[backhoe]

I have been covering, ( Or, as Seamole puts it...-backhoe's pseudoblog--... ) pseudo-blogging, this issue for years, so allow me to drop out of Lurk & Link mode for a rare bit of commentary-- we all need to get serious about our dependency on foreign sources of energy, and use our own resources.

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 Hudson Hornet or a Nash Metropolitan...

We need to

1) end the nonsensical ban on offshore drilling off California and Florida--read & 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 tongue-in-cheek 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?

Vest-Pocket Summary:

1- drill for gas & 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

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for dropping by.....Foxnews special report made mention of a consumer survey that said over 50& of consumers thought we should be drilling in Alaska and the gulf..... and that we were not doing enough to overcome the environmental blockage on exploring for Oil....hopefully someone will post the survey if it hasn't been yet....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This must be the survey,....it's buried though:

05/04/06 FOX News Poll: Gas Prices a Problem, but Not a Crisis

*****************************AN EXCERPT ***********************************

Fully 79 percent of Americans think giving tax incentives to companies to encourage development of alternatives fuel would help the energy situation, and 68 percent think it would help to drill in the and the Gulf of Mexico.

Consumers have mixed views on whether $100 rebate checks to taxpayers (40 percent help, 42 percent hurt) and relaxing environmental standards (46 percent help, 44 percent hurt) would do more good or more harm. Two-thirds think it would hurt the long-term energy situation to raise gas prices above $5 dollars a gallon to encourage conservation (65 percent).

Overall, Americans now lean toward focusing on the supply problem. By a 49 percent to 35 percent margin, the public thinks the better way to reduce dependence on foreign oil is to increase supply by drilling more in the United States rather than decreasing demand by requiring conservation.