Originally Posted by dlssmith

With all due respect, replacing oil is impossible with current technologies. There is nothing, absolutely nothing on the planet that can produce the btu energy of oil or coal. Nothing else is so portable, or mutable. Nothing else is as efficient. I'm talking big picture efficiency, ease of use, etc. There is no substance or technology that has been able to lift mankind as far away from the caves of our ancestors as oil (or coal). Everything you do, everything you are, is by and of these products. The food, medicine, clothing; everything. The very reason we enjoy the high standard of living today is because we've figured out how to deliver an almost unlimited supply of electrical energy to every home in the US and much of the world.

You say you don't want to be at the mercy of greedy oil empires, or under threat of war for oil, but have you stopped to consider that energy will be controlled by some one, no matter what the energy is made from? A giant solar energy cartel based in the earth's deserts is likely to emerge if we perfect that technology - you'll have to buy it from some one.

Your sound bites, all 10 or 11 of them, despite their passion, are lacking in logic. You could do much more for humanity by promoting the dissemination of current energy technology to everyone on the planet. What a goal, "An electric outlet in every home on earth within 10 years!!! Rather than world bank suppression of the construction of oil and coal fired power plants in the third world, because they "pollute". We live here in America, all electrically wired, amongst all this "pollution" - yet we live to an average age of 78?

A couple of years ago in France during a fairly common place heatwave, over 15,000 people died, mainly in their homes. Air conditioning would have saved most of them, but since the French government prices electricity so high, few can afford to operate an airconditioner. A couple of coal fired power plants would have saved 15000 people!!!! So much for passionate soundbites.