400 nuclear power plants
• Treat natural gas as 30-year bridge energy
• Maximum geothermal electricity
• Retire coal generation within 30-years
• Smart grid
• Drill, drill, drill
• Set floor under domestic crude oil prices
• Replace 50% of our transportation fleet with electric and natural gas vehicles
• Inexpensive or free 'fill-ups' for electric cars
• Innovation and energy efficiency
• Set example for rest of world

Energy Plan Details

Nuclear Power to Save America?
Power to Save the World by G. Cravens 2007
"Nuclear power has its drawbacks, but the ratio of benefit to risk is the best I've seen," says Gwyneth Cravens in her book about nuclear power. Ms. Cravens, a former anti-nuke demonstrator, now says, "Nuclear power is cleaner, safer, and more efficient than fossil-fuel power."

"When I began my research eight years ago, I'd assumed that we had many choices in the way we made electricity. But we don't. Nuclear power is the only large-scale, environmentally-benign, time-tested technology currently available to provide clean electricity. Wind and solar power have a role to play, but since they’re diffuse and intermittent, they can't provide baseload, and they always require some form of backup – usually from burning fossil fuels, which have a huge impact on public health."

Matrix Overloaded: Clean Energy Depends on New, 'Smart' Grid
Wall Street Journal 2008
Renewable energy is only as effective as the infrastructure that moves it around: the electrical grid. Even at today's levels, renewable energy is straining an electrical grid already showing signs of fragility. In Texas, which has more installed wind-power capacity than any other state, wind turbines sometimes are ordered shut off because the state's electrical lines can't handle the surge of fresh juice.

The current electric grid has two basic shortcomings. It's not big enough to accommodate all the new electricity the nation is likely to need in coming decades,regardless of how that electricity is produced. And it's not flexible enough to handle the inconsistencies of renewable energy, which is less steady than the workhorses of coal and natural gas; the wind doesn't always blow, and the sun doesn't always shine. An updated electrical grid is also crucial to realizing a "green" car. Such a car will depend on an improved power network as much as today's cars depend on the ubiquity of gas stations. At its current size, the network could accommodate many new plug-in hybrid cars – but that would require making the grid smarter.

The vast network needs new controls that sense and communicate information about energy load and consumption to ensure, for example, that cars are recharged at night, when there's plenty of unused capacity available. The grid will become far more complex since so much will depend upon it. Many more varied sources of energy will feed power into it while many more electrical appliances will draw power from it.

Welcome...
The United States needs clean, cheap energy, and plenty of it. The good news is that we can do it.

This site offers a comprehensive overview of the energy issues facing America. We're also clear about solutions. We are self-funded and in nobody's pocket.

Few people – too few policy makers – understand how all the energy pieces fit together. That's why I launched Energy Plan USA. If you read our articles you'll have a better understanding of energy issues than 90% of America. To learn even more, click-through to the lengthier source material or watch the video links.

Any comprehensive U.S. energy policy must begin here:

• Foreign oil has a stranglehold on the United States.
• Climate change is real and possibly exacerbated by carbon emissions.

Unless the United States addresses these issues, our future looks bleak. The American way of life may disappear in our lifetime. ...on our watch.

Listen up, America, there is a cure. And it's easy to swallow:

• More domestic oil and natural gas;
• More carbon-free nuclear and geothermal electricity; and,
• Focused effort on energy efficiency and electric cars.

These can lay the foundation for a new energy infrastructure. In twenty years we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil from a stanglehold to a handshake. Because nuclear and geothermal electricity generation are both carbon-free we can retire coal generation plants and drastically reduce carbon emissions and possibly turn the corner on global warming.

There is frosting on the cake. We can sell our know-how to the rest of the world and help solve their energy problems. Because the reality is, the USA cannot hope to check global warming without rest of the world following a similar path.

Yes, I sounds pollyannaish. But with sound leadership – not bickering – the United States can lead the way to plentiful energy. ...address global warming. ...and turn a profit. It's not a zero sum game.

Global Warming
Before the U.S. establishes a comprehensive energy policy, however, the issue of global waming needs to be addressed. It is extremely complicated and the climate science that aims to understand global warming is still in its infancy with an unproven track record.

Global warming has become such a politically charged issue that the line between facts, guesses and propaganda becomes less clear by the day. Frankly, I blame my own party, the Democrats. They've turned the science of global warming into a form of religious zealotry where faith trumps facts. Democrats also promote clean, expensive energy, whereas in my opinion, the country needs clean, cheap energy.

Unfortunately, lobbyists are paid to keep us all confused. The Center for Public Integrity reports there are 770 groups registered to influence U.S. climate change policy link. Their fingerprints appear all over the Cap and Trade Bill now before Congress. This is just one of the reasons I'm against cap and trade.

The stakes are huge. If we respond with a half-baked energy policy, our children and grandchildren will likely lead lives of increasing hardship and desperation.

                      — Robert Moen, Founder
                          rmoen@energyplanUSA.com