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Politics : BuSab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (4550)	8/8/2010 4:24:00 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23934

Not exactly. Coal is not an analog for oil. But it certainly is a nice solid energy source for the homeland. It is more of a "say one thing while doing another" approach. The simple fact is that if the mideast and venezuelan oil supplies got cut off right now, we would be in a world of hurt. And we need to accept that someday this is going to happen. It would be better for us if we still had oil reserves when that happens. But while we are depleting world oil supplies (while saving our own), we need to be sending the message that they (mideast/venezuela) are replaceable by other energy sources/technologies. Think of it like a relationship, the person who cares least controls the relationship. We need to care least. For the past 50 years we have needed mideast oil and this gave them power over us. We do not hold the ace energy card where oil is concerned. We have 2% of the world oil reserves (1/10th that of Saudi Arabia) and we consume more than any other country by a large margin. Our coal reserves will keep the lights on and industry running. But oil keeps us on the move. And we don't have enough of our own. So while we come up with alternatives, we use up our enemies reserves so that we are playing on an even field when they cut off oil supplies. I would encourage you to go through some scenarios in your head as world oil supplies are depleted. I cannot think of a scenario where using up our domestic oil supply works for the long term benefit of this country. We give them useless paper and in return we get the fuel to run our country. And it gets worse, no matter what we do, as oil reserves get depleted it moves us closer to a world war. I see that happening in 20-30 years....if we are lucky. And again, I would rather have our oil reserves intact when that happens. And what will China do when it's coal reserves are gone? Fossil fuels are our best source of energy. I want to save them for a rainy day. We don't have to worry about coal reserves, but we do have to worry about what China does when they run out. And they are going to run out in our lifetime. So this isn't some distant "what if" that our grandchildren have to deal with, we are going to see the day when china is desperate for an alternative to coal. What would be your energy policy if you were making the decisions?