THE PHOENIX PROJECT
Shifting from Oil to Hydrogen

THE PHOENIX PROJECT is a practical vision for shifting from a fossil fuel to a hydrogen economy.

This is of utmost importance since we now see the results of our imbalanced relationship with the cultures and countries of the Middle East as well as the problem of global warming brought on by our addiction to oil. Now is the Time to push for the Shift!

The book laying out this vision is called "The Phoenix Project : Shifting from an Oil to a Hydrogen Economy". by Harry Braun.

The audio archives of the recent NPR episode where Braun speaks on the show Science Friday, are found via The RealAudio at this link: http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=09/21/2001&PrgID=5

To order the book, call Copperfield's or go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970250207

The website of Harry Braun's Phoenix Project is: http://www.phoenixproject.net/index.htm

The following is from the above site.
Mass-Produce Wind Hydrogen Systems Not Coal & Nuclear Plants
Billions of dollars are about to be spent on a new generation of power plants, as well as the related pipelines and utility transmission systems. While the Bush Administration is apparently committed to building coal and nuclear plants or finding the last of the oil in the few remaining wilderness areas, such policies will not solve the fundamental energy problems -- and they will have profoundly negative environmental effects. Millions of Americans will be forced to live and work in increasingly polluted areas, and the long-term environmental consequences of global climate change and producing substantial new quantities of radioactive wastes are simply impossible to calculate.

Harry Braun, author of The Phoenix Project, has documented an alternative strategy that will fundamentally resolve the complex and interrelated global energy and environmental problems. Braun proposes to shift investments from oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear fuels to renewable hydrogen systems that are inexhaustible, pollution-free, and can make the U.S. energy independent.

According to Braun, "10 million one-megawatt state-of-the-art wind energy systems could provide 100% of the U.S. energy requirements, and the 10 million acres that would be needed to install the wind systems is less than one-half of one percent of the U.S. land area. Moreover, given that over 17 million cars and trucks are manufactured in the U.S. each year, the 10 million wind systems could easily be mass-produced and installed by 2010."

For over 3 billion years, all green plants, trees and flowers on the earth have been using solar energy to extract hydrogen from water. Because hydrogen can be made from water with electricity, it is an ideal method for storing electricity that is generated from intermittent solar and wind technologies. Hydrogen is the only zero carbon emission "universal fuel" that can power virtually any engine or appliance, from the family automobile, commercial aircraft, moon rockets, power plants, or a Coleman stove on a mountain top. When hydrogen is burned as a fuel, the pure water is returned as a combustion byproduct, thus no chemical pollution is generated, and nothing is consumed in the process. Moreover, extensive field tests over many decades by NASA and BMW, which has developed the world's most advanced hydrogen-fueled automobiles, have shown hydrogen to be much safer than gasoline or other hydrocarbon fuels when accidents do occur. A shift to hydrogen will provide long-term "prosperity without pollution" because it will create millions of manufacturing jobs while fundamentally resolving many of the serious environmental problems.

This shift from oil to hydrogen is being advocated by thousands of scientists and engineers from more than 80 countries who are members of the International Association of Hydrogen Energy. The National Hydrogen Associaion, based in Washington D.C. is the corporate trade association that assists Members of Congress and the U.S. Department of Energy in prioritizing a national hydrogen implementation strategy. The "trigger mechanism" for this "transition of substance" is the Fair Accounting Act that is proposed in Chapter 9 of The Phoenix Project. This proposed legislation will factor in the many "external costs" of using oil and other fossil and nuclear fuels, which includes the billions of dollars in environmental damage and the resulting health care costs that are not factored into energy costs. If a fair accounting system is used, hydrogen will be the least expensive fuel in a free market system.

From the origin of matter in the known universe and the beginnings of life on Earth, The Phoenix Project traces the primordial evolution of hydrogen over the past 15 billion years. In addition to the insights that can fundamentally resolve many of the major energy and environmental problems, The Phoenix Project also provides other important perspectives: Exponential Growth It is impossible to comprehend the nature of the interrelated problems without a basic understanding of exponential growth, and the many negative exponential developments that are related to human population growth, oil consumption and environmental damage -- including stratospheric ozone depletion and global climate change.

Positive exponential developments, however, are also simultaneously occurring in computers, molecular biology and knowledge in general. Given these exponential developments, humanity is rapidly approaching both utopia and oblivion, and the decisions made in the next few years could make the critical difference as to which outcome evolves. As such, the energy transition from the "Oil Economy" to a "Hydrogen Economy" needs to take place with wartime speed.

All content © Copyright 2001 Sustainable Petaluma Network.