THE FUTURE OF ENERGY

Best and the Brightest

A Tennessee congressman says with the energy crisis we face another Sputnik moment.

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  • Posted By: jstepp590 @ 01/02/2009 3:42:02 PM

    OooohKay, people posting advertisements aside, I think it is a great idea for may different reasons. It will help promote science deveopment again, build the necessary pool of experienced scientists and engineers as well as probably solving some of our energy crisis. I just have a hard time thinking it will happen.

    The reason why I don't think it will happen is simple. The biggest problem we have in Washington today is special interests and lobbyists who will fight it every step of the way. They are a problem not faced at any other time in our history and are a major impediment to any progress we may attempt. It's not in their best special interests to let us do so. Since they are the ones paying our polititions for their campaigns we end up in the same old situation of saying one thing to us to get elected and then doing something else to appease the people investing in their campaigns, people who expect a return for their investment.

    Until we make very sure our govenrment is working for us, the people, instead of corporations it will be very difficult if not impossible to make anything happen. You can legalize corruption all you want, it's still corruption. These lobbyists and special interests are at the root of almost all our gridlock and partisonship and need to be thrown out of Washington, possible with the Clean Elections system. Otherwise, all the best ideas in the world will go nowhere.

  • Posted By: gaetanomarano @ 11/19/2008 10:47:39 AM

    the "revolutionary breakthrough" they're searching already exists and is the wind energy turbines STACKING to have MORE ENERGY DENSE wind power plants, as suggested 20 MONTHS AGO in MY "Wind Energy Skyscrapers" article:

    http://www.gaetanomarano.it/articles/028energy.html

    unfortunately, I haven't found (so far) the funds to start some basic research about MY idea

    SURELY, the solution of the energy needs CAN'T come from Space, as explained in my "Space Solar Power hoax/illusion DEBUNKED" article: http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts/038sspdebunked.html

    .

  • Posted By: gary goldbladt @ 11/06/2008 7:09:58 PM

    Silicon valley coordinates a lot with the universities.

  • Posted By: President Lindsay @ 10/13/2008 4:45:20 PM

    I've got big news for Congressman Gordon: We've already discovered everything we need. We have enough fuel already out of the ground to supply all of humanity's needs for hundreds of years. Take a look at this web site and forget about your grand research plans: http://www.prescriptionfortheplanet.com . I'm sick to death of "experts" telling us we need a new Manhattan Project for energy. Our government spent over a billion dollars on the biggest energy research project in history. It's already been done. Here's where to find out about it.

  • Posted By: ldeano @ 10/08/2008 3:32:08 PM

    I think the point of government projects like this is that government stability allows it to make longer term investments. Business often only has a short-term plan -- 5 years or so. CEOs and department heads move in and out so fast with down shareholder quarters that it's hard for them to look at long term basic research. Government also can be plagued by short-term interests, of course, but their role should be longer.

  • Posted By: charlesI @ 10/07/2008 10:49:27 PM

    During the summer I was in Asia (Malaysia, and Indonesia) the car that drove me back and forth to the airport there was four cylinders, it was just as fast, just as comfortable, and fit just as much as the eight cylinder car that brought to the airport in America. I drove/was driven the length and breadth of Sumatra up mountain roads through tropical heat and thunder storms all in 4 cylinder (air conditioned) cars. There is nothing exotic or futuristic about these cars which used a fraction of the behemoths which are driven here. Why can't America do the Same?

  • Posted By: charlesI @ 10/07/2008 10:43:22 PM

    During the summer of 2008 I was in Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia) the car that drove me back and forth to the airports there had four cylinders; it went just as fast, was just as comfortable as the car that drove me back and forth to the airport in America had a massive 8 cylinder engine. I drove the length and breadth of Sumatra over mountains and dirt roads in thunderstorms and tropical heat all in very comfortable cars that all had only 4 cylinder engines. There is nothing exotic or futuristic about the cars I was driven in/drove except they had four cylinders. Why can't we do this in the U.S.?
    Robin Stephen Mc Mahon
    New York New York

  • Posted By: Mwalimu @ 10/06/2008 6:34:04 PM

    It's curious that no one reads past issues of Newsweek or that Fareed Zakaria seems to forget whom he interviewed several months earlier. Last July, Zakaria interviewed Craig Ventner who is proposing to breed bacteria to create clean burning fuel for the current entergy infrastructure. Ventner says he can get th bacteria developed in two years. That could solve the problem of carbon sequestration. It would also get alternative fuel on to the market faster that waiting for Sarah Palin's pipleline materialize or drilling in the Gulf of Mexico both of which would involve years before any energy reached the market. Palin and McCain are playing games of mass deception. and their alternatives simply reflect the wishes of the lobbyists who fund their campaign.
    The only person who can really jump start alternative energy is Barack Obama

  • Posted By: Concerned Canadian @ 10/05/2008 7:57:06 PM

    What in the heck is the USA gonna use to invest in research.....peanuts ? ....America has no money left to do anything.....learn how to start a fire with sticks because you guys are gonna have a cold winter.

  • Posted By: Alamerica @ 10/05/2008 3:20:42 AM

    For research to bear juicy fruit, it is crucial to elect a President who has the curiosity and favors research. Bush, Chenny, Palin are all research idiots.

  • Posted By: Aleksej @ 10/05/2008 1:00:35 AM

    fight global warming by globalfrozing.com

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