April 18, 2016
BY Kassidi Andres
(Editor’s note: Kassidi Andres has been an intern here at BBI International this spring semester. One of her assignments was to watch the movie PUMP. Following is her blog about what she learned.)
As little as two months ago, my knowledge of fuel consumption on a global scale was as small as a baby’s pinky toe. I knew virtually nothing about the history of oil, where and how America extracts it, our dependence on oil or how easily our oil addiction can change. The film, PUMP, a 2014 release, opened my eyes to a renewable future for the world.
The directors of PUMP, Joshua and Rebecca Harrell Tickell, had several goals for the audience, including:
--Warning us about America’s foreign oil addiction.
--Reviewing the history of oil and transportation.
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--Informing viewers of healthy alternatives for the environment, such as ethanol, electric vehicles and methanol.
--The directors’ primary goal is to remind Americans that they should have a choice in the type of fuel they use. The stars of the documentary, Adhemar Altieri, Greg Anderson and Edwin Black, explain exactly how to go about that.
Initially, I could not form an opinion on renewable fuels. Is ethanol the answer to our problems in the United States? I had no idea. I only knew the basics. The fact that Big Oil and ethanol advocates have been pushing against each other for decades was about all I knew. I also found that swaying people in the ethanol direction is no easy task for three, simple reasons: society is comfortable with gasoline, and they know it’s safe for their cars, gasoline is currently cheaper and most people are not educated on renewable fuels.
In the documentary’s 90 minutes, I was shocked by the amount I didn’t know. I learned Big Oil’s controlling messages have left me in the dark for quite some time. Many people seem to think we have a bottomless pit of oil, but this is so far from the truth. One day, the oil will completely run dry, and what will we do when that happens? Not only do we use crude oil for gasoline, but it’s also found in our clothes, everyday plastic, the drugs we take and many more materials.
Ethanol is an exceptional alternative to gasoline with many benefits. Numerous crops used to create alcohol, such as corn, sorghum, sugarcane and beets, reduce the risk of losing ingredients anytime soon. The ethanol conversion process is simple and well-known.
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Methanol is another possibility. Also referred to as wood alcohol, it’s considered clean, efficient, cheap and smooth. However, a downside strikes: the toxicity.
Luckily, there is a way to implement each of these fuels, including gasoline, into the same vehicle without destroying its parts. All a person needs is a flex-fuel vehicle, which have been available since 1994. And if one does not own a FFV at the moment, a simple recalculation of software or independent converter kits are other options.
While renewable fuels have their benefits, the electric car grabbed my attention. Solar energy would not only power our vehicles, but our charge stations as well. While the least expensive model falls just under $20,000, an efficient, rechargeable battery is expensive. However, if charge stations appear, people may be inclined to purchase an electric car. This increase in purchases will decrease the overall costs. Right now, there are only 100,000 electric vehicles in the world compared to millions of liquid-fueled vehicles. However, electric vehicles are projected to take over the road in three to four decades.
Besides learning about transportation alternatives, I learned about the influence of monopolies. America faced monopolies since oil was first introduced. After John D. Rockefeller built the first oil refinery, he controlled 90 percent of the market. Eventually, his company was found guilty of monopolizing, and broken into 34 independent oil companies. Not too long after that, the major transportation companies: Standard, Mack, Firestone, Phillips and GM created a secret pact to buy the competition of the day--city trolley systems-- and pull up the rails and burn them to a crisp in public fires. Eliminating the electric trolleys paved the way for their oil-consuming buses that led to the cars and roads we use today.
Years have passed, but monopoly control remains strong. In order to stay in business, Big Oil spreads dishonest claims about ethanol fuel. For example, they claim ethanol drives up food prices. Those in the ethanol industry understand that the corn used to produce ethanol feeds animals, not humans.
There is another worry to our oil addiction. America receives oil from the Middle East which is seated on 78 percent of the world’s crude oil reserves. New and effective oil extractions have been under development since 1951, but 25,000 wells are drilled per year. This raises a huge concern: when will the oil run dry? The United States represents only four to five percent of the world population, but we use 20 percent of oil produced in the world. To protect our earth and sanity, it’s time we take a different approach. We have the resources to do so. Alcohol is the “fuel of the future” – a saying as true today as a century ago when Henry Ford first said it.
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