Polinomics (“Polinomics” = politically influenced economics)

It cannot be denied that everywhere around the world the energy sector is the most heavily politically influenced economic sector for the very simple reason that those who control the energy will be in power (No control over Energy = No Power). And with the control over energy you have the power to control every other economic activity in the world…

Many people still believe that oil is a commodity of which the price is determined by free market mechanism; and that electricity privatization has made electricity pricing to come to commercial (unsubsidized) levels. The same people probably also believe that the US went to Iraq to spread democracy. Well the reality is far from that; maybe less than 5% of the price of oil is determined by market and the balance is “politically steered”. Since Electric Infrastructures and power stations all around the world have been paid from tax payer money there is still a very high level of hidden subsidy in every electricity bill.

Just to give an example about hidden oil subsidy:

The US “total oil consumption bill” in 2007 will be reaching “only” +/- 600 Billion USD; compare this to the over 1,200 Billion USD the US spent in 2007 on the military activities of which over 50% has been directly and indirectly used to secure the flow of oil; you will realize that a US oil-customer is actually already paying close to $200/barrel. Add to that the many tax incentives that are in place for investments in oil related businesses and you will be astonished about the “real” price you pay today for a barrel of oil.

Breaking news: The US already several years back did find the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq; but the government is too embarrassed to admit this because it was not really what they expected to find. They expected to find other types of WMD; not oil !

An electric car is a technically ideal, feasible, clean, affordable solution to replace the extremely in-efficient and highly polluting fuel explosion cars. But don’t be so naïf to expect that the world powers let this transition take place without polinomics. (Watch the documentary “Who killed the Electric Car”)

A Photovoltaic solar home system is a technically ideal, feasible, clean, affordable solution compared to extension of the extremely in-efficient and costly centralized grid “power” networks to connect the 2 billion people not yet connected to electricity. But don’t be so naïf to expect that the countries ruling elite let this take place without any polinomics. (A book about that subject is coming soon)

What we can expect however is that those who hold and control the “real power” in the world today; Let’s call them “the Watts”; will try whatever they can to prevent people to become energy literate. “The Watts” also will try to come with technical solutions that have similar characteristics as fossil fuels today; like enormous capital needed to develop, produce and distribute; so that it can only be supplied by those “Watts” who have the capital to do so; The same “Watts” who control and supply the cheap (heavily subsidized) energy carriers we are all so addicted to today and are “burning away” our planet at an ever higher speed (oil and coal are in fact Weapons of Mass Destruction).

“The Watts” of course want to continue to use their polinomic power tools. Let’s take a look at the story behind those power tools:

The “old story” for turning electricity into a political power-tool for a country.

1)  Everybody knows that electricity brings enormous improvement of quality of life; we can call electricity a “quality of life Booster”.

2)  A government of course would like to provide the service to everybody to be able to enjoy this great improvement of quality of life through this “Booster”. Those political leaders that promise fast connection to the “Booster” will be most popular and supported.

3)  The Government uses tax money to build the “power” stations and distribution networks to get everybody access to the “booster”… so far nothing wrong!

4)  The price of electricity gets in this way heavily subsidized because the infrastructure gets paid from tax-money.

5)  The result of a subsidized price is of course that the cost to the consumer is low.

6)  When the cost to consumer is low; no “pain” is felt when the stuff gets wasted.

7)  When no pain is felt for wastage; consumers don’t bother about consumption of devices when purchasing them (in fact since consumers are energy illiterate they don’t even know how to select energy efficient devices).

8)  When customers don’t bother; manufacturers don’t bother to spend extra effort on efficiency since nobody looks at it or is willing to pay a cent extra for it.

9)  Economic progress brings more and more electrical devices into households together with higher and higher electricity bills.

10) A temporary recession; and consequently lower income suddenly makes people aware that their electric bills are going to cause “pain”.

11) Political leaders that suggest increasing electricity prices are not chosen; those who promise to keep energy pricing low are the preferred future leaders.

12) And so subsidized electricity turns into the most powerful political tool simply because it has such a great impact on quality of life.

The “old story” for turning oil into a global political and economic power-tool:

1)  Electricity can be produced in every country with mostly all local resources except maybe technology for the power-stations. This makes electricity not a very suitable tool to control the world. Ehhummm… what other powerful stuff can we use?

2)  Of course… Oil… it is very cheap to pump and distribute and has very high energy density... very powerful!; and over 80% of the world’s total resources are located in less than 10 countries of the world; fantastic situation! Those countries that have the stuff need technology to pump it out; and they can be intimidated by military force to let it flow in the directions “the world powers” want it to flow... But how do we get people all around the world addicted to the stuff?

3)  Let’s think... What is the next greatest thing after having a comfortably electrified home?

4)  Yes of course… ”the freedom of mobility”… The fantastic sensation of luxury, freedom and independence you get from stepping into your own car or on your own motorbike makes this product the next big target for every family living in a comfortable electrified home. And to enjoy this mobility you have to come to the pump several times per month to get your tank filled up with “freedom”.

