Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 336 pages
• Published by: Prometheus Books November 10, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1591025915
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1591025917
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 14.4 ounces

Product Description
In this compelling argument for a new direction in US energy policy, world-renowned engineer and best-selling author Robert Zubrin lays out a bold plan for breaking the economic stranglehold that the OPEC oil cartel has on our country and the world. Zubrin presents persuasive evidence that our decades-long relationship with OPEC has resulted in the looting of our economy, the corruption of our political system, and now the funding and protection of terrorist regimes and movements that are committed to our destruction. Debunking the false solutions and myths that have deterred us from taking necessary action, Zubrin exposes the fakery that has allowed many politicians -- including current US president George W. Bush -- to posture that they are acting to resolve this problem while actually doing nothing significant toward that goal. Zubrin's plan is straightforward and practical. He argues that if Congress passed a law requiring that all new cars sold in the USA be flex-fueled -- that is, able to run on any combination of gasoline or alcohol fuels -- this one action would destroy the monopoly that the oil cartel has maintained on the globe's transportation fuel supply, opening it up to competition from alcohol fuels produced by farmers worldwide. According to Zubrin's estimates, within three years of enactment, such a regulation would put 50 million cars on the road in the USA capable of running on high-alcohol fuels, and at least an equal number overseas.

Energy Victory shows how we could be using fuel dollars that are now being sent to countries with ties to terrorism to help farmers here and abroad, boosting our own economy and funding world development. Furthermore, by switching to alcohol fuels, which pollute less than gasoline and are made from plants that draw carbon dioxide from the air, this plan will facilitate the worldwide economic growth required to eliminate global poverty without the fear of greenhouse warming. Energy Victory offers an exciting vision for a dynamic, new energy policy, which will go a long way toward safeguarding homeland security in the future and provide solutions for global warming and Third World development.

From the Inside Flap
As prices at the pump ratchet up, the international oil cartel will continue to reap record profits. For the average American, this may simply seem to be simply a blow to the family budget. But what if much of the hundreds of billions of dollars consumers exchange for filling up their tanks went to funding terrorist organizations, terror-state nuclear weapons programs, and the indoctrination of legions of children to fanatical hatred? What if politicians, diplomats, and business leaders knowingly allowed these shocking relations to continue, all the while accepting stock options and partying it up with superrich foreign oil potentates? As long as America keeps running on gas, we will be paying for our own destruction.

In Energy Victory, world-renowned engineer and best-selling author Robert Zubrin exposes the scandalous state of energy affairs in America, and the political fakers and scientific charlatans who have for decades done little except to distract the public from truly practical alternatives to petroleum with shams and delusions: Hydrogen cars? They'd be impossible to fuel cost effectively. Conservation? It's a failing strategy so long as the enemy controls the only fuel. Zubrin's plan for energy victory is straightforward and practical. He argues that if Congress passed a law requiring that all new cars sold in the USA be flex-fueled--that is, able to run on any combination of gasoline or alcohol fuels--this one action would destroy the vertical monopoly that the oil cartel has maintained on the globe's transportation fuel supply. Within three years of enactment, such a regulation would put 50 million cars on the road in the USA capable of running on high-alcohol fuels, and at least an equal number overseas, stopping future petroleum price extortion by opening the fuel market up to competition from ethanol and methanol produced by farmers worldwide.

Instead of sending our fuel dollars as tribute to counties with ties to terrorism, we could be using them to help agriculture here and abroad, boosting our own economy and funding world development. Furthermore, by switching to alcohol fuels, which pollute less than gasoline and are made from plants that draw carbon dioxide from the air, this plan would facilitate the worldwide economic growth required to eliminate global poverty without the fear of greenhouse warming.

Energy Victory offers an exciting vision for a dynamic new energy policy, which will safeguard our liberties by truly winning the war on terror.

Reader Reviews
Zubrin forcefully postulates that a complete switch to ethanol and methanol fuel, replacing Mideast Oil, particularly from the Saudis, is America's answer to true Energy Independence. Starting with forced conversions to flex fuel for all new vehicles sold in the U.S.--doubly more ambitious than the Administration's exhortations to the Big Three Automakers that half their annual production be flex-fuel- capable by 2012--alcohol fuels based on flex-ubiquity, Zubrin contends, would quickly supplant petroleum as the dominant fuel source. Using a methodical historical narrative, Zubrin traces the flow of petrodollars from the U.S. to Osama Bin Laden. A petro-feed to hatred of the West, the route carries us through the Saudi Royal Family's support of radical Islam, its strict fundamentalist teachings and zealotry traced to Ibn Abdul Wahhab and Bin Laden. 7.5 million barrels a day of alcohol fuels, a tough but attainable goal, is the counter balance that leads us to Zubrin's Energy Victory. Laced with facts and figures and some easy math, it's sure to devolve to the policy points of some presidential candidate.