American Energy News Good, Bad

LINCOLN — Bill Eaton of Fayetteville brought some good and bad news about U.S. Energy Utilization in a power point presentation to Lincoln Kiwanis Club members last Wednesday.

Eaton, who grew up in Jonesboro, received a chemical engineering bachelor degree from the University of Arkansas and worked in the energy field for years. He was a registered professional engineer, working not only in Arkansas but Louisiana and Mississippi. He retired in 2007 but decided he preferred to work so started an energy consulting business.

The good news Eaton told Kiwanis is the U.S. is now more independent of Middle East oil than it has been in years.

“Most people believe most of our oil comes from Middle East but that isn’t true,” Eaton said. “Domestic oil production has increased and surpassed overseas oil as of this year.”

Eaton said we do buy oil from Canada, Ecuador, Venezuela and Columbia — neighbors to the north and south of us.

“I’m very encouraged by U.S. oil production today,” Eaton said. “We don’t have to worry about problems in the Middle East — whatever happens there won’t shut down our economy.”

The bad news Eaton said is about the price of oil which is out of our control. The cost of crude oil on the world market can mean lower or higher prices at gasoline pumps.

“We live in a global energy world now and all prices float on the world market,” Eaton said. “Although some government policies do factor into cost — mostly oil price is associated with free market activity.”

Eaton also said the U. S. lags behind new and better energy technology mostly because we’re “creatures of habit” and don’t want to wean ourselves off gasoline.

If efficiency was our goal, Eaton said, we would believe less in solar power and more in wind power, not use ethanol nor support urban sprawl.

“Our societal norms overwhelm our objective use of energy,” Eaton said. “Our goal should be to look into energy diversity. Read up on any issues that affects our lives and big investments.”

What does the future hold?

Eaton said natural gas exports will become the next big energy issue and it will have an effect on the price American pay. As progress is made on liquefying natural gas, we will be exporting it to Japan and Europe and that will increase U.S. prices.

“Wind is coming on strong, which I like,” Eaton said. “It is a more reliable source of energy.” He said solar is a less reliable energy source.

Eaton said predictions are by 2050, the U. S. will convert everything to hydrogen fuel cells.

‘ The military has been using fuel cells since putting a man on the moon,” he said.

Hydrogen is found in many organic compounds, such as gasoline, natural gas, methanol and propane, according to Renewable Energy World.com.

Hydrogen can be separated from hydrocarbons through an application of heat. Currently most hydrogen is made this way from natural gas.

Hydrogen is high in energy, yet an engine that burns pure hydrogen produces almost no pollution, according to the website.

The website confirmed Eaton’s statement about NASA — it has used liquid hydrogen since the 1970s to propel space shuttles and rockets into orbit.

Eaton said while Americans cannot control the energy market, we can make smart choices and use less energy by keeping our homes insulated and following general rules about saving energy. He added most energy data is accessible on the Internet.