MechSE Faculty and Alumni Discuss Need for National Energy Policy

As policy makers seek new ways to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil, concerns about global warming are causing many to pin their hopes on "clean" energy sources, such as hydrogen fuel and ethanol from cellulose, that would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. But did you know that:

• switching to a hydrogen economy that uses coal to produce hydrogen would consume the amount of water now used by 200 million Americans to replace the oil they now use
• the amount of water it would take to grow the plants needed to fuel our economy with ethanol made from cellulose could more than double the amount of water consumed in the United States for all uses
• meeting the country's needs for electricity with wind power would, at the very least, require a third of all the landmass that exists in all 50 states

During an energy panel discussion at the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering's spring Alumni Board meeting April 20, Mark Shannon, J. W. Bayne Professor, emphasized the need for a comprehensive national energy policy that considers all the effects alternative energy sources may have on the environment--particularly on the water supply. As director of the National Science Foundation-funded Center of Advanced materials for Purification of Water with Systems, Shannon is concerned that a growing global population, the use of water in industry, the depletion of aquifers, contamination and the intrusion of salt water in coastal areas are already threatening the world's supply of safe drinking water.

Although he recently addressed high-level government officials charged with developing a national energy strategy, Shannon suggested that developing a comprehensive national energy policy will be very difficult in a country ruled by local politics and short-term thinking. "Americans respond to a train wreck, but not to a potential train wreck," an official told him.

Issues raised by other members of the panel (MechSE Professor Scott Stewart; Professor Clifford Singer from the Department of Nuclear Plasma and Radiation Engineering; Paul Predick, MSME '73; and George Trezek, MSME-62, PhD ME'65) included fairness with respect to implementing energy policies in the developed and developing world, the morality of using food sources for fuel, the tyranny of a growing population in which people in poorer nations are striving to improve their lifestyles and those in richer ones are struggling to maintain theirs, sustainability and conservation. The panel's conclusion: Conservation is important, but efficiency is the key. "If we could just increase the efficiency of conventional energy use by 20 to 30 percent, we could recoup almost all of the additional energy we need," Shannon said.