Posted on 11/10/2001 4:44:11 PM PST by Pokey78
I dunno.
Can we do without wasting energy?
Nearly impossible. Our manufacturing base depends on oil (all machinery does), not to mention plastics.
I don't know where these people are getting their information, but the American Petroleum Institute says the United States has about a 70 year domestic oil reserve, and proven reserves of American oil are increasing each year, not declining. North America, including Canada and Mexico, has about a 200 year oil reserve. This war is about terrorism, not oil.
The world now has about an 805 year oil supply.
American Petroleum Institute.
For the webTVers:
http://www.api.org/edu/factsoil.htm
You are quite right in that it would take years to build the reactors, even if we could put off the RICOnuts with charges of sedition (because so many are communists) or better yet, treason (being largely sponsored by the tax-exempt foundations of oil company wealth). Still, we had better get going with them as it is the only means to prevent us from being caught short without a supply of energy. The little monsters said nukes were too risky. Little did they recognize that using the US military to assure a supply of oil was even more fraught with both danger and global environmental impact (wars are rather destructive to nature).
What I don't understand is why no serious effort has been undertaken to develop the technology to control the nuclear fusion reaction for use in power generation.
This is not correct. Fusion reactors are simply devillishly difficult to do. An enormous amount of money has been spent (especially at Livermore), much of which did more for weapons development than anything else, since the energy production angle was being such a bear.
Nope, fission reactors are proven, reliable, and safe. Fuel reprocessing of the high level waste is performed by every advanced nation with nuclear power... except ours. The environmentalists at the Ford Foundation told Carter that reprocessing was too big a risk of weapons proliferation. He wrote an unconstitutional EO banning the process. What ensued was a waste storage crisis with which the RICOnuts shut down new plant construction.
Guess who made money? Exxon, BP, Shell, Texaco, Mobil, all the oil companies with big operations in the Middle East. Guess who is financing the environmental movemint?
Government is too corruptible to be trusted with managing the environment. There is an alternative.
Speaking of which, I am rather P.O.'d at UPS. I ship tons of packages through UPS every month. This summer they imposed a 1.5% fuel surcharge back when the prices went up. Now prices are lower than they have been in years, but UPS still imposes that surcharge! Now I hear they are raising rates again in January. What gives?
You base this prediction on what?
Any car that uses a spark plug engine can be converted for hydrogen use.
Supplied Domestically 38.2 % Canada 9.2 % Saudi Arabia 8.0 % Venezuela 7.8 % Mexico 7.0 % Nigeria 4.5 % Iraq* 3.1 % United Kingdom 1.9 % Norway 2.4 % Colombia 1.7% Angola 2.0 % All Other Countries 11.6
Our vehicles are much too uneconomical. We can do a whole lot better here. The hybrid vehicles are the way to go and we could easily double the fuel mileage with little or nothing in the way of inconvenience.
Our domestic oil policy is absurd. We should probably strive for $5.00 a gallon gasoline price in order to ensure the economic recovery of less available resources. This should be adequate to make that possible. What difference does it make if we pay $5.00 a gallon for gasoline at the pump or pay for it anyway with the costs of terrorism? We still have to pay the bill anyway. The WTC costs will run over $100 billion alone not counting all of the other costs. As Bush said, let's roll!
And if you haven't thought about it....If, in fact, Bin Laden does have a dirty nukes...where do you think the radioactive material came from? There are safer ways to produce "energy" but of course none of the big oil companies would profit from them so they haven't been a concern.
We drop it on Afganistan so that they can compete with the Russians over who can produce the biggest poppies?
Without our money they will still hate us, not to mention the burgeoning population increases in those countries who will continue to seek greener pastures in the west.
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