Quote Originally Posted by ou48A View Post
That’s not true.
Its 2 examples of people who are educated enough about the topic to not fall for the fear that some sell.
Unless the source of the education was as biased as the EnergyTomorrow.org commercials.

Quote Originally Posted by ou48A View Post
Research needs to continue but we shouldn’t be wasting money on alternatives just for the sake of spending money like we did with the solar companies. Virtually all of the current alternatives cost more per unit of energy than do fossil fuels.
Oil is a “Band-Aid” that has served mankind well for over 100 years and will continue to be the band aid for a very long time in our future.
It should be noted that even in the 1910’s there were predictions that man was going to run out of oil by the late 1920’s. We have heard this repeated over and over.
These dire predictions rarely take into account new discoverers and new methods of production that with research are sure to come.
Hydrocarbon research has already bought us plenty of time to find the right alternatives.
I agree that many shouldn't be wasted, but who are we to judge what is a waste. Would you consider the research dollars being pumped into Fusion research to be a waste?

Any alternative is going to cost more initially until it is in mass production and widely accepted. The gas engine obviously costed more than the horse and buggy back in the day. I would imagine CNG and hybrids will drop in cost as they are more widely produced.

I think there is more of an underlying theme of those who are very set in the ways of the industrial age and don't want to advance away from it, and those that are always looking for the next best thing to get us closer to that "futuristic" life visionaries have been dreaming of since the 1950s. The drive to continue to improve our lives, make that next great break through, is definitely not shared by those that want to continue on the same path because "it's worked well for 100 years."

At some point we need to break the oil addiction or divide it equally with other forms of energy. Sure, let's use it the best way possible for the access we have to it now. However, there are going to have to be limits on how far we go considering the impacts that can happen when taking something out of the ground. Imagine if it was sent down in the industry that all passenger vehicles had to be CNG completely by 2020. That would do wonders for breaking a huge reliance on oil. If we have the large amounts of NG here, why aren't we pushing for that? It seems that it would make more sense than importing foreign oil.