If you had put me in charge of our nation’s energy 25 years ago:
Virtually all electric generation would be nuclear, and spent fuel would be reprocessed, not sitting in pools and caves.
Most building heating would be by natural gas.
Oil would be reserved for transportation, with coal hydrogenation supplementing natural oil production.
And we would be a happy place.
Washington has been talking about one of those since the Arab Embargo of 1973. It has not happen so far.
And I agree With some modifications.
LiFTR reactors for primary energy. Couple this with power cells instead of a massive grid for transmission efficiency. Single point failures in the power cells is now less vulnerable than the multi-dependency based grid we now have.
Petroleum for transportation applications and chemicals.
Electric for inner city transportation with supplemental rail tag on / tag along electric for high traffic corridors.
Geothermal process for much of heating and cooling in all but concentrated areas such as multi-story / high density cities... it just makes too much sense to avoid. I do wonder though if in the fullness of time we will not be able to destroy the natural heat and cool of the earth we are using as a heat sink.
Solar collectors and water for storage of heat for some applications (I am amazed how effective just a few solar collectors and a big water heat sink with a very small water pump can be for heating a green house or porch)
Coal left in storage for supplement to petroleum but only after some long time or never... something will replace petroleum. Some means of high enough energy density storage will come along.
And we woudl be a happy place.