The bottom line: solar energy, which is the source of biomass/grain/sugar, is just too diffuse to provide the energy we need for transportation.
The only solution is nuclear energy.
I agree 100%... but only up to this point.
The problem is, the pinhead prof wants to use the nukes to make artificial gasoline...
(Good grief, where do these morons keep coming up with these brainfarts?)
The obvious solution is to use the nukes to supply power through the grid to electrically powered mass-transit systems (high-speed rail, light rail and maglev).
The problem is.. the 'Rats are anti-nuke to the point of stupidity.
And the GOP has it's collective head stuck up it's butt even farther when it comes to mass transit.
My proposal: toss out all the partisan bums and elect somebody with some common sense.
I'd like to see it pared down to the extent little, if any, grid is necessary. Localized, personal, nuclear power. Might take a while, but it could be done.
Not often that I’m almost* 100 percent in agreement with Willie Green. What is the world coming to... ;)
*I’m still for individual freedom with personal vehicles powered by battery backs that can quickly be exchanged instead of charged at service stations.
Unless the author is thinking of replacing liquid transportation fuels with hydrogen, which presents a number of hurdles. There is one biofuels technology that holds promise, algae based biodiesel. The yield per acre is far beyond corn based ethanol. As for generating “bulk energy”, i.e. electrical power, nuclear is the way to go. The lefties continue to whine about what to do with the spent fuel rods. Reprocess them , just as is done in Europe, and what was done here in the United States until Jimmah Carter issued the executive order prohibiting civilian power plant fuel rod reprocessing. There is still plenty of usable fissile material in spent fuel rods - something on the order of 90% is not “burned”. The fission fractions need to be separated out, since they are reaction poisions with high neutron capture cross sections. These fractions can be isolated and chemically/mechanically stabilized via vitrification. This was proven at the West Valley Demonstration Project, and is in production level use in France and Germany.
The waste heat from producing nuclear turbine steam generatoin can be used for the desalination of seawater too. Building colocated facilities - nuke power/fresh-water manufacturing - could produce billions of tons of fresh water that can be piped inland with cheap power.
That’s what’s even worse about all of this, and the attractiveness of nuclear power.
So you want us all to move back into the cities? That is the only way I can see that mass transit would work on a wide scale. The automobile allowed the creation of the suburbs, now the suburbs will make it very hard to get rid of the automobile.
This solution also implies a large investment in the grid to handle vast amounts of power for mass transportation on a grid that is very close to capacity now on very hot or cold days.
Using nuclear energy to create "artificial gasoline" admittedly is not an elegant solution, but it would allow you to put a gasoline generation plant near a nuclear facility and save load on the grid. On the downside, there is zero chance a liberal will ever vote for this.
There are no easy alternatives here.