You both show a lack of confidence in American ingenuity. The alternatives, just as new oil, is potential. All we need is the national will to go for it.

So you admit that there are no viable alternatives at the moment. At least we have gotten you to admit that. And the new oil is NOT potential, we know it's there it's just a matter of building the drilling rigs to extract it, and then the transportation system to carry the oil from the rig to the refineries. Both of these things can be done with known technology.

Alternative energies however are NOT a known technology and therefore would take more time to get to a point where they are economically viable. I have the utmost confidence in American ingenuity and the idea that we will one day no longer need oil, however as of today that day is not here yet so we need to free ourselves from foreign oil to bide our time until the alternative energies are ready.

"Why don't we do a hybrid of both..." It's pathetic when Paris Hilton (in a spoof no less) becomes the voice of reason.        

You think she came up with the joke? I think you give her way too much credit. It doesn't change the fact that it's still rather pathetic though.

The difference between new oil and alternative fuels is we know where the new oil is, we don’t have an alternative fuel. The nation will go for an alternative as soon as they come up with one.



It has nothing to do with confidence in American ingenuity it has to do with a replacement for a fuel that we are currently using. You can’t scrap the old fuel without a replacement. Where is the replacement?

You're kidding, right? Bio, thermal, oceanic, wind, liquid coal, nuclear. Your problem is not wanting to give up the combustion engine.

Nope.

If gearing up oil exploration is pissing in the ocean, then these 'alternatives' are spitting into the ocean... upwind.

Bio - shown to have a larger carbon footprint (hate to use the term but speaking 'their' language as a courtesy) at greater cost per unit of energy produced, with the lovely side effect of raising taxes on the poor & middle class through higher food costs.

Thermal - can't even supply all of Iceland's power needs.

Oceanic - figure out a way to store & distribute oceanic energy, the Nobel will be yours.

Nuclear - no problem, go right ahead & request a permit.

The only two 'alternatives' that stand a chance of making a dent in our oil consumption any time soon are wind and coal. The technology to harness & store wind energy on an individual home basis is getting close to being cost effective. We already have the technology to scrub coal such that it burns with nearly zero emissions, but the EPA won't hear of it.

The nubbin of the problem is that any 'alternatives' have to become inexpensive and widely available and achieving that is no simple thing. If the government subsidizes alternatives without the actual cost per unit of energy going down, we've just spun our wheels. Things that reduce our energy consumption will certainly help, but a way to power our transportation system has to be maintained and for the foreseeable future, that way is oil.

No, I am quite serious. Please show me a Jet engine that can run on Bio, thermal, oceanic, wind, liquid coal, or nuclear fuel. Please provide for me the bio fuel that we have in supply to replace oil. Nuclear power is great but you can’t drive a nuclear powered car yet, electric cars are not affordable to the general public. Sure you have some pieces in place to start to begin to commence to get ready to maybe do something, but none of them are ready to replace the oil we consume today. They are still working out the bugs on all of them except Nuclear. Bio fuel has now been shown to pollute more that gas as far as CO2 goes. Once we find one that works we have to build a supply and infrastructure to support it then we will be ready to use this new wonder fuel. Today we produce enough bio-fuel to run a few thousand cars a year. How many millions of cars are on the road today?

Good one, I like that.  

Wait a second, we haven't been drilling because it would take "10 years" before we see any benefit, right?

It has taken much longer than 50 years to develop an alternative to oil, and we STILL have seen no effective alternative solution. Since that's WAY longer than 10 years, we shouldn't be wasting money on alternative fuel development, right?

The sad truth is we have 90% of the tech we need to convert to a nuclear/electric vehicle based economy RIGHT NOW. All that is needed is more cost-effective batteries with a massive capacity and better transmission lines to handle the heavy post-rush-hour loads (both things we could see in the next 10 years). Of all the alternative possibilities, an electric system would have the least difficulty in up-front startup costs.

Only if people stop with their NIMBY selfishness will it happen. Finally, we don't need nearly as many planes as we are currently flying, and last time I was there, the whole act of getting a flight is miserable. All we need are basic international routes across the ocean, and that would require MUCH less fuel than the hundreds of commuter lines we're currently running.

I have a nuclear plant practically in my back yard, and it isn't so bad! So why the hell can't the two parties unite behind a nuclear future? It baffles the mind.




What a logical load of Bullshit the eco-extremists in control of the Democratic party right now are feeding us...I hope Pelosi loses her seat soon.

What would you propose as an alternative to domestic flight?

She is in a safe seat this electon season.

Rent the movie “the Big Bus” it is the story of a nuclear powered bus doing a transcontinental trip. Go Greyhound and leave the nuking to us.

The airline industry agrees that we don’t need as many planes since they are planning to cut 6000 seats the next holiday season. The passengers might disagree. It always amazes me how people can decide what I need and what I don’t. Why ask the paying public what it wants when we have people willing to save us all from ourselves at our expense.

She's dampering Republican overreaction to offshore drilling so it is not stampeded into another dream land that there's plenty of oil and thus drill us into impasse preventing serious commitment to ween from oil.

Super trains.