"If they do not receive oil their factories will come to a halt. This will shake the world."
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian dictator - BBC

     Presidential Executive Order #13123 mandates that Federal institutions must lessen their dependence upon conventional fuel systems, and supplant them with renewable energy alternatives. OTEC is an answer for America, and the world.

     The transition from fossil fuels to a hydrogen based world economy will take time. The reduction of dependency upon foreign governments and organizations that dictate the price and availability of a diminishing resource is essential. Wars and political turmoil are often based upon the procurement of petroleum resources. The advent of a hydrogen based economy will reduce global competition for resources such as fossil fuels. International cooperation amongst energy corporations to develop the OTEC resource will actually lead to increases in jobs in heavy industry. Fuel route shipping distances from oil producing regions to ports of the world's energy consumers will decrease, reducing costs. The existing infrastructure of our fossil fuel based world economy will simply be modified to use hydrogen tankers and hydrogen storage facilities and pipelines. Additionally, the markets for automobiles and hydrogen distribution to end users will remain essentially the same. Developing countries, lacking in extensive fossil fuel distribution systems, will find whole new markets for this energy system, as they implement regional distribution of hydrogen. Existing infrastructure will need to convert to this new energy delivery medium, but fundamentally this will be a modification of existing technology.

     Political benefits to tropical island communities will include the responsible infrastructure development utilizing an environmentally benign energy technology which not only addresses power needs, but also resource sustainability. Tropical Island communites can use OTEC systems to supply power and fresh water at a lower cost than they presently do with fossil fuel based systems. Similarly, the largest export of wealth from these island communities goes towards purchasing petroleum for fuel. These funds could be better used locally for other purposes, increasing the dynamics of the local economy. As the hydrogen economy matures, tropical island nations will be afforded the opportunity to develop export industries around hydrogen through implementation of OTEC for hydrogen production within their Exclusive Economic Zone, establishing themselves as new suppliers for the world's energy needs.

     Tropical island policy makers are coming to a crossroad. Policy makers will have to decide whether to spend billions of dollars to implement existing, environmentally detrimental energy technologies based upon a dwindling, and increasingly expensive fuel, versus establishing an infrastructure based upon renewable energy technologies with additional economic boons from the OTEC systems implementation. Clearly the tropical island nations of the world are in a unique position to establish themselves as the leaders in renewable energy production and distribution in adherence to the Kyoto Protocol and the recent World Energy Summit held in Johannesberg, South Africa.