A Datsun 210 from back in the day. My college ride was metallic red. Datsun's revival could have big... [+]
In college, I drove a Datsun 210 hatchback. It was a great car, but I'm not feeling the least bit nostalgic over news that Nissan Motor Co. is reviving the Datsun name. Nissan will use the brand for cars in India that sell for less than $7,000, and that has big implications for the global oil markets. Cheap cars in India mean more drivers in one of the fastest-growing economies, and increased demand for oil to power those cheap cars will lead to higher oil prices over the long term.
In the U.S., we're talking a lot these days about energy independence, but the return of the Datsun is a reminder of just how far we are from achieving that goal. Last night, I watched the documentary "Switch," narrated by Scott Tinker, a University of Texas professor and head of the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Unlike "Gasland Part II," the sensationalist all-fossil-fuels-are-bad screed that you're likely to hear more about this summer, "Switch" offers a scientific look at how we use energy and how difficult it's going to be to move away from fossil fuel. It also drives home the point that weaning ourselves from oil and coal in the U.S. is essential.
While coal is cheap and abundant, it's dirty, and "clean coal" technology simply isn't economically viable. "We probably could make coal clean," Tinker says, "but we probably can't afford to."
Even as India is adding cheap cars to its roads, it's also trying to bring electricity to some 600 million people who don't have it -- double the U.S. population -- in the next two to three decades. And it will be doing that largely with coal.
While emerging economies are likely to rely on carbon-heavy fuels much like the U.S. did in building its economy, developed countries are now working to diversify their fuel portfolios, which will be essential to powering economies of the future.
Tinker looks at a variety of alternatives -- biofuels, wind, solar, geothermal, hydro. All have their advantages, but they lack the efficiency of oil. He also examines nuclear power and the implications of abundant natural gas unleashed through hydraulic fracturing. No fuel is perfect, he concludes, but over the next 50 years, Americans' use of coal and oil will continue to decline, replaced by a mixture of natural gas, nuclear power and renewables.
If 50 years seems too long to wait for that portfolio of cleaner fuels to surpass oil, Tinker points out a way to accelerate it: conservation. The point of "Switch" is to raise our energy awareness, and one thing it does effectively is drive home the really big numbers we're dealing with when it comes to energy consumption. "Our energy behavior is the most important part of our energy future," Tinker concludes.
Unfortunately, "Switch's" message is hard to find. It's being released through a series of select screenings, and it's also available on DVD. If you want to understand why fracking matters, why the Keystone pipeline is important, why we aren't all using wind-generated electric power right now, or what kind of cars we may be driving in the future, it's worth tracking down a copy of "Switch." It offers something that films like "Gasland," with its burning-facet scare tactics fail to deliver: rational explanations.
