John A Mucha's Page
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- Are you interested in becoming an organizer in your area?
- Maybe--But Not Sure What to Organize
- Tell us about your experience with alternative energy:
- I am a PhD chemist with a wealth of experience in research for the semiconductor industry. I have also been very close to the ozone depletion problem many years ago. My background in science is broad (chemistry, physics and engineering) and spans basic and applied research. This has made very capable at critically evaluating technical information and alternative ideas.
My primary motivation for alternative energy has been from following technical aspects of global warming. In my experience, over and over again, I have seen the severe lethargy it takes to initiate and accomplish anything in this country (probably a world-wide phenomenon). I hear a cacophony of support for "free market solutions", but my 64yrs on this planet tells me that the free market is as slow as molasses since it must create profit immediately. This serves to make progress evolutionary (governed by profiteers) rather than revolutionary (governed by logic and need). The former looks a year at most into the future, the latter looks centuries into the future. We cannot wait to implement many of the proposals for alternative energy. We must PUSH the TIMETABLE of implementation to an extreme. Climatologists may error, but my experience with community is that they tend to err on a conservative side, i.e., they minimize the outcomes. There are scenarios out there call for 90 m sea-level rise by 2100 and an estimate of 350 ppm CO2 has been suggested as tipping point. WE HAVE ALREADY EXCEEDED THAT! The free market seems to be targeting 500 ppm by 2100. That could be a disaster (200 m sea-level rise) OR NOT; all in my children’s and grandchildren’s lifetime.
I hate to be alarmist, and I don’t want anyone to act on my statement of primary motivation: mainly because as a trained scientist I always want to base prediction on interpolation rather than extrapolation. That said, it is clear to me that accelerating conversion to alternative energy is a here-and-now PUSH that is merited on the basis of many other compelling arguments. First, eliminating our dependence on foreign oil using solar + wind generation to power vehicles (charge batteries). Second, no more wars in oil rich countries to satisfy our glut. Third, maintain our technological and manufacturing expertise. Fourth, export it not import it. Fifth, jobs, jobs, jobs! In the west, the east, the north, the south, and the mid-west. There is much to do. Sixth, re-establish a middle class painlessly. Seventh, set a model for the world to follow that is morally compelling and. Other countries, including China, have the right mindset for this. But Europe, the leader, is too small to make a manufacturing dent in a short time. China is big enough but lags behind in manufacturing infrastructure and know-how. The “free market mentality” wants to invest heavily in China, but that is a lazy man’s approach – let your money work rather than you. It is not always about the bottom line in a quarterly report. Sometimes, like now, there is a bigger objective where we can lead and grow in throughout the 21st century. Global warming is an issue, but there seems to be no downside to pursuing alternative energy and electric vehicles of all types in a big way now.
Frankly, I have lost hope with big business going back the mid-seventies when big oil and Detroit failed to heed the same demands for better CAFÉ standards, energy conservation, a reduced dependence on foreign oil. I see many solutions already in the market place by entrepreneurs that beg for capital to make a real Impact while the behemoths use new drilling as a solution and 2X better fuel economy in 2-4 years. It is time for a CHANGE in management!
- What excites you about this campaign?
- This campaign is exciting because it is sponsored by a man who not afraid to buck the "conventional wisdom" of big-business and has the resources to set an example.
- What do you want to do to help?
- I would like to help by critiically evaluating technical alternatives and posing probing questions to the protagonists. I would demad good technical justification not simply pushing their partcular parochial agenda. For example, the push for corn ethanol is a technology that uses more gasoline than it saves. Hydrogen fuel cells use more energy to create hydrogen than the energy the make. Further, the idea of having high pressure H2 in the hands of the masses is an accident ready to happen - over and over again. Has any one thought of what H2 embrittlement would do? Has anyone thought of what would happen should a sudden release of a 1-D cylinders worth of H2 occur? Both of these technologies have protagonists that want get-rich-quick from existing infrastructure with little concern aboutthe bigger picture.
