There have been a number of instances when the world oil
consortia have declared that we were
running out of oil. From Titusville, Pa in the early 20 th century to peak oil
doomsday scenarios, the story is always the same. It’s a finite resource and at
our present rate of consumption it will be gone in 1920, 1946, 1972 and more
recently. Surprisingly enough it seems to be one of those self defeating
prophecies.
Oil people appear to be one of those races of people that
require periodic swift kicks to get reenergized to greater efforts. This is
endemic across the whole industry, for example geologists go out and discover
new fields, drillers discover the joys of lateral drilling putting millions of
barrels within reach, frackers brew up more toxic cocktails to allow residual
oil to seep upwards and offshore platforms go miles below the surface to open
one more pocket of crude. We, the renewable crew, are in awe.
Yes we are in awe of the unlimited resources, the
brainpower, the political clout and the ignorance that makes all those West
Texas barrels come alive all over the world at the drop of a political
campaign. We ask ourselves, why them, why not us?
We have nothing to be ashamed of; our scientists are hard at
work as we speak. Our victories are not as spectacular as say plugging a Gulf
of Mexico blowout. Our oil spills bring in salad bar operators and gallons of
vinegar, we search for answers in the sewers, waste treatment facilities and
manure piles instead of the sands of Iraq. Yet, we are in the same business
with lower expectations and billions less in support.
As my mother used to tell me, if you don’t see what you want
it’s either not there or you need to adjust your glasses and sharpen your
focus. Biofuels can do both because we are nowhere close to running out of our
form of energy and our technology is still very crude, although we don’t waste
as much as the petroleum boys, we could still do better.
The oil industry has a simple formula, wait until it becomes
economically feasible, and then bring it on come hell or high water. Sometimes
it catches them with their pants down, but mostly they get away with it because
examples of slowing down are plentiful and scary. Long lines at the pumps are
usually enough to get any issue resolved! We operate on the same principle,
making biodiesel from virgin olive oil is quite expensive, so we marched into
the soy fields and took them over amid cries of food or fuel, the price of the
taco will go through the roof!
I cannot count the number of times I have presented a
biofuel project to a roomful of eager investors only to have someone raise that
scary specter of the starving farmer as we whip his pancake off the table. That
is just window dressing on the oil company’s side of the table but when you run
an ethical business based on saving the world you will be held to a higher
standard. Well we should and we should
never forget it.
We have looked at some incredible sources for our feedstock
all in the name of not causing problems, weeds like pennycress (better known as
stinkweed), tobacco, jatropha with its slightly poisonous reputation in
Australia, yes, even the poppy fields of Afghanistan have been touted and that
is just the vegetable side of the biodiesel equation. Imagine rendering
facilities, and Fischer Tropsch conversion of manure altered methane gas, we
have just begun the fight to find cheaper and less invasive ways to cut down
green house gasses, stop climate change and save the cities along the
waterfronts of the world.
While biofuels and renewable are fighting the good fight,
conscious of our role in the energy mix, we watch in awe and envy as our
petroleum counterparts bury their scruples in the sands of time, along with a
goodly number of the people who stood between them and the gas pumps of the
world.
As they begrudge us the use of fallow fields to grow
camelina and pennycress, they are planning to bulldoze whole forests in Alberta
to scoop up the tar sands and extract sludge to send down a pipeline from
Canada to Texas crawling over cities, towns, water tables, rivers, farmland and
backyards. They have an enormous amount
of support to do this because just the thought of running out of oil is enough
to suspend belief and credibility. As responsible citizens we pay our dues,
accepting that sometimes things can go wrong and a fire will destroy a
facility, or our product may clog filters. As responsible citizens they too
have their ups and downs, sixteen people died in the Gulf of Mexico and the oil
spill is still polluting the shores of the BP inland ocean. Exxon has yet to
pay for the Exxon Valdez spill and the Enbridge pipeline has a daily total of
crude lost that would power the trucks and buses of a small town, and we are
the ones feeling the guilt?
We need the thicker skins that fly from Saudi Arabia to
Houston on a daily basis, we need the subtlety of a Vladimir Putin, the discrete
charm of Bob Dudley the CEO of BP so that we can charm a new customer base and
be loved as only Saddam Hussein was before the crash.
We envy those people more than we should because they are
essential, they are effective and they are oh so needed. Our most visible
representatives are Al Gore and Willie Nelson and aint they a pair of troopers
to rally behind?
Yes, you can make ethanol out of sour grapes and biodiesel
out of humble pie, but it sure would be a treat to once, just once, be able to
stick it to oily boys around the world. Because if we don’t sooner rather than
later they will bury us.
