Bush & Energy...

[Repo]

President George W. Bush should have been president a half century ago; then at least his vision for the future would have been in the future and not in the past. He proclaimed last year his desire to send a man to the moon. Yeah, that's wonderful but it's already been done. Now he has declared, "A secure energy future for America must include more nuclear power." America got leery on nuclear power after the Three Mile Island disaster and the former USSR's Chernobyl only reinforced the problems with nuclear power. Add the tempting target nuclear power plants make for terrorists and the danger in disposing of nuclear waste and nuclear power isn't as inviting a solution as one might think...

Bush also thinks clean diesel fuel is an answer, it isn't and neither is hybrid vehicles that use partial gasoline. The only reason Bush wants hybrid vehicles and clean diesel fuel pushed is so his contributors the big oil companies still have a product in the near future. I on the other hand want to see the oil companies as a thing of the past. Bush once mentioned hydrogen powered vehicles but like most things he mentions, they are mentioned only so he can go on record as for something even though he never plans to mention it again. Bush thinks backwards not forward, he is a man of limited vision and seems more concerned on the future of big oil companies than of the country he was elected to lead...

Hydrogen is the answer to America's future and unless Bush wakes up and promotes it more enthusiastically America will be left behind by Japan and other countries of vision. Hydrogen powered cars are the future, hybrid vehicles are pushed by oil companies so they still sell some of the needed fuel. Hydrogen is the future but hydrogen needs to have an infrastructure in place. In most of the country there is no corner hydrogen station, the government needs to encourage companies to build a hydrogen infrastructure. Hydrogen can be created clean but can also be made through nuclear and coal until clean producing plants are perfected. So to get hydrogen going it would help the coal producers and in effect help the economy. The sooner America gets hydrogen run cars on the street, the sooner America can tell OPEC, "We don't need your stinking oil!" Sure, we will still use some in plastics and other items but when you cut out the vehicle use, it would be minor...

It's a good thing the oil companies aren't in the hay business or President Bush's vision for America's energy needs would have been going back to the horse and buggy...

[albed]

Your ignorance about nuclear power is probably even greater then your standard ignorance about everything else. Peabrains have always tried to oppose it mainly because old Soviet infiltrated organizations spread propaganda against it. Three Mile Island was only a disaster in that it caused lots of stupid people to shit their pants. No-one got hurt and nothing but the reactor was damaged. Not much of a disaster to anyone with a functioning brain. And safely storing waste is not a problem except for political opposition. But I guess being "leery" is enough reason to oppose any power source even if it's a hundred times safer and less polluting than oil and coal.

What do you mean by 'clean diesel fuel'? Does it have soap in it? Maybe you're thinking, in your limited way, of biodiesel; made partially from vegetable oils and methanol, non-petroleum products. But I guess you'll just start squawking that Bush is trying to help big farming companies then.

Hydrogen is the answer to America's future

Hydrogen is just a word a lot of dumb parrots have been trained to squawk. I see you've learned the whole "hydrogen is the answer" phrase; very good. But there is no hydrogen supply to provide energy, it has to be removed from water by using energy and then transported and transformed back into water to reproduce that energy, so it's just an inefficient, unwieldy and dangerous storage medium. It doesn't take a whole lot of intelligence to understand this but it's apparently still too complicated for a lot of morons.

[tambourine-man]

^
For once, I'm in complete agreement.

[Dovobis]

Originally Posted by Repo

Three Mile Island disaster

I laughed after reading this but then....

Originally Posted by REpo

Add the tempting target nuclear power plants make for terrorists

And then....

Originally Posted by Repo

Hydrogen can be created clean but can also be made through nuclear and coal until clean producing plants are perfected.

[Mazer]

Ignoring the presidential big oil conspiracy theory and the 1980's bred fear of nuclear power, Repo is partially right towards the end of his post. Hydrogen fuel for transportion is not a mature technology and at this point in time is still prohibitivly expensive, but there's no shortage of research and funding for it either. The fact that Honda and GM are making plans to develop hydrogen powered cars is very telling.

I found this article from Wired News that goes into some of the details of renewable fuels. My predictions: hydrogen will be viable soon, as will ethanol and natural gas powered automobiles. Biodiesel prices will be competetive with petrodiesel in the years to come, hybrid cars will be the norm, and federal emission standards will become ever more stringent. Despite the blathering alarmists that push these technologies they are not bad ideas.

How anybody can fault the president for making energy policy a cornerstone of his administration I cannot understand. Often times when the president pays lip service to an idea it gives it just the kick it needs to take off in the collective consiousness. If the president today told the American people to carpool to work you can bet that tomorrow there'd be a million or more people giving it a try for the first time. Bush can't lower gas prices all by himself, but he can use his office to pressure automakers, oil companies, and electric companies to improve their products and services. It wouldn't be long before his leadership had an effect.