How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Petroleum

Yesterday was the 39th observance of Earth Day. Go Earth! We at GetSolar.com put up a special post in honor of it. The post is a chance to see, in it’s entirety, a 1975 National Geographic article talking about the bright future of wind energy in this country. In 1975, this country was in the middle of a love affair with renewable energy that, as we all know now, ended abruptly in the ’80s when we hooked back up with our long-time partner, Oil.

Why the fling? Some of you reading this will remember the energy crisis of the ’70s, and some of you won’t, so here’s a little refresher course. 1973 was a terrible year for energy–prices were bad and brownouts were rampant. Then, in the classic, “How could this get any worse?” scenario, the Arab nations of OPEC (plus Syria and Egypt) decided to stop selling oil to the countries that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Namely, the U.S. The Nixon administration had its hands full trying to placate a nation suddenly faced with sharply rising oil and gas prices: the cost of a barrel of crude oil doubled between ‘73 and ‘74. Sound familiar?

Once oil had packed her bags, suddenly renewable energy was looking a lot more attractive. Sure, she was a little high maintenance, but think of how jealous oil would get! The government began sinking money into R&D. So did companies like Exxon (who later said, “We got out of it because we couldn’t make any money out of it” [CNN]). This atmosphere of almost desperate hope in alternative sources of energy made it possible for National Geographic to publish that article on wind power, in which the author (Roger Hamilton) tries not to be too snarky about the fact that wind power was doing just great for a long time, thanks. Hamilton gives some numbers that bring the intensity of the government’s search for alternatives in focus:

The government’s keen new interest is seen in the sharp spurt of federal financing for wind-power research-up from a token $200,000 just three years ago to 12 million dollars in fiscal year 1976. Nearly fifty wind-power projects are now supported by federal funds.

It was going so well. There was investment, there was hope for the future, there was talk about maybe leaving oil in the past. But then it all broke apart. We left renewables to her own devices; for a decade and more, she’s been left to seek what help she can from private institutions, wishing secretly, perhaps, that we were just a bit more like those European countries who maintained their relationship with oil while still making renewables feel appreciated. And funded.

So what happened? The embargo was lifted in March 1974–only a few months, but enough to send a shock wave through our policies that lasted until the ’80s. Overproduction of oil then caused an opposite phenomenon, beginning a mere handful of years (1979) after the oil crisis. Too much oil meant really, really cheap oil, and suddenly, we forgot about how good and hopeful renewables had made us feel, and just focused on how much cheaper and more familiar oil was.

Which brings us to the present day. Sharply rising oil prices due to unrest in the Middle East, rampant consumption, and some unwelcome news about the effect of carbon on our atmosphere have combined to send us back into the arms of renewables. Is it just a fling? Or are we ready to commit? A study released by the Cambridge Energy Research Associates says…Yes. Of course, research might not be able to account for whatever precious gems oil might dangle to lure us back, but the outlook? Surprisingly good.

Let’s hope that this time history won’t repeat itself. Pinning our hopes for an energy-independent future on renewables isn’t far-fetched, after all. The technology is proven, and getting better all the time (no matter what our current President says, current technology is more than capable of meeting our energy needs–deployment is the issue). The sun isn’t going anywhere. Neither is the wind, or the tides, or the heat at the core of the earth. This vision for the future might be the tiniest bit romantic…but our long-time love affair with oil is on the rocks, and there’s bound to be some bitterness when it comes crashing down. A little romance might be just what we need.

We got our story straight with help from, and used figures provided by, the Energy Information Administration