for a rare bit of commentary...
I have covered, ( Or, as Seamole puts it... -backhoe's pseudoblog--... ) pseudo-blogged, these issues for years, and I can tell you this-- we all need to get serious about our dependency on foreign sources of energy, and use our own resources.
Our civilization is built upon ubiquitous, reliable, and preferably affordable energy-- it all depends on a free-flowing river of power
Our consumer-based economy is driven by and dependent upon readily-available, reliable energy-- choke that off, and we'll all be back to using one rotary dial phone in the dining room, watching one TV in the living room, and driving one car per family-- probably a Nash Metropolitan...
We need to
1) end the nonsensical ban on offshore drilling off California and Florida--read and weep:
Castro Plans to Drill 45 Miles from US Shores, But We Can't
2) build a lot of next-generation nuclear power plants, not just for electricity, but for any process requiring heat, power, or steam.
And if we replaced our existing nuclear plants with this one there would be significant benefits.
3) end Jimmy Carter's idiotic ban on recycling nuclear waste, and reprocess the stuff rather than fighting over where to bury it. Europe has done this for decades.-- what to do with spent nuclear fuel? Answer here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468321/posts?page=50#50
hattip: Mike (former Navy Nuclear Engineer)
4) use the 300-500 years worth of coal we have on our own land, using the new clean-coal technology.
-Clean Coal Centre--
5) and finally, there's nothing wrong with conservation, we should all practice it- but you can't conserve your way out of a shortage. Nor is there anything wrong with "alternative" energy sources- except they don't supply the vast ( not to mention readily-available ) amounts of power we need at a price competitive to more conventional sources. Then again, there is this to ponder:
Energy From the Gulf Stream
http://www.energy.gatech.edu/presentations/mhoover.pdf
We do need to get serious about this before we get strangled by a bunch of petty thieves and dictators who don't like us much.
My collection of energy-related links:
Sticker Shock-$3 a gallon gas? Click the picture:
And kindly note, and note well-- the first reply to this post ( when gas was $1.45 a gallon ) was derisive... so, who's laughing now?
( And, to honk my own horn, here is a comment from another board on this subject: )
I happened to be going through a post by "backhoe" and followed his link to a thread he posted on 3-17-04. Pretty good thread titled "Sticker Shock-$3 a gallon gas? Some links" that was prophetic, and what do you know, the first reply was Why don't you stop panicking and solve problems that exist posted by "XXX" Backhoe has some very good posts, he mostly lurks and when he does post it is worth the read. From the reply that"XXX" made he appears to be something of a corn-fed kneejerker, even more so with two years to prove how right "backhoe" was.
Vest-Pocket Summary:
1- drill for gas and oil like crazy- onshore, offshore, and in Alaska
2- go nuclear for power
3- convert stationary plants to clean coal technology or Next-Gen Nuclear
4- slash taxes and regulations like crazy...