Modern Maturity?

OldGamer007, try running a steel manufacturing plant on your fuel cell. They're just barely getting that technology figured out for consumer use, but the questions remain to be answered:
1) Will it be cost effective?
2) IF yes to #1, then how long will it take to convert our society to that technology?
3) The Hydrogen for fuel cells comes from water. Yes they have water as a by-product, but they use more water than they produce. Do fuel cells diminish the earths water supply, and what does that do to the Earth's environment? Will a decrease in the Earths water supply decrease it's ability to regulate it's atmosphere? Of course it will. So what good will we have done? We're simply exchanging one problem for an even worse problem.

Eben if it turns out to be the right technology, once they have it figured out for consumers, that's only a fraction of our overall fuel consumption. No matter how you slice it, you can't look at a video on you tube, and resonably conclude that the technology is ready to solve all of our energy needs, but being suppressed bu "big oil". Can we please use a little common sense?

Obama knows nothing about our country.He should go back where he came from.He doesn't now anything about our american flag and he even doesn't like our Natioal anthem because it refers to bombs bursting in air.hre does not know why are national anthem came to be.most americans do not know why thwesong was writenour country was fought hard for.it was a fierce battle. bombs flying all over but our flag tattered and torn was still wayving when the battle was over and we won.Obama should not be president he know nothing about our flag.he doesn't thing that wearing the flag makes you patriotic.it's a symble of patisism.our schools start the day raising the flag and pledging alligiance to it.he should go back to indoniasia.he als has said that if he is president he will get rid of bour nuclear arms of which this country has developed and has keept us safe.he knows nothing about 911.he even said that the ones that flew into our trade centers are now in jail.where in the hell has he been.sleeping.

Mccain pleasantly surprised me with this vision for an energy independent America. I saw his vision as well rounded, aggressive and very rational and comprehensive. I always felt that we need to tackle the tremendously serious depency on foreign oil issue seriously and immediately. I think Mccain is creating a great blue print to get us on track to engery independence. I do not believe cutting back and continue to pump money into reserach and dev for alternative energy sources alone is sufficient. We need to do it all and that is exactly what Mccain is proposing.....very impressive!

I'm not sure what exactly makes an energy plan "grown up", but I agree with your premise. I hate the thought of someone like McCain in the White House, but he is miles ahead of Obama on this one. I think many of McCains ideas are idiotic, such as the tax holiday, but he at least recognizes the necessity of using the resources we have until the alternatives become viable resources.

By contrast, ALL of Obama's ideas on energy policy are idiotic, like raising the price of gas even further by increasing taxes on oil companies. I guess Obama must have slept through ECON 101. Obama's real problem is that there is NO good solution that doesn't involve harvesting our own oil while alternative technology continues to be developed, and I don't think he is prepared to turn on the environmentalists he is committed to.

Contrary to the last claim in your article, however, I believe there is an obvious answer to the current oil price problem, but so far, nobody's going there. If we draw 2 million barrels of oil per day from our reserves for the next 10 years, and take action now to harvest our own oil, that would do the following:

1) We would see some immediate relief in gas prices. It may even be enough to burst the current price bubble, which would substantially reduce prices.

2) We would be foriegn oil independent in 10 years if we take oil harvesting seriously. This is not the ultimate goal, but is a necessary intermediate step to fossil fuel independence.

3) Revenue from the sale of reserve oil would provide a huge revenue stream which can be used to develop safer and cleaner alternatives. The American people can't afford to shoulder the burden of this development. With such an investment, the pace of technology would increase such that within the 10 year time frame, we should be well on our way to having replacement technology for our society.

4) We will have plenty of oil from our own resources to provide our needs through the lengthy phase in process of the renewable energy sources.

We have enough in our reserves to draw 2 million barrels/day for 10 years while we get our wells going to become foriegn oil independent. At this rate, we will only reduce our reserve by 1/3, and would still maintain enough to replace all of our imported oil for about 2-1/2 years (at current levels) in case of emergency.

