The former Gulf of Mexico

[Riot]

You post presumes a couple things: that the only choice of energy is oil (not true) and that the wells we have now will soon become insufficient (also not true).

[joeydb]

Oh, I am all for another source of energy, of course. The energy sources for mobile transportation are that much more difficult to implement. Windmills aren't going to do it -- not even for traditional uses. They will, if 100% successful, alleviate about 2% of our current gasoline and/or coal consumption.

Just making electric cars doesn't do it either. You've got to look at the whole system. The system includes everything from the generation of electricity (always from something else since we can't reliably collect and store lightening), to the manufacture, use, and disposal of the car. If you make a car run on electricity, and the electricity demand goes way up, as it will, and your power plant belches that much more soot and filth into the atmosphere, did you really save anything by allegedly "going green"?

Let's say we had the ideal source of energy today, in the quantities that we need. Everything's better -- cleaner, cheap, people buying cars want this new fuel because the cars actually perform better with more horsepower -- you get the idea. It will still take quite a while to get universally adopted as the car market is such where most people have to save a while to afford a new car, and cars, unlike computers for example, are normally not retrofitted with new hardware.

It's going to take time. The discovery of the really big thing needs to come first, and the government cannot do that by decree. The creativity of the freedom-loving individual, like another Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie or equivalent is where it starts. Until then, we need to perfect the techniques for the extraction of oil to drive the probability of this kind of event to as close to zero as we can get it. But when push comes to shove, we are going to get that oil -- until oil itself is obsolete as a fuel.

Cars that run on Natural Gas. The liberals won't go for it though.

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

Cars that run on Natural Gas. The liberals won't go for it though.

I just got a flashback of "The Road Warrior". Isn't that what they used?

Originally Posted by joeydb

I just got a flashback of "The Road Warrior". Isn't that what they used?

I don't remember.

All I know is the U.S. is loaded with natural gas and it is the perfect transition resource between oil and solar.

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

the very agency that looks over the oil wells at sea..epa will never let that many new nuke sites go up.. its a pipe dream.. fossle fuels rule..

[Riot]

We're always going to need oil for transportation, I agree, that would be difficult and expensive to replace. h28-30% of our oil goes to transportation. Fine, between what we can produce, Mexico and Canada, that's beyond covered.

We've coasted for years not having to develop other sources of energy for the other 60-70% of our energy use: electricity, heating, cooling, etc. We live on petroleum, natural gas, coal, and any attempt to develop other sources is met by screams of protest. It's beyond time to change that, but we're spoiled in the US. We want anything we want, when we want it, and nobody can tell us no. We use it until it's gone, with little to no planning ahead or thought to the future (see water in the western US).

Plenty of other, rather easily implemented, increasingly inexpensive ways to create electricity - geothermal, wind, hydroelectric, etc. We need to get serious about that, rather than going after more oil for these uses.

You want the end of offshore drilling? Start by opening up ANWR and let's go at it. I'd prefer land based drilling for the simple reason that you'd never have a leak go 24 hours let alone 50 some days.

It took 5 days for the largest Alaskan North slope spill to be detected a few years back. Thousands and thousands of gallons spilling over the tundra.

Until then, we need to perfect the techniques for the extraction of oil to drive the probability of this kind of event to as close to zero as we can get it.

Bobby Jindal is screaming for drilling to resume, due to jobs needs. I'd think all those oil men can be gainfully employed bringing the thousands of oil rigs currently drilling in the Gulf up to new safety standards.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Riot

You post presumes a couple things: that the only choice of energy is oil (not true) and that the wells we have now will soon become insufficient (also not true).

Do you know about some discovery that fuels autos that we havent heard of?