Posted on 02/01/2006 9:31:45 AM PST by cogitator
One word: ANWR
One additional word: Nuclear.
Not to sound negative or anything.... but I wouldn't hold my breath.....
Nuclear has the potential to cure many ills, even some of the thinking Greens are jumping on the bandwagon. It remains to be seen if the rest of them climb on board. Its a shame this power supply has been all but killed here in the USA.
I disagree with ANWR but agree with nuclear. Drilling ANWR "enables" the underlying problem of oil addiction to continue. It needs to be emphasized strongly, repeatedly, and programmatically that the U.S. economy needs to "get off" oil and fossil fuels. Drilling ANWR perpetuates the old paradigm, which needs to change.
Much easier to do with an economic engine that is 1/8th the size of that of the United States.
By all means, let's realign our agricultural output and plant 8 times as much sugar as they do in Brazil so we can convert it to ethanol ... that'll solve all our problems.
Well said......
The sky is falling, the sky is falling
In 1914, the U.S. Bureau of Mines declared that the United States would run out of oil in 10 years.
In 1939, the Department of the Interior predicted that oil reserves would last only 13 more years.
In 1950, when the world's estimated reserves were thought to be 600 billion barrels, the Department of Interior again projected the end of the age of oil by 1963.
Move forward to the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which prompted the highly respected journal Foreign Affairs to publish an article on "The Oil Crisis: This Time the Wolf is Here."
In 1981, a respected textbook on economic geology predicted that the United States was entering a 125-year-long energy gap, expected to be at its worst in the year 2000 with dire consequences to our standard of living.
In 1995, a prominent geologist predicted that petroleum production would peak in 1996 and that after 1999 many of the developed world's societies would look like Third World countries.
In 1998, a Scientific American article titled "End of the Age of Oil" predicted that world oil production would peak in 2002 and that we would soon face the "end of the abundant and cheap oil on which all nations depend." from a Chris Bennet article 11/26/2004
In March 2004 the U.S. Department of Energy reported oil shale reserves in the United States of more than 2,000 billion barrels, enough for consumption at our current rate for over 200 years. While we do need expand alternatives, we also need to kick the lie spewing enviro-crazies to the curb and beging developing our own resources.
beging = begin
But ANWR is a viable short term solution. We will always make use of petroleum for the value added products that are derived from it (e.g., plastics, petrochemicals, etc.)
We need to be going in many directions:
-biodiesel
-methane reforming
-ethanol
-dimethyl ether
We're way behind with nukes, only 20% of our electricity...
Words fail me
The problem I have with Bush and his energy policy is that he won't push any of his initiatives. He just raises the issue, then lets the enviro-wackos shoot'em down. Kinda like what he did with SS.
If he isn't going to fight for an issue, I'd just as soon he not bring it up. The end result makes him look extremely weak.
Just as a marginal cut in social security payments NOW would fix that system long term, a marginal cut in oil consumption would greatly improve our strategic position.
There's no silver bullet here, but we need to work on nukes, soydiesel, ethanol, and hydrogen. There's a lot of rich agricultural land in Indiana that isn't being planted based on my daily observation, I assume that's true many other places.
A novel idea: let's let the market decide. If we are really running out of oil (as has been incorrectly predicted since we first started pumping it), then prices will rise until alternatives become economic without government fiat or subsidies.
I basically agree with raising the gas tax and cutting other taxes to compensate. I wouldn't support immediately raising it by $1/gallon, but something like 10 cents each year for the next 10 years would be workable. Taxes of some form are a necessary evil, and gas taxes have the virtue of correcting negative externalities.
While it would require some changes, planting cellulosic ethanol feedstocks like switchgrass doesn't require a total agricultural realignment. Switchgrass can grow in in poor soils and with minimal fertilzation.
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