There He Goes Again

I read the article you attached. It also mentioned offering tax credits for clean diesel and hybrid vehicle technology. That sounds good to me.

Maybe it's time to try nuclear power again. It's been thiry years since the last push, surely technology has gotten better in that time.

There is a serious need for refineries in the US. As you can imagine, most people don't want them built in their backyards. This offers an alternative. Our oil usage increases every year. Now if we were all willing to give up SUVs and Air Conditioning until the scientists figure out cold fission, then we probably wouldn't need more refineries, but I don't think that's gonna happen.

I agree that we need new oil refineries. The recent explosion at a facility on the Gulf Coast highlighted our vulnerabilities. I'm wondering, however, if we could build new refineries in that very expensive piece of real estate that we bought from Sadaam Hussein. Do refineries need to be in or near the United States to be cost-effective? Have we made advances in strengthening the bottoms of oil tankers?
As for nuclear power, I'd like to know what advances we've made in the last twenty years. If we haven't made any, then perhaps that's due to a "phobia" about the issue rather than a failing of science.

Any SENSIBLE energy policy has to start with legislation causing higher fuel efficiency standards for motor vehicles. GM and the rest successfully lobbied congress not to pass these laws last session - of course they are paying the price for tying their profit centers to SUVs. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) and adding new refineries will not help. I do, however, agree with the need to reinvestigate using Nuclear Power, although I am very leery of the calls from Bush to fast track this - there is very little up to date legislation covering new technologies that could be used.

The worst idea of all is to add extra LNG terminals, unless they are very far offshore. I used to live in Boston and the entire port would shut down when one of those tankers would come into the city. Talk about a terrorists dream, getting hold of one of those babies.

You certainly have a point. The desperately needed answer is some more LEGISLATION.

GM surely must have some arcane and mysterious reason for building more SUVs. Certainly no patriotic citizen wants to buy one.

And everyone knows that the oil/auto industry has systematically crushed all the inventions that make engines so efficient that a 60 ton tank could get 100 mpg. Any technically savvy person knows that the number of BTUs in a gallon of gasoline is a purely arbitrary number--probably established by a congressional committee whose members were elected with BIG OIL money.

And refineries are a terrible idea. Just look at all the pain and agony they have caused as this nation grew to be the 800 lb gorilla of world commerce with a living standard higher than ever before in the history of mankind. We certainly don't want any more of them--particularly where we can see them. Maybe in some one else's backyard would be OK. Maybe Iraq or Kuwait--all they have is sand over there so it shouldn't matter to them, right? Anyway, that's the only reason that Bush guy sent us over there. Everybody KNOWS that!

And nuclear power plants...now there is something to really be scared of. The European and Asiatic countries that are using them must not be able to think straight.

After all, horse and man power was good enough for thousands of years and if we had nothing, the rest of the world would not hate us so much and half the poor people in the world would not be trying to get in.

The problem is, we just don't have enough LEGISLATION--and what we do have doesn't work. We need some guidance--perhaps from that nice fellow up in North Korea. He seems to have effective legislation--and they aren't troubled with an excess of SUVs either.

Sheesh!!