[mitchntx]

Katrina is gonna cause a $.20 spike in fuel costs .....

[z28barnett]

Not electricity? What about solar energy? Wind energy? Hydroelectric energy? Nuclear energy?

They each have their downfalls, but they CAN be completely independant from all fossil fuel resources.

Independence of fossil fuel and usefulness in real application to power needs are not compatiable goals at this time.

Electricty is mostly produced by fossil fuel.

Storage of electric power in compact ways is not very efficent.

Solar energy exists and has some uses but imagine the width of the roads required for solar cars with football field sized arrays on the roof. Wind energy has the same problem, difuse energy sources do not do a good job of meeting concentrated demand.

Hydroelectric causes problems also, silting, disruption of natural fishing, huge cost ect.

Nuclear energy (Fission) has an unproven life cycle cost. Waste that is toxic for 25,000 years and so on. Fusion holds great promise but it doesn't exist yet.

If you wound the US economy we would bleed oil.

The problem with alternative fuels is false hope. People hop right over huge problems with important sounding political sound bites. An example, Where is Arnolds Hydrogen powered Hummer? Big poltical sound bite about it, nothing happened.

I wish the hype around alternative fuels was true, but I have to live in the real world. Things are much more stark there, without the hollywood glow that politicans and media have cast.

The USA should be making a huge effort on future energy sources, what we have now is less than nothing, because it acts as a subsitute for a real effort.

It is even more depressing to realize that only about 25% of oil is used for fuel. The petrochemical use is enormous. This should be real eye opener to people like ourselves that drive a car with such a high percentage of plastic. All produced from oil.

I would love to have a quick easy answer, but it is very clear to me that people who offer those answers have no appreciation of the depth of the problem.,

Sorry, I will hop off the soap box now.

But if you disagree with me, I issue a challange, check deeper into the reality of the situation, that will be more useful than trying to tell me I am wrong. It is all physics, can't fool with mother nature. I may have messed up some details, but in general the energy situation is very bad and getting worse.



Z28