We need to get realistic about energy, not fall prey to dream scenarios
The letters from readers section on Saturday, August 23 had four letters arguing against oil and nuclear power from people allied with The Midwest Coalition for Responsible Investments, Audubon, and the Sierra Club. Naturally they proposed the usual solutions, wind, solar, and biofuels and directed much venom at those evil oil companies. Unfortunately for these naive and misguided dreamers physics and chemistry refute their suppositions. For transportation we need fuels that are both powerful and portable. To powermetro areas that cover about 3500 square miles and include several million residents like this one we need industrial strength sources like coal and uranium. Solar and wind can certainly supplement coal and uranium but cannot replace them in the foreseeable future. Gary DuffGranite City
Gary sounds reasonable, rational, practical, well informed and intelligent. Must be a conservative.
Actually, there is a study which shows that if we manufactured enough solar panels to cover a 95 mile by 95 mile square, (say, in the desert) enough electrical power could be generated for our entire country’s needs.
Engineering and an open mind could provide solutions which save us from the far right wing which only sees profits for Big Oil, the nuclear power industry and the electric companies as solutions to America’s energy needs.
But, like John McCain, the yobbos are too ignorant to be President!
http://dangerousintersection.org/2008/08/04/15-reasons-john-mccain-is-too-ignorant-to-be-president/
Actually, there is a substantial amount of oil that goes into manufacturing and installing these panels. And as oil goes up, what do you think will happen to the price of the panels? And why should we Eminent Domain hundreds of thousnads of people’s homes and livelyhoods so we could stick these things in the desert. And star20, you sound like a snobbish liberal idiot…
Gary is correct that alternative power would only supplement oil and gas. If a T. Boone Picket type plan were launched today it would be 10 plus years before we could even begin reaping the rewards, but it would supplement enough to free up volumes of fossil fuels (for jet fuel, the trucking and shipping industries to name a few) that the price of oil would drop and stay lower, thus more stable prices for the consumer. In the meantime more domestic drilling certainly would help lower and stabilize prices to all.
Gary’s letter has no right or left? Why would anyone want to interject politics and name calling into a format like this one? If you have nothing intelligent to share please stay on the political sites (letters) where mud slinging is slightly more accepted.
Some can only view the future as a continuation of the past. As Star20 points out, Mr. Duff’s conservatism limits his view of the world to what has been and blinds him to what could be. In view of the overwhelming technological innovation over the last 20 to 30 years tell us Mr. Duff, what else is impossible in our future.
Unless you figure out how to recycle coal, oil, and uranium, Gary, we will run out of them someday.
“….we need industrial strength sources like coal and uranium….”
That’s funny, Gary! As if Granite City isn’t a total wasteland yet! Just give it a few more years of “industrial strength” sources and i won’t have to tell anyone to go to hell, I can just tell them to go to Granite City!
Pardon my skepticism, but I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that the price at the pump is $3.28 a gallon.
A Patriot,
“Why interject politics?” You aren’t aware of how much energy is a part of this election debate? Aren’t you paying attention? Obama doesn’t want
nuclear power or offshore drilling. He wants us to eat less, not have big houses, turn down our thermostats and drive little cars. He is Jimmy Carter II!! I can’t believe you guys. Energy shouldn’t be part of this election debate, but Cindy McCains houses are? Give me a break!
This just in, Tim Hogan is too ignorant to post anything original and just keeps putting the same link on every topic. For more details, go to http://www.getalifeyouknob.com