Americans Foresee Energy Shortage Within 5 Years

Gallup.com ^ | 3/13/03 | Lydia Saad - Gallup News Service

[NormsRevenge]

Americans have grown a bit more concerned over the past year about the seriousness of the nation's energy situation, and are more likely to predict the country will face a significant energy shortage within 5 years. According to Gallup's annual Environmental Issues survey, updated March 3-5, a higher percentage of Americans today rate the nation's energy situation as "very serious" than did so last March, but this is still well below the level recorded at the height of the 2001 California energy crisis. Gallup finds no change in Americans' policy preferences on energy matters; these tend to favor the positions espoused by environmentalist groups rather than those of the Bush administration, such as opposition to oil drilling in northern Alaska.

[Willie Green]

I can't say that I've ever had the opportunity to ride in any of those,
but from the pictures I've seen, they seem more designed for functionality than for creature comfort.

[NormsRevenge]

They will shake loose kidney stones and just about damn near anything else for that matter.

[Willie Green]

The point is, of course, that the US military will have a presence in the Middle East unlike any it's had before.
Iran will collapse from within, and the little moussed-up gook who runs North Korea thinks rattling the sabre will get him a cup of rice.

I strongly support our military for the purpose of defeating psychopathic tyrants like Saddam Hussein, stinky. But IMHO, you are WAAAAAYYYY too cavalier with American lives with your assumption that nation building in that region is going to be a cakewalk.

[Willie Green]

Well I hope they've remedied that in newer models.
There's still no room for superfluous comfort in the military,
functionality should definitely have top priority.
However, sensible ergonomic design should be a consideration as well,
it's kind of self-defeating if our troops are beat-up and worn-out by their own equipment.

[sinkspur]

But IMHO, you are WAAAAAYYYY too cavalier with American lives with your assumption that nation building in that region is going to be a cakewalk.

No cakewalk, to be sure.

But, if terrorists are thwarted, that's not a bad investment.

[NormsRevenge]

I haven't been in any military aircraft for over 25 years. I have a feeling they are still as functional as they were then... but still no easy ride.

Cockpits nowadays are much advanced from the old days. Fatigue'll get ya quick after hours and hours in cramped or poorly designed cockpits or crew areas.

Re: Our presence in a major way in the Middle East. Whether the arabs and others want to admit it, they need a good housecleaning in almost every country in the region. No, it won't be a cakewalk, but if we don't act now, we guarantee even worse threats down the road.

[Willie Green]

Whether the arabs and others want to admit it, they need a good housecleaning in almost every country in the region.

I agree.

No, it won't be a cakewalk, but if we don't act now, we guarantee even worse threats down the road.

Well, as long as we take away their WMD, it wouldn't bother me at all if we just pulled out and let them feud with each other with sticks and stones for a few decades. Let entropy take its course and see what they manage to come up with.

[henderson field]

We don't have too little energy, we have too many people.

[MainFrame65]

Your post speaks to public attitudes, however well- or ill-founded, and has value for that. The comments about the validity of those public attitudes, and the media that creates them, are similiarly valuable. What is absent here (because it is not the subject of this thread) is factual information about energy sources and uses.

Someday we will value hydrocarbons for their worth as chemical feedstocks instead of their combustibility in air, and the price will be a lot higher than it is today. But when the price rises to that level, we will probably be manufacturing hydrogen to use as a transportable energy vector.

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks for your posts. Hopefully, one of the FR nation can provide some links or info on the energy sources and uses stats.

Hydrogen .. fuel for thought ... we're getting there, slowly but surely.

[Joe_October]

Gas in my neighborhood is $1.59 per gallon. Water at the same place is $4.28 per gallon.

If you want to form your opinion based on slanted news articles go ahead but if you want to educate yourself on the facts, you won't find packaged for the masses.

[3catsanadog]

They would rather have us held hostage by foreign oil and despots

Isn't that the truth! And in their next breath, the liberal America-haters claim that war in Iraq is all about oil.

[3catsanadog]

I bet you are really Dennis Miller! Welcome to Free Republic!

Just kidding - even if you aren't DM, you sure have his style with words!

[NormsRevenge]

$1.59, that's good, you must be in the South somewhere. We were at $1.59 a year ago or so.

Im not forming an opinion, just posting some info and thoughts. Keep in mind, we all use energy in one form or another these days, even the uninformed masses.

ALL- Here's a link from the DOE re: Short Term Energy Outlook - March 2003

[Joe_October]

The difference is the tax you pay. When the price goes up, the demand will drop or the supply will increase. When oil reaches $2 a barrel, we uncap the wells in the US and pump our own.

Oil is so valuable because it is so useful. Sensible policy is not possible by taking a poll.

The US should pass be building 3rd generation nuclear reactors and be done with it. But the luddittes and Lefties won't let us.

They want the little people (that's us) to not drive while they do as they please (someone has to be in charge).

Aside from the fact that there is as much energy as we are willing to go get, The Left has been wrong about EVERYTHING. Their track record speaks for itself.

Besides, if just the people in the US that say that it is important would take action (which they won't), the problem is gone.

I've lived in Louisiana for about 8 years and I'm just back from a visit to California. I've listened to others insult the South but I have to say, I would chose any place in the South over California without reservation (same goes for the North East). People in California can pretend they're special but I've seen it both ways and I'll take Dixie hands down.

Let them tax themselves into extinction to save the children. No Thanks.

Besides we got all the trees and clean air that you could every want (and lakes, and animals, and parking, and crime free neighborhoods, and woman that don't have a chip on their shoulders).

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks for the reply. I was going to say Louisiana from the price you mentioned. I spent some good times in the Baton Rouge area back in the early to mid-80s, and have also traipsed around a few of the DOE SPR sites.

Your comments on building nukes also strikes a chord with me. There is no safer cleaner form of energy available short of solar or hydrogen as it is developed technology-wise.

Like I said earlier, I don't usually post this kind of stuff, but when I do, I enjoy the subsequent discussions that ensue.

I'm a Minnesota native myself and have been in the Bay Area for the last 20 years or so. Eventually, I'll either end up in Nevada or Hawaii or maybe Alaska. The South is a bit too humid and sticky for me.