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Happy New Year John,
Last year I helped so many members of Pickens Plan learn about personal home energy plans. It's all about conservation of power, and home power generation, things I have been doing at my residence to lower my electricity costs. Send me a friend request a to add me John, I'd be honored to have you as a friend here.
BTW, Texas: I just posted an article link on my pickens page about Home Wind Systems in Texas. Your state's representatives, governor, and public utility commission officials are not in your corner with this "weak policy" on Net Metering. Instead they have the tables turned against green power for businesses and homeowners. Texas has created multiple sets of rules for loopholes and you have less rights than people in other states. You should read that article, important.
How come no one is advocating the sequestration of saltwater on Antarctica & Greenland to cause sea level to drop and increase the area of usable land -- Ah -- the massive low-tide smell. That's gotta be it... :^)
Seasons Greetings!
As an example, I offer a gentleman that installed a homemade device in his turbo diesel pickup truck that uses electrolysis to "crack" water into combustible HHO gas. He spent about $175.00 and received a n increase in mileage from about 14MPG to about 26MPG. A professor from Oregon State then was interviewed by the same local paper and reported that such devices do not produce any gains in energy, while proceeding to offer a lesson in the laws of thermodynamics, entropy, and the laws of conservation of energy to explain the whole concept and its failings.
While all of that may be true, and I still have my doubts about that, the guy who installed the unit in his truck is saving money by using water to supplement the diesel. Perhaps the professor in his expertise in physics, failed economics, and cannot understand the difference in price between burning diesel at about $3.75/gal. vs. water at about $0.75/gal. for the distilled variety.
Then there is the power industry experts who warn that building wind turbines to produce electricity will cause the power grid problems due to the fact that their antiquated grid cannot switch from wind to another source fast enough and that it will cause blackouts or brownouts across the entire grid system. Right, and if you interested in purchasing a bridge...
To me, the solution is electric via renewables period. Until such a time as we can figure out how to tap the electrical energy of the sun, we will have to use clean sources that do not require fuels to burn or radioactive materials that will have to be dealt with for a long, long time.
I do remember a Dr. Paul Brown who claimed he developed a process whereby he could utilize "spent" nuclear fuel to produce electricity and when he was finished with that "waste" fuel, you can grind it up and spread it on your lawn or garden. Well, he got dead so we may have to wait until some other scientists can duplicate his work.
Tesla transmitted electric without wires over one hundred years ago, and last year, MIT claimed to have "discovered" how to do that, and demonstrated by lighting up a 70 Watt bulb wirelessly. Tesla was transmitting megaWatts.
These may be still classed as "exotic" technologies or at the very least experimental and therefore not ready for production. However, we still have many viable methods to utilize sun, wind, ocean currents, and never have to burn fuels.
hmm bio plastic structure
We do not make the parts but we manufacture the ingredients to make the bio plastic parts possible.
new venture. patented. capital needed.
Have you noticed the Referral Rewards up to $1,000 listed on Green Jobs Now! group page?
http://push.pickensplan.com/group/greenjobsnowcom
I agree with a lot of what you say above. Good to have you on board and we may have some interesting discussions in the future.
In the case of H2 fuel I tend to differ with you just a bit and would welcome the opportunity to convert you to my way of thinking :-D
Here is an interesting story on an H2 car fire:
http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=482
MJ
I hear a lot that we are actually running a natural gas deficit(??).
Do we have enough?
Various sources also say YES. Which is it?
1) Why don't you write up these - - very convincing - - numbers, and I'll post them on http://www.ElToroEXPOSED.com at THE RIGHT STUFF.
2) MY photovoltaic system (3 kw, grid-connected, pictures at ENVIRONMENT at http://www.antiagingforme.com) brings an 11% return on the money invested; enough to charge a plug-in hybrid.
3) PV versus Nuclear: Cost of reactor at least $ 5 Billion. Offer people (on top of existing incentives) $ 10,000 each for installing a 3 kw PV system. At that incentive level everybody would do it. Result: 500,000 homes with 3 kw each; total 1,500 MW (a little more than output of a nuclear reactor). No further costs, no radioactive waste - - - .
Are my numbers correct? Looks toooo good! It is late! Please check my numbers.
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