“Plenty of oil”

By John Johnston
Managing Editor

Historically high gasoline prices are on the mind of virtually everyone in Boca Raton; indeed, virtually everyone in the nation

Dr. Chuck Laser serves on the board of governors for Northwood University; he’s also a well-known Boca Raton area oil wildcatter – and he will tell anyone who asks why gas prices are so high. 

You need to know, however, that you don’t ask Laser a question unless you’re prepared for a straight answer – and you also need more than a few minutes to listen.  Laser is passionate about his points of view – and passionate men care little about the clock. Straight talk and time are the price one pays to hear a passionate man, supported by science, as Laser puts it, “tell the truth.”

“What I’m telling you today is the truth,” Laser told West Palm Beach Rotarians recently. This included the following:

• “America has plenty of oil.”
• At the same time, the current oil shortages and resulting high prices are because “the world hasn’t been drilling for oil when prices were low for (the past) 20 years.”
• Alternative fuels such as corn-based ethanol are not only “dangerous,” but are grossly inefficient -- ethanol production from corn requiring “29 percent more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced.”
• And oh, by the way, “global warming is a myth.”

Global Cooling?

“Man does not cause global warming in any sense of the word,” Laser said, pointing to the actual science.  “Let's look at the weather,” he said, noting the following for the years 2007/2008.

• Snow fell in Baghdad for the first time in history. Ontario was buried under the worst snowstorm in 58 years; Denver reported the coldest temperatures since 1872. 500 bison died this year due to the coldest winter in the west

• In February the temperature fell minus 40 degrees in Minnesota breaking a record set in 1923. A record 24 feet of show piled up on Colorado’s vain mountain after December 1st. In Canada 271/2 inches of snow fell on Toronto setting a previous record of 261/2" set in 1950.

• China had it coldest winter in a century causing powerlines to collapse. In South America snow fell in Buenos Airies for the first time since 1918, and in Africa, Johannesburg had its first significant snowfall in 25 years.

NASA, and the four top organizations that measure temperatures worldwide said that the average world temperature “fell between 0.64 and 0.75 degrees Celsius in the 12 months ending in January 2008,” Laser said.

“This is the single biggest drop in more than 10 years and wipes out the gradual 0.67 percent degree Celsius increase in temperature over the past 100 years, which provides the empirical basis for the claim of global warming.”

“Some 60 top Canadian climatologists advised the prime minister of Canada that man is not causing global warming. Computer models are very inaccurate because they cannot put all the variables that affect climate into the calculations,” said Laser

In fact, Laser says the sun is both our friend and episodic enemy.

“The most important factor affecting heat and cooling are solar flares,” said Laser. There is a perfect correlation between warm periods and cold periods over hundreds of years, according to the strength of solar flares. C02 (greenhouse gasses) have no affect at all. NASA studied the artic temperatures over 100 years and solar flares correlated perfectly with the cooling and heating of the artic area.”

OK -- so there’s reason to, at the very least, ask some serious questions about those who say the sky is not only falling, but is also on fire -- but none of that answers the energy question.  What about biofuels, i.e., ethanol from corn?

Laser agreed biofuels based on ethanol, vegetable oil and other renewable sources are increasingly popular with government and environmentalists as a way to reduce fossil fuel dependence and limit greenhouse gas emissions.

However, he said, “ethanol is not only a pollutant and creates c02, but (some officials say) it is a crime against humanity, blaming ethanol production, because we are destroying the rain forests. There are food riots from Haiti to Egypt because crops are not being grown to feed people. “

The real culprit is human greed, Laser said, “with farmers getting $300 billion in subsidies. Consumers are paying much higher prices for foods that are not being grown, so farmers can get rich growing corn that is a pollutant.”    

At the same time, he said, “ethanol depends on oil to produce corn and uses more petroleum than it saves. Ethanol production using corn grain requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced. At best it could only supply two percent of our needs. It takes 1.29 gallons of petroleum to produce one gallon of ethanol.”

