Quote Originally Posted by CurtisJ View Post
Eventually petroleum based fuels will be obsolete, but the government pretending that the time is five years away is completey ridiculous, think more along the 70-100 year mark. Solar and wind have their place, and I love to see money going into R&D in these industries, but the subsidized projects are pricey with very little benefit in a time where the government can't afford to be throwing its money around.
Forget the government, forget Obama, forget wind and (probably) solar, forget everything you've ever learned about energy. These people (Hamm, McClendon, etc.) are on the wrong side of history. They are sailing against a new world. New Energy will emerge from Silicon Valley or another laboratory of the future around the world. Don't be surprised if an Apple or Google provides your energy within the next 15 years. Yes, 15 years. The desperation of those pushing to save petroleum based fuels is showing - in the dollars they're pouring into buying our elections, to the commercials that argue desperately that they will be relevant. They are short-term. Period.

I have argued that Oklahoma City having so many eggs in Old/Dirty Energy can be our downfall. We must not sail against the winds of change just because those who desperately want to hold on to the telegram in this age of instant communication are frantic over the emerging possibilities of cleaner, cheaper and easier distributed sources of energy. We are on the brink of change - it will come from technology. We can listen to Ray Kurzweil and those who believe that singularity is near and the whole world will change - or continue to listen to those who ride horseback, holding back the forces of change for their own selfish, greedy accumulation of obscene wealth.

Oklahoma City - don't ride with those who will eventually leave your city like Detroit. Look to the future and see these people as temporary providers of energy who will soon be gone and DIVERSIFY our economy now - radically. Unfortunately, our local politicians are owned, for the most part, by these Old Energy dinosaurs that will leave us behind.

We have a choice to act now - and reach across the globe for business to call Oklahoma City home, or continue to hang on with the past at our own peril.