Big Think

Question: Which alternative-energy source is the best?

Michael Klare: We, have to face a short term problems of liquids, because especially in this country we are so dependent on motorize vehicles that is the short-term crisis. We are running out of oil for cars and trucks and buses and planes and everything else. We need a liquid alternative. So people tell me, well lets have more wind power and more solar power, which is very appealing. Some people say nuclear power too, but none of those are going to solve our short-term crisis of liquids, and so for liquids I think the most promising is second generation Ethanol. Not Ethanol derived from food crops like corn, but Ethanol derived from the corn stocks and woodchips and other biomass using enzymes what’s calls cellulosic ethanol. This was very promising to me, but we do not have a single functioning cellulosic ethanol plant in commercial scale, cellulosic ethanol plant in this country at this time.

Question: What would it take to get us there?

Michael Klare: A lot of money, a lot of investment too. I mean the technology is ready, no, I shouldn’t even say that, its on a laboratory scale we have this technology, but we have to move it to commercial scale production and a lot of investment money has to be put into this. This I think is the priority, so that’s the short term crisis of liquid the transportation fuels I think is bio - developing nonfood crop bio fuels. Looking into the future the most promising strikes me is solar power, because I think that’s where the most progress is being made to harness the power of the sun, but there is a mismatch between where the sun is strongest in the American Southwest and where they need is greatest which is in Northern California, in the Midwest and in the Northeast and we don’t have the transmission lines and the infrastructure and so on, so there too, you need a lot of investment and so forth.

Recorded: 3/14/07