[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

Sorry, but it bad news for all of us. It may be a nice short terms boost for the economy, but oil is Americas additction and getting some good cheap stuff never helped any addict recover.

We need a massive nation-wide effort to switch to alternatives. The world spends $800 billion a year on oil (give or take) and most of it goes to our favourite global hot spot. It would take an estimated $5 trillion to generate all the worlds electricity with wind. That isnt a bad investment as far as I am concerned. If we add in some solar, buclear and biomass, it is even cheaper.

There is nothing American about oil. There is nothing about our way of life that requires we use oil as a source of energy. There are a lot of problems with oil, the most important of which is that we dont have very much of it. and the people who do hate us.

I dont need a climate change argument to convince me that oil is bad for America. But, being a student of Pascal`s wager, it tells me that the consequences of not acting and it being true are much worse than the consequences of acting and it being false.

Bring it on.

[Doodle]

We need a massive nation-wide effort to switch to alternatives.

So how do you propose we do this? By government fiat?

It would take an estimated $5 trillion to generate all the worlds electricity with wind. That isnt a bad investment as far as I am concerned.

If this is such a good investment, why not let the market take care of it?

If the market doesn't take care of it, do you advocate some kind of subsidy?

And do you advocate paying for this subsidy by taxing me?

[Ditto]

The world spends $800 billion a year on oil (give or take) and most of it goes to our favourite global hot spot. It would take an estimated $5 trillion to generate all the worlds electricity with wind. That isnt a bad investment as far as I am concerned. If we add in some solar, buclear and biomass, it is even cheaper.

So are you going switch to an electric car or fly in an electric 747? We use very little oil to generate electricity --- something around 3% of our electricity is from oil fired units. Coal, Nuclear and Natural Gas are what keeps the lights on, not oil. Oil keeps cars moving, trains rolling and aircraft flying.

Think energy mix.

[Dead Dog]

Actually we do have a lot of it.

[jpl]

Eventually our economy will start to transition away from oil, but it's not going to happen overnight, it will be a slow but steady gradual process, and we'll probably see it start within the next 10-15 years. And it won't happen because of government mandates either. There are options right now, such as fuel-efficient hybrid cars and diesel engine cars that run on vegetable oil, and I expect these options will naturally get cheaper over time.

[Some hope remaining.]

We'll transition away from oil when we find something better. People are constantly researching to find something better. You can't mandate invention/discovery. Meanwhile, we should be drilling in ANWR.

[RightWhale]

There is nothing American about oil.

Oil is cheap. When oil becomes expensive, then we will switch to other energy sources such as solar. Solar installations are still about $5 per watt, but some new tech is coming that should reduce that to $0.50 per watt. Then solar will be cheap, so guess what America will do.

[Redleg Duke]

I read your page...you should really try to have an original thought...not just quote others.

[LibKill]

If we built a lot of NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS we would eliminate the use of oil and gas for electricity generation.

Then we would have plenty of oil left over to fuel our vehicles.

More nukes, less kooks!