Posted on 06/23/2008 10:07:38 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Why is Rep. Randy Forbes all alone out there?
Rep. Forbes is an earnest Republican congressman from Virginia who has distinguished himself by calling for a "Manhattan Project" to fully end the U.S.'s dependence on foreign energy within 20 years. The Manhattan Project label harks back to the government's crash project to develop and field a nuclear weapon within just a few years to prevail in World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Thoughts?
Hey Congress, Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way!
Pray for W and Our Troops
Keep at ‘em. Congress will have to listen sooner or later.
Contact your Congress critters to let them know that you are tired of high gas prices.
My thought is that in 20 years, most reading this board won’t care because they will be dead, or at least financially destitute and permanently broken.
Like most things, we will wait till year 19 to begin working in earnest.
Since the first energy crisis in 1973, America has dumped $50 billion into alternate energy and tax credits.
Today, despite massive subsidies, less than 1% of our energy comes from solar, wind, and bio-fuels.
Since 1950, adjusted for inflation, America has dumped almost $40 billion into nuclear fusion research.
The result, a commercial fusion reactor “may” be possible by 2050.
In peace time, in the real dollar and cents world, government has no clue how to pick winners and losers.
Government should confine itself to funding basic research in the basic sciences and engineering.
A free market and entrepreneurs will do the rest.
Our gov’t either meddles or tries to micro manage our economy. They should be a partner to businees, but generally act as an adversary.
RE-ELECT NO ONE ~!
We need to DRILL HERE AND NOW obviously, as well increase refining capacities. No matter what we decide to do, we will need fossil energies until we restructure infrastructure to accomodate that which we decide as most efficient as well as economical whatever the energy source. DRILL HERE AND DRILL NOW.
We need uniform fuels not boutique fuels for every State mandate. If in my lifetime, which has NOT been a week or two we haven’t “cleaned up the air” satisfactorily yet, then it ain’t gonna happen, and these different types of fuel concoctions aren’t going to matter a whit, but to inhibit progress stabilizing our energy status.
Drop the Federal Restrictions, Red Tape etc. and build Nuclear Electrical infrastructure.
Interim we need to look to the past for our future, and bring back the electric buses, lay the rails and bring back the electric trollies. So there’s some unsightly overhead wires, so what. Todays technologies can address that if it’s a problem.
Work towards the goals of electric, hydrogen, again whatever is most economical and realistic sources for vehicle power. As long as we have a supply of reasonably priced oil there will be less incentive to produce any of the above type of vehicles, but if we provide incentive it will happen, and under those circumstances should be cost effective in result.
The biggest problem is overcoming the minority whom have overwhelmed the majority with their deceitful tactics. We have to address the fact most ignored (or unaware) of the Socialist (includes Environmentalism) infiltration of our society and all facets of their movement from Media control to Academia to Government, and not just our elected officials, but the behind the curtain tenured Bureaucrats as well.
We the people are the responsible party of this mess. It’s up to us to clean up what we have allowed to happen over the past 60 to 70 years.
PULL THE CHAIN.
The equivalent of a 21st Century Manhattan Project would be we had the basic workings of a powerful battery and now we just needed to build the manufacturing base to build millions of them.
Nope. We need to re-elect the republicans that are voting to drill and build more refineries. That's how we win.
We don’t need a massive, centrally controlled effort for better fuel sources. What we need is more support for the many small creative efforts that people are engaged in to find solutions. And I believe we need to use the whole mix of sources to achieve energy independence without using up our grandchildren’s patrimony.
One surprising thing to come out of the oil industry hearings recently was how little these guys are investing in viable alternatives.
Where did you get those numbers? I would be interested in reading more.
Thanks.
The problem is supply. Drill!
EXACTLY!
While I agree that this is of critical import, and while I was but a baby during the Manhattan Project, we were able to complete it from start to finish in just a few years.
Likewise the man on the moon project took less than the 10 years outlined by Pres. Kennedy.
IF we had the will, "REAL" leadership (and not President Bush, McLame or anyone within Congress) who would take a combined effort program to the people (drilling for oil and natural gas, clean coal plants, coal to gas, nuclear, tax incentives for developing alternate sources of energy, etc.) I'm convinced whoever could get 75 - 85% of the people to support such a proposal.
Sadly, don't see this happening any time soon.
Toooooo much money and influence from Ethanol/Biofuel lobby as well as EnviroNuts suing their way into prohibiting any such plans for decades.
Irish,
Re: My sources
Off the top of my head, I have no specific citations.
In my line of work - day trading - it’s advisable to carry thousands of instantly accessible number sets in your mind.
I read about 20 financial publications each month.
My numbers would not be welcomed in a court of law, but they are a reliable starting point for political discussion.
The government will no longer do anything beneficial until all the Communists within are purged.
If the oil industry is not investing big money in energy alternatives (solar, biomass, wind) it’s most likely they are trying to crack the big one - ‘oil shale’. It also tends to suggest we are not yet at ‘peak oil.’ If we were I would think they would be shoving lots of cash at these none-fossil fuel alternatives.
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