[gleeaikin]

Transition away from does not mean the same thing as eliminate. We can get plenty of power from wind and solar, and many jobs that cannot be outsourced since wind and solar are here and will not be used up. I have four grandchildren and I want there to be enough oil left in US soil for all the things we use it for besides travel and heat. What about plastic and other useful commodities? My son is now on his third tour in Afghanistan, plus a fourth in Iraq. We need to conserve our own oil so we don’t have to try to control other nation’s oil. We shouldn’t have to bail out British oil and related policy like we have for a century in the middle east.

[Paul R.]

Actually, many of the big volume plastics can and readily are already made more efficiently from natural gas. Saudi Arabia is spending many billions of $$ to develop an industrial base to take advantage of this, and not be dependent on just selling oil and gas.

Maybe the answer is to end all subsidies for all forms of energy, and just let the suppliers duke it out.

[Lagmeister]

You will never get more than 3% tops energy from wind and solar.... hell, you cannot generate enough energy from wind and solar to make enough solar panels and windmills.

[Dr. Sivana]

Transition away from does not mean the same thing as eliminate.

Fracing has allowed us to achieve energy independence that the Dems said was a pipe dream. We still haven't really touched ANWR.

I am not wed to using oil for the sake of using oil. We also have natural gas that can be used for all sorts of things, and we have enough natural gas to last your grandchildren's lifetime, and their grandchildren's lifetime.

I am not really a libertarian, but nothing drives oil exploration and alternative fuel resource better than a spike in fuel costs. That does it without a government policy.

I live in Phoenix, and there is no better place to push solar. After all, we used the most electricity (for AC) here when the sun is shining. There are government outlays, but you can still break even with a good system even without one. We don't need a government program to goose that industry.

Wind is a more of a problem because it is intermittent, and it is most available where power demand is low (open plains, mountains). It works best as a niche product.

Years ago, the government started making standards for energy uses in computer devices and appliances, these energy regulations ultimately spread to light bulbs. In light bulbs, I was a proponent of LED, knowing it wasn't ready, and not interested in a rule forcing them on us. So we suffered for a decade as we started using those awful CFL curlique bulbs (break easily, failure rate is high, poor quality light, didn't fit some applications, and an epileptic's nightmare) which at the end were all but mandated due to restrictions on simple, high quality incandescent bulbs. If we just stayed put on the regulations, the LEDs still would have matured and dominated the market as they do now, just as LCD/LED computer screens and TVs have pretty much eliminated CRT technology, blowing away the old energy standards.

Thank you for your son's service, by the way. I am hopeful that President Trump will continue to push our country into a policy of a true defense posture and not one of global realpolitik, so that men like your son can serve our country in a direct way, and not in nation-building, or bail-outs, as you put it.

[olivia3boys]

There will never be a last drop of oil. It will just get more and more expensive if and when it dwindles away. And it may not dwindle away.

We make hamburgers in labs now, for example. Maybe we can make oil that way too. (Forgive me, anyone reading this who is in the industry—I admit my ignorance a bit here).

[olivia3boys]

“We can get plenty of power from wind and solar”

I can tell you that we cannot. I live in sunny CA and now we now all have to take turns having power because the wind and solar is too weak on hot days or our new hazy smoky days in the fall.

So everyone I know has now bought generators.