This plan will have us off of foriegn oil in 10 years, and would likely have us off of fossil fuel in about 25 years. Everyone wins--even the environmentalists.

Nuclear is on the table as are a lot of other options. We will be so desperate for power in the coming decades that we'll be glad we have electricity from any source.

I'm for Obama, I'm liberal-leaning but honestly, there is no real choice. Nuclear is a good option. Maybe it's not ideal and it's definitely somewhat dangerous, but it's also the cleanest option we have.

Right here is why we don't need this nuke power because what to do with its Waste !!!!!!!!!!! BIO Algae is the wave of the Future , !!!!!!!
http://www.algaebiofuelsummit.com/ www.verticalfarm.com this is for food production and algae production too , and this informational link ; http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html ; http://www.xldairygroup.com/resources.cfm
And we can finance the development with this agreement ; http://www.brettonwoods.org/ ; But we really need to pay attention too this Guy , our we Lose Big Time ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug

Posted By: ladywolf @ 06/27/2008 11:07:29 AM

McCains energry plan is great for the short term, but what about the future when there are tons and tons of Nuclear waste to be disposed of? Can we store it in your backyards. You know its harmless when incased in lead containers-of course the lead leaches off eventually, but that might be a few years. And it won't cause any brain damage to you just your grandchildren. Of course they can't guarentee your safety if theres an Earthquake but you'll die knowing we had electricity.

To Oldgamer007: You BRAG a good story BUT NO NOTHING OF WHAT YOU ARE TALKING OF. I OWN a company that is A supplier to the Dept Of Defense(we even have our own GSA listing) of very sophistaicated 5+ axis Grinding machines that are used to make the most advanced weaponary in the world. You couldn't get the clearence to sit on the TOILET SEAT IN MY PLANT!!!!!! I have been in nearly EVERY US DEPOT BASE in the World, and have equipment producing parts for every major U.S. weapon and space program. Our machines even grind the windsheilds for the space shuttle. YOU ARE IGNORANT AND SELF ABSORBED....

Comment: Michael, you have renewed my hope in Newsweek and journalism with this article. I'm not sure what exactly makes an energy plan "grown up", but I agree with your premise. I hate the thought of someone like McCain in the White House, but he is miles ahead of Obama on this one. I think many of McCains ideas are idiotic, such as the tax holiday, but he at least recognizes the necessity of using the resources we have until the alternatives become viable resources.

By contrast, ALL of Obama's ideas on energy policy are idiotic, like raising the price of gas even further by increasing taxes on oil companies. I guess Obama must have slept through ECON 101. Obama's real problem is that there is NO good solution that doesn't involve harvesting our own oil while alternative technology continues to be developed, and I don't think he is prepared to turn on the environmentalists he is committed to.

Contrary to the last claim in your article, however, I believe there is an obvious answer to the current oil price problem, but so far, nobody's going there. If we draw 2 million barrels of oil per day from our reserves for the next 10 years, and take action now to harvest our own oil, that would do the following:

1) We would see some immediate relief in gas prices. It may even be enough to burst the current price bubble, which would substantially reduce prices.

2) We would be foriegn oil independent in 10 years if we take oil harvesting seriously. This is not the ultimate goal, but is a necessary intermediate step to fossil fuel independence.

3) Revenue from the sale of reserve oil would provide a huge revenue stream which can be used to develop safer and cleaner alternatives. The American people can't afford to shoulder the burden of this development. With such an investment, the pace of technology would increase such that within the 10 year time frame, we should be well on our way to having replacement technology for our society.

4) We will have plenty of oil from our own resources to provide our needs through the lengthy phase in process of the renewable energy sources.

We have enough in our reserves to draw 2 million barrels/day for 10 years while we get our wells going to become foriegn oil independent. At this rate, we will only reduce our reserve by 1/3, and would still maintain enough to replace all of our imported oil for about 2-1/2 years (at current levels) in case of emergency.

This plan will have us off of foriegn oil in 10 years, and would likely have us off of fossil fuel in about 25 years. Everyone wins--even the environmentalists.