oil...up another 5 bucksnow 147/barrel

[Mr. Sandman]

Your naive, You said that 10 years ago...and this is what that thinking produced we now have now ...little domestic oil supply. I see it as more of a security matter. It is that very thinking that has reduced the security of this country.

Private sector Land grab? that is laughable. You are in the "just say no to anything" camp. Altatives just don't have the energy density that is required to meet real needs of people. Yes a farmer or a rural bare bones home can get buy but a couple of apartment buildings in Miami in July will require an AC load that will will require an windfarm the area of the state of RI. Do the numbers.

Sorry, you have to tell us all how airplanes will be powered for the next 100 years. Windmills I guess eh?

Go take a Physics class and get back to me. Please show me how alternatives (besides nukes) will drive this world, they cant.

5-10 years? add another zero. REALLY! It takes 5-10 years for GM to introduce a new car and that is fast! More like 50-100 years. We need some domestic supply of oil, drilling here will produce that. What is your problem with drilling wherever we can?

[Circlehook]

Nuclear submarine technology + Fords declining sales = Nuclear powered Expeditions.

Nuclear is really the way to go for powering cities and towns.

[Hooper]

I would wager it will be $200 /barrel by the end of the year.

We need a unified national resolve to develop realistic alternatives to fossil fuels. I don't believe that the US political system is capable of unifying the US towards that goal. The US political process is interested in attaining and remaining in officer/power by any means, that is their goal and always will be.

I do believe new advances are on the horizon, but only through private sector technology working towards the goal, in spite of our elected offiicials, not because of them, though they will smile and take credit when it happens.

[piemma]

I don't know what the answer is, I'm just not smart enough. I am bright enough to know that if our government doesn't do something pretty quick the economic structure of this country will completely dissolve and we will be in the Great Depression of the Millinium.

[Mr. Sandman]

One thing I do know is that practical alternatives will not be available to power this nation for at LEAST 40 years. Yeah we could slap up some wind mills in the mean time but they will do very little in the big picture. I am not against them but they don't produce very much and require a lot of space and equipment.

One thing is many seem to tie together oil with electrical production. We actually use very very little oil to directly produce electricity. We use mostly coal and hydro. If you want a lot of electrical and low carbon output nuke is your best choice.

For vehicles, we need all electric vehicles. (charged at home with nuke plants providing the power) The problem is electric storage...batteries don't cut it. We are many years away from a dramatically advanced storage device. We need gas to carry us over. Things like ethanol are silly pipe dreams. It takes 1700 gallons of water and 4 acres of corn to produce a single gallon of ethanol. It is not WORTH it. Algae (pond scum) is actually a better source of fuel...as it can double in mass every 24 hours in the right conditions. Even so, the first plant to produce it in substantial amounts could not be here for 10-12 years. We need DOMESTIC OIL to provide the transition time...IMO.

You can't get there from here with just alternatives, noway nohow. I think most will realize this but I think when oil hits 250/barrel the gov't will step in and mandate drilling and refinery development.