There is little or no human-caused global warming, but there IS global warming from natural causes. A fact-driven approach to managing problems that this warming might cause will involve human action to control climate, as opposed to the wacko enviroleftist demands for massive-scale cessation of human action.
We probably CAN figure out how to manipulate our climate effectively, in both directions, and I’m all in favor of getting to work on this. I won’t criticize Obama’s actions re climate until there are some real specifics to evaluate. It may be that he’s talking in vague terms, letting the enviroleftists think they’re hearing what they want to hear, but will actually be more cautious and fact-anchored when it comes to real action.
Reducing our dependence on oil, which largely means Arab oil, would certainly not be a bad thing, and if some measures the Obama administration takes toward that end make enviroleftists happy, that’s fine. If Obama starts pushing economy-sapping measures that address only fictional human-caused global warming, then I’ll get annoyed.
Unfortunately, even if the US generated all domestic energy from nukes and other sources (including coal!) there would still be that little issue of fuel for airplanes, buses, cars and the TRUCKS that form the circulatory system of our economy and society. I’ve seen designs for semis that are incredibly aerodynamic but I get the feeling the trucker culture would resist taking to these changes (too sleek lol) very rapidly.
Also, petrochemicals are probably the foundation of our modern way of life, as they are the basis of plastics and all sorts of other industrial and agricultural applications.
If WE got off oil, that simply means that particular supply of product would go to some other country without the money or technology to go nuclear or incorporate increased hybridization into its developing economy.