[mysterio]

I'm intrigued by hydrogen and nuclear. It's a combo that I think could work, albeit after another decade of research and development. And it would be a great feeling to wake up every day and know that your enemies can't shut off your energy supply and criple your economy. Because right now, we are seriously at risk. I obsess over it a lot, granted, but we get a sizable chunk of our energy from people who would rather see us dead.

[LeGrande]

Hydrogen sounds nice, but the problem is storage. It leaks out of containers like a sieve and it takes a lot of energy just to compress it.

The best short term solution is to put nuclear reactors near our shale and coal reserves and produce both electricity and oil (use the excess hot steam to turn the shale into oil). That would provide all the oil and electricity we need for a few thousand years.

Here's another thought. If an oil rich country declares war on us or attacks us, why don't we seize their oil fields?

[umgud]

Hydrogen could work with nuke power, but only if the nuke power is cheap. Even if it were cheap, hydrogen has a lot of other issues it must overcome (infrastructure, storage, etc.). Hydrogen is a potential longterm solution.

Coal and oilshale gassification is viable now but, isn't being persued because gov't is pushing ethanol and bio fuels.

You are correct however, we are immediately dependent on foriegn oil and that is not good.

[TexasTransplant]

http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_biodiesel_vs_hydrogen.html