We must invest in domestic alternative energy options. T Boone Pickens has my attention. I like the idea of putting people in our country to work building a 21st century infrastructure that takes advantage of wind, solar, and other clean renewable sources of power.

It seems that our energy problems and the calamity in the economy is linked to depending on practices that no longer serve our nation's needs. American auto companies need to put clean efficient cars in show rooms so that we can buy them with paychecks earned rebuilding power grids.

i agree, i think america should put unemploye people to work building new infrastructure like in the 20's. Perhaps they can build hidrogen stations. And maybe instead of trying to save the big 3, they could merge them into one new company that builds hidrogen cars.

Every home in the US should be required to have solar panels. The gov. needs to require electric companies to allow these solar panels to feed back excess electricity back to the grid and should pay home owners for providing the excess electricity. This will give home owners incentive to buy solar panels and as more solar panels are purchased the cost of solar panels will go down and the competition of selling solar panels will give an incentive to make better and more efficient solar panels. Small entrepreneurial companies should be allowed to build solar panel farms to any land or building that is owned by them or rented to them of which they can plug into the electric grid and be paid by electric companies. Hