"Comment: Everyone wants to be "cured" of our oil addiction. We want to be able to hunt polar bears on the ice cap, not on bare ground. We don't want to see the beautiful Polynesian islands sinking under the waves. With the population set to double in the next few decades, there is only one question for the radical environmetalists:
What is the alternative fuel and can we have it by 3:00 P.M. today? If there are none, then start working with the energy companies to find a way to clean up the fuel we need today and look for that special "clean fuel" you are so adament about, tomorrow. Every time you put in a law suit, you stop the "clean fuel" process 10 fold. "
That clean full is hear like Europe's massive ocean wind farms, Spains sun towers, or plain old wind turbins.
If everyone stop complain about how ugly they are you would wonder why don't they put one up in mine, i would like that check every month for a thousand or so for sitting on my fat a** and watching the wind blow. if we took even part of the roughly 1 trillion dollars we spend to other counties (mostly the ery one on our terror list for sponcerinf terrist that kill us in iraq) we could wuild massive farms that would power all major city and go from there and be done in less time than it takes to build new drill sites, which takes at best 10 years to start production, ya that sounds like a quick fix?
Pipe Dreams
Alaska is home to gigantic untapped natural-gas fields. But can the state and energy industry finally agree to build a pipeline to transport the fuel?
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As Americans feel the pinch at the gas pump amid $128 a barrel oil, there's at least one place in the United States where high energy prices aren't all bad news. Alaska, home to America's prolific oil fields, is reaping billions of dollars in record oil-tax revenue. That, along with a populist governor determined to deliver a megapipeline project to the state, is fueling optimism among Alaskans that an energy boom may be just around the corner.
The next boom might not come from oil, however. In fact, residents aren't putting much stock in the renewed effort under way to allow oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in northeast Alaska, often cited as America's best chance for a major onshore oil discovery but deemed sacred ground by environmentalists.
Rather, Alaskans are pinning their hopes on a 30-year-old dream to tap the state's massive natural-gas fields, the largest in the nation, and ship the gas down a multi-billion-dollar pipeline to produce heat and electricity in the lower 48 states. Supporters say it would be the largest private-energy project in U.S. history, one that would draw thousands of welders, pipe fitters and other workers northward, much like when the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was constructed in the 1970s.
The pipedream has been around since the late 1970s. Grand announcements have come and gone, sometimes at the expense of political careers. But just as with crude, natural-gas prices have soared in recent years, evident in higher utility bills in many parts of the country, making the project more feasible. Climate change has also given the project a boost. Natural gas is cleaner to burn than coal.
Beginning this week, the Alaska State Legislature will debate how to usher in a natural-gas boom. Two pipeline proposals are on the table. One hails from a Canadian pipeline builder and is endorsed by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Republican who has drawn surprising comparisons with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez for her tough stance against Big Oil. The other proposal comes from BP and ConocoPhillips, two oil behemoths that hold leases on much of the state's natural gas.
But only one giant pipeline is needed, and Palin has set the stage so that only the Canadian proposal will be considered. State lawmakers must decide whether or not to give a $500 million state subsidy to TransCanada Corp. to lay a $26 billion, 1,700-mile-long pipeline from the Alaskan Arctic to Alberta, Canada, where other lines would transport the natural gas to American markets.
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