On Jun 16, 2008, at 4:57 AM, Taylor J. Smith wrote:
Hi All, We need to hedge our bets, since for national security reasons we must stop using rock oil NOW! This means making methanol and diesel (including biodiesel) our national liquid fuels -- we have the coal to do it, from the Mississippi to the Rockies. Nuclear, wind, and hydro power should be in the mix, especially if Yellowstone blows and the Sun is blotted out for several years. Jack Smith
The IEA plan is a *world* plan. The proliferation of nuclear plants world wide is a threat to world security, not just ours. It is also the most expensive route.
It may be of interest, however, that nuclear plants may be key to extracting coal sands oil, and shale oil, and thus would help alleviate the oil shortage if they could be brought online quickly enough in the US and Canada. That's no help to the environment, but some fairly quick help to transportation energy security.
If the US were really concerned about oil security we would be drilling in ANWR, or maybe more to the point, would have drilled in ANWR and would now be producing the oil. The tiny footprint required in ANWR for drilling would have had almost no impact on wildlife. Instead we are now headed for offshore drilling, which is a vastly larger treat to wildlife. There is no sanity in politics, though politics is still way better than a dictatorship.
I would expect if Yellowstone blows the US demand for oil will drop abruptly, and demand for coal increase abruptly.
Let's hope the fusion problem is solved soon. Best regards, Horace Heffner http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
