Tackling the Energy Issue

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You never heard of Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio?
just south of Cleveland!? It was the first co-ed Liberal Arts
College in the country, I think, and the first college of that sort to admit African Americans, having been on the "underground
railroad" during the Civil War. I wondered why you didn't include
it in your listings..?? sincerely, Laura White Neville

Laura White Neville of MA 10:56AM August 22, 2008

Conserve is what each of us can do now. Many have started already because of the $4+ price per gallon of gasoline. The more we conserve, the less demand. But less demand will not solve the real problem nor return to cheap fuel prices in our lifetime.
The problem is not energy. We have all sorts of means of producing energy.
The problem is using oil derivatives to fuel the internal combusion engine mostly to move people and goods from one place to another, plus jet fuel to spew leaded pollution over our heads, heating oil to heat homes, etc. etc. etc.
In other words--burning oil. Burning oil consumes oil. But we cannot burn enough oil to run out in the lifetime of anyone alive today--including that baby just born.
But future generations will run out if we and they keep on burning it up.
And then, they will not have asphalt to pave their roads or make shingles to cover their roofs or materials to build their computers and on and on -- thousands of products made from petrochemicals that we take for granted today -- and our appetite for those products is growing rapidly.
The conservation will help some while the transformation is taking place to replace the burning of oil with all sorts of alternative--especially renewable alternative fuels.
Developing known alternatives in earnest and developing new technologies with subsidies if needed to accomplish zero burning of oil.
Many experts are offering a number of steps to accomplish this. All of them were proposed by Jimmy Carter in his televised speech of July 15, 1979 (google it and read the transcript). Had his plan been enacted in earnest, we would be totally independent of imported oil today as Brazil is.
Yes, Brazil is different from the U.S.
And surely the U.S. can do anything that Brazil can -- better and faster!
Governments like Brazil have a big advantage in that the government owned industries can be mandated to comply with orders.
In the U.S. private enterprize must have investors provide sufficient capital and perhaps also government subsidies, tax breaks, etc. and the will to do what is best for future generations in order to accomplish what other countries state owned industries do on order.
But we've enjoyed the benefits of what previous generations did for us and surely we owe as much to future generations.

HillbillyBill of TN 6:41PM August 18, 2008