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"Are you really willing to pay the price?"
--Wow. I'm tempted to give you a pos simply because you didn't claim (as many on the right insist) that more drilling is the best and/or only solution. Or is that what you were hinting at?
Well actually unless you are willing to see gas go to $8/gal or home heating/cooling go beyond the ability of many Americans to pay, drilling in the short term is needed
To establish alternatives that will really impact our dependence on foreign oil will take decades
Everyone emphasizes vehicles but that is simply a drop in the bucket compared to where we actually consume the most oil
Electricty generation is a big item.
Unfortunately too many refuse to consider coal or nuclear.
Wind and solar won't get us there.
How long to you think it will take to reduce electricity generation from fossil fuel (71.4%) to even 35% from fossil fuel? Decades may be optimistic given the hurdles various groups throw up
Short term and long term strategies are needed and as usual Washington rhetoric does not match action. They have NO short term strategy and their long term strategy so far has been corn/ethanol - a boon doogle
So what do you suggest?
I suggest ploughing some of the money wasted on numerous other insane Govt projects on Nuclear Fusion. Instead of the few paltry billion (by Govt standards), start with a 100 billion, see how long it takes to develop to it's actual potential (dammed cheap - appart from the initial reactor component - radioactive waste in extremely small quantities)......
But NO, they won't do that, can't think why.......
LOL Dicax_Maximus
" But NO, they won't do that, can't think why."
Wouldn't have anything to do with $$$$$ would it - that is a loss of $$ to politicians
Too many on the right and left fail to realize that if they work together both would achieve their goals:
energy independence would lead to a reduction in CO2 emmissions
Partisan bickering will lead to what we have now - spiraling fuel prices, food shortages and never ending subsidies for political paybacks from the politicians
We should have taken the 1 Trillion we will waste in Iraq and started a Manhattan-style Project to research energy alternatives. The oil companies should be barred from participating outside of providing R&D experts. They have no immediate incentive to seek alternative energies.
Do we still believe in American ingenuity? Apparently not. Do we really wish to wean ourselves off the Middle East? Apparently not.
The American people need to get off their asses and demand change. We have about 30% that continue to accept the status quo, they need to move forward or get kicked forward. This country is failing (i.e. infrastructure, lack of affordable energy sources, massive debt, illegal immigration), if you can't see that you must be wearing rose colored glasses. I feel somewhat lucky that I wont be around in 30-40 years to see what America looks like as a 3rd world country.
Take off your partisan blinders
Take a look at the Farm Bill just passed in the House
Subsidies for corn/ethanol
They do realize that program is contributing to spiraling food costs - their answer was to increase food stamps and aid to food banks. For the middle class - too bad just suck it up
With what they spend on foolish programs that get us nowhere, they could fund a Manhatten style project
Nuclear Fusion research goes on in the universities like UC Berkeley but one of the largest research facilities is the Joint European Torus. It is run as a collaboration between all European fusion organisations with the participation of scientists from around the globe. Did it EVER occur to Congress to get involved with them??
This country is failing because the politicians are more interested in payback for their contributors than solving problems
Nostalgia - OK, I'm only going on a somewhat decrepit memory here, but I believe the Torus Project was budgeted at around 25 billion USD (total costing).....
No idea what it is now, BUT, to my mind, what a waste of a possibility by the US Govt........
Once initial construction costs were covered (which, if it were a Govt project, we wouldn't need to worry about R&D costs), the energy supplied would be virtually free.....
But that might upset a few people, mightn't it ???
"But that might upset a few people, mightn't it ???"
Oh I'd venture a guess that a few would be upset!
The count could start with the number of people in Congress
Didn't the US government classify all the documents from Tesla's work??
Some speculate that was one of the reasons - a way to produce virtually free energy
At least that is what I recall from a documentary I watched several years ago