Today, I had my interview, by the luck of chance, with the President of the American Biofuels Council. The ABC is a independent national organization thats function is to educate, implement, and provide energy reform. He was in the process of having lunch when I called to speak to a public relations representative or a human resources consultant. By chance Sean O'Hanlon, Founder and Executive Director of the ABC, answered the phone and spoke to me about current trends, job opportunities, and the current market situation.
Three major takeaways that I received from this interview were the extent of energy subsidies, the economics of the biofuel industry, and the current mentality American society now faces. Oil, natural gas, and coal are subsidized fivefold more than biofuel or biomass due to politicians levying for funds. The largest expenditure any government in the entire history of man is not either defense or austerity measures, but fuel. Fuel is the largest expenditure in the United States.
Simply, the technology, even the physical capital is in place to some extent, to create biofuel in mass quantities has been proven. the problem is with cash-flow. There is not enough liquidity to either lobby to increase 'push' in the market, nor is there enough currency to proceed with operations on a mass scale.
Regarding mentality, Americans generally are only interested in the short term. Not to stigmatize or generalize the population, but it must be understood that action is almost never taken unless society reaches a 'tipping point'. The American public does not realize the potential in the long term gain from investing in green technology today. Due to this the future outlook of the energy industry seems bleak.
-Timothy D. Vallario
-Informational Interview Wed. 10 - Sean O'Hanlon Founder and Executive Director American Biofuels Council
It is so cool that you got to interview the president of the company. The part of your blog entry that I found most interesting is the mentality that Americans have about energy. IT shows in a lot of the articles that Americans are interested in short term, so it was interesting that this came out in your interview as well. I had my interview yesterday with an employee from Duke Energy and he seemed to have a different look than the person you interviewed. He seemed to have a positive outlook on the industry and the "green" movement.
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