5)  But how do you get everybody to accept oil-burning cars instead of electric cars which are more efficient and clean…? Just kill the factories that make them at earliest possible stage; buy them over and turn them into fuel burner production lines… The oil business was brought down due to introduction of the electric light bulb; so early 1900 it was “high-time for a hit & come-back”. Kill the electric car and introduce the fuel-burner to produce mobility instead of electricity to start the oil-pumps again.

6)  Then put the oil profit into investments to keep building more and more “macho” design cars so that it becomes the product with high status that everybody wants to work very hard for; make people get blinded by the shiny accessories so that they never even look at the energy consumption figures.

7)  And of course make sure that the people stay energy illiterate and have access to cheap fuel, food and toys so that they keep on focusing to make more “toys” that need more electricity and more oil…. 

8)  To boost economy further it was needed to make the “toys” that needed a lot of labor and resources cheaper. And so those “toys” needed to get produced in countries that did still have low cost of living; cheap labor and lots of resources. But how to motivate people in those “outsourcing” countries?

9)  Right… get them access to electricity, TV’s and TV-shows and call their countries “developing countries” to cover up that they are in fact only “outsourcing countries”. Show the people how wonderful a modern energized life can be; and how they can get a small piece of the cake of what they can see on TV after several years of hard work. ...so far nothing wrong!

10) But how about if those countries develop as fast as “the world powers” do?

11) Ehhmm…yes that’s a risk…because we all know that resources on the planet are limited to produce all those “toys”, and if the countries that make them start affording those “toys” themselves, “the world powers” are in trouble.

12) Excellent idea!….. Give full support to corrupt presidents (or even better; help corrupt presidents get into power) of those countries so that those countries don’t develop in a sustainable way. And to cover that up; provide the funding as “development aid” to support the poor people of the country. Make sure that the money they borrow (from the “world power’s Tax payers”) to build the “local power” stations cannot be paid back so that they always stay indebted. Keep flooding the countries with subsidized food items so that the farmers stay poor and their children move to cities and become the cheap labor to make the toys to export to the “world-powers”.

13) But what to do when the corrupt presidents don’t follow the “world-power” instructions; …ahhh simple; just stop the money flow and the countries poor people who have gotten used to their low wages and subsidized energy (food electricity and fuel) cannot afford the rising prices of their basic needs anymore and they will start demanding and even rioting to oust their president. …Ha..ha..ha… you will see how fast the corrupt presidents will come back and follow the “world’s power instructions” again… and bring down the prices to support the poor and hold on to the local power.

14) But what if they still don’t listen and use their military force to suppress their citizens?

15) Then we put economic embargo’s and tell the world that those presidents are corrupt and… maybe we even use world-power-military-force to oust those presidents and put a new one that wants to follow instructions again. …But only if the country has some valuable resources… If not then just look for another country… there are plenty…

16) Excellent plan!… But what if we run short of oil? It looks like the world’s oil production is peaking and will drive up prices enormously and if that happens; this world-power-control-model cannot work anymore.

17) Ehhh…..Oops….

18) How about bio-fuel; let’s tell all the developing countries that they should start producing bio-fuels; good for their farmers….

19) Ehhh….Yes, but that will cause food prices to sky-rocket….and again cause the poor to go to the streets….

20) Ehhh….Woooww……….It looks we are in real trouble now….….wasn’t there some oil left in a country where we lost control over a dictator we put in place some years back?….let’s get rid of that guy and democratize that country…..

21) But how do we get support of the world’s citizens? ……Just tell them we are fighting a war on terror………..Brilliant Idea; let’s do that!

Time for a new story:

Let’s stop fooling ourselves; the way the world is controlled today simply cannot continue; it is headed for total collapse the same way many advanced societies in the world have collapsed before. It is not only the imbalance between the haves and never haves; but the environment that just cannot cope anymore with all the corruption and dirty manipulation. Even though good and clean presidents are, or are coming into power in many developing countries; they cannot root out the deeply rooted “corruption-cancers” in the political systems that have been build and supported by the world-powers over the past century. It needs the world-powers full and sincere support to get it right. We need an Energy Revolution; the burning of stuff has to stop completely! Technically and economically it is possible and it even can mean an enormous boost of economic activities if the “Joule-supporters” instead of the “Watt-lovers” get into power. Electricity and fuel prices should get heavily taxed to let them go up with 30 to 50% per year and this tax revenue should be spend to support the building of the 4 to 10 times more energy efficient electric economy. Burnivores should become Electrivores (with electricity produced from freely distributed Light and abundant Geothermal Heat resources). Eradication of energy illiteracy should get top priority all around the world to start the energy revolution and prevent our planet from total environmental, social, political and financial collapse.

We want all your support to start making the world energy literate… and this can be done with the “Joule Standard”.

For the future of our children on this planet,

Sincerely,

Maurice