Gently offsetting carbon from cars

This fall I am teaching an honors seminars at Frostburg State. The topic is “Our Future Dilemmas: Energy, Water and Food.” While gasoline prices have dropped recently, we are still facing an eventual drop in the supply of global petroleum.

Yields in Middle East oil fields will slowly decline (similar to what happened in our own bountiful oil fields in Texas the past few decades). Then as the supply diminishes, the price of a barrel of petroleum will soar well past the record set early this year. As T. Boone Pickens has pointed out, we are paying some $700 billion a year for imported petroleum, most of which is sent overseas to nations whose people are hostile to us.

So in my seminar class, we have discussed what can be done to reduce our overconsumption of petroleum. The two usual strategies are: a carbon tax on fuels and restricting the amount of gasoline/diesel one can purchase each week.

The carbon tax on fuels would be based on how much carbon dioxide (CO2) a particular fuel expels into the atmosphere as it is burned. A pound of gasoline used by a car or truck puts three pounds of CO2 into the air. In comparison, a pound of natural gas puts 2.75 pounds of CO2 into the air and burns cleaner.

A pound of coal will put about 3.5 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere with a considerable amount of impurities. Let’s consider a carbon tax of one penny per pound of CO2 emitted, then gasoline would cost an additional 20 cents per gallon, natural gas would cost about 33 percent more with this carbon tax added and high grade coal at $30 a short ton (that produces 7,000 pounds of CO2) would rise in price to $100 (of which $70 is carbon tax).

With such a tax on all fossil fuels, you would have increased costs not only for transportation, but also for food (fertilizer used is made with natural gas) and electricity (as half of U.S. electricity is generated by burning coal). The proceeds of a carbon tax would be used to finance a huge government project to develop and install renewable energy facilities across the U.S.

Restricting the amount of gasoline would take us back to the days of WWII, when there was a limit of three gallons per week. In my class, there was a discussion of a weekly limit on the purchase of gasoline/diesel based on wage earners in a home and distance to commute to work.

There would be special allotments for fuel purchases for vehicles used in business. In this arrangement, you could be sure that there would be a black market for gasoline, as those who didn’t need all of their weekly allotment would sell the unused portion to others (for a higher price).

A novel way to both curb gasoline consumption and absorb some of the carbon dioxide (CO2) as well would involve setting up a large non-government and non-profit corporation to plant trees all over this country.

Assume that a typical mature tree absorbs 200 pounds of CO2 each year (growing its leaves and increasing its height). This is equivalent to the CO2 made by burning 10 gallons of gasoline. So if your car each year consumed 500 gallons of gas (that would be 12,500 miles at 25 miles per gallon), then 50 trees each year could soak up your car’s emission of CO2.

Presently, all the trees around the world are unable to absorb humanity’s CO2 emissions as this gas’ concentration in the atmosphere is increasing at about 1 percent a year.

A voluntary program through the above corporation would allow car/truck owners to invest in the planting of new trees to partially offset their vehicle’s emission. For membership in the program, your investment in new trees could be spread out over a five-year period. The land could be leased over three to four decades. (By then there would be no fossil fuels left to power vehicles.)

Let’s suppose that for each new tree planted, the cost of tree sapling, protection (against animals and trespassers) and land lease would cost $20. So if a car needed 50 trees to absorb the bulk of its CO2 emissions each year, this would require a total investment of $1,000. Then, spread over a five-year period, the payment would be $200 a year. (If your mileage were to increase in a given year, your payment would also increase.)

Your invested tree area would be marked off and images of your tree area could be viewed on the Web site of this corporation each season. You could also visit your invested trees in a corporation electric vehicle.

Bigger, heavier vehicles would require a larger investment. Small, more fuel efficient cars would require less. The corporation would be transparent in its organization, finances and salaries from top to bottom with no golden parachutes for administrators. (Why not a good supply of tree saplings as one leaves the corporation?)

Week’s best sky sights

The moon is now a morning sky object. This is unfortunate as early this week, we have the Orionid meteor shower where meteors seem to streak from the star group Orion in the early morning hours. In the early evening sky, the planet Venus is getting easier to view, setting more than 90 minutes after sunset. Look for a very bright steady point very low in the southwest about 7:15 p.m.

Continuing at the Frostburg State Planetarium is “Life Story of the Stars” with free public presentations at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. each Sunday. The Planetarium is in Tawes 302, just off the side of the building that faces the new Compton Science Center. Visitors can pick up a free summary of the program and an October 2008 Sky Map.

Call (301) 687-7799 to request a free Planetarium/Discovery center bookmark sent to you through the mail by stating your name and mailing address.

Bob Doyle invites questions and comments. Contact Bob Doyle at rdoyle@frostburg.edu.