“And while the government is demanding the doubling of ethanol by 2010,” Laser said, “ethanol plants are releasing dangerous toxic organic compounds into the air such as formaldehyde and acetic acid, both carcinogenic, and methanol that is classified as a pollutant.”

The most recent new research supports Laser.  Research led by a biologist at the University of Washington, Bothell, shows that some of the most popular current biofuel stocks might have exactly the opposite impacts than intended.

The authors of a paper published in the June issue of the journal Conservation Biology offer a dozen policy recommendations to promote sustainability and biodiversity in biofuel production

The study looked at factors such as the energy needed to produce a renewable fuel source compared with how much energy is produced, the impact on soil fertility and effects on food supply when fuels based on crops such as corn and soybeans are mixed with fossil fuels.

Based on those factors, the authors determined that corn-based ethanol is the worst alternative overall.

"It's foolish to say we should be developing a particular biofuel when that could mean that we're just replacing one problem with another," said lead author Martha Groom of the UW Bothell. Co-authors are Elizabeth Gray of The Nature Conservancy and Patricia Townsend of the UW Seattle.

And other alternatives, i.e., fuel cells?

“Fuel cells will not work because they use platinum to catalyze the reactions. The precious metal is costly, toxic and not eco-friendly,” Laser said.

What about all the talk on hydrogen?

Laser argues that Ron West, Professor University of Colorado talking about conversion of hydrogen to heat or electricity states, "the problem with hydrogen is that it takes a process called steam reforming (making hydrogen out of water) and it creates greenhouse gases".

“I admit hybrids cars are making more sense now with higher gas prices,” said Laser,  “but normally the cost of the cars was higher than the cost of the increase in gasoline.”

He added, however: “There are no alternative fuel systems that can replace oil, natural gas or coal. At best, in 50 years, the best-recognized experts expect all alternatives could account for 30 percent of our energy needs.”

“No,” Laser said – and he couldn’t have been more emphatic.

“We have enough oil to last hundreds of years right here on shore and off-shore. There are indications of Saudi type fields in Nevada and perhaps along the mid continent riff in Iowa and many other states we have billions of barrels off shore. Now Russia and Cuba have signed a pack to drill 40 miles off our shores and they will be getting oil we should be getting.”

“It is simply a matter of price, demand and supply. There are no conspiracies,” he said.

And in addition to the lack of drilling over the last 20 years, the rest of the world’s economies, i.e., China, India and Pacific Rim countries like Korea, are catching up to the US in terms of energy consumption.  More oil demand, combined with less drilling, equals higher gas prices.

This means, according to Laser, “we must implement a massive drilling program here in American on shore and off shore immediately.

What happens if we don’t?

“We could easily see $30 a gallon gasoline or higher. In Europe it is now $11 a liter.”

Laser was also adamant about one other thing:

“We do not hurt the environment. We don't hurt animals or plants. In fact, every place including Alaska where oil fields and pipelines have been installed, the animal life (caribou, elks, deer etc.) have increased substantially – in every case without exception, contrary to what you are hearing.”

Laser said as well that “big companies do not find oil, they buy other's oil. The small independents find (75 percent) of the oil because the big companies do want to take risks that would affect shareholder value. Big government is putting the small companies out of business with excessive regulation. This makes Americans pay more and more at the pump.”

As well, he said, “electricity rates will go sky high if we don't continue to drill for natural gas. We have enough natural gas to last hundreds of years right here in the US, but we need pipelines and now congress is promoting a bill to cut natural gas exploration in the US.”

Laser closed with perhaps the most controversial of his views:  a growing belief that oil is a renewable resource, and is not the result of death, transformation, and withdrawal of biological elements.

“Oil is not necessarily a fossil fuel,” he said. “More scientists (Thomas Gold) are accepting the theory that oil and natural gas comes from methane created above the mantel and crust of the earth where molecular changes occur. We have massive methane deposits under the artic ice the Russians want.”

In fact, Laser said, “We have not drilled 1/10 of 1 percent of the world's potential oil reserves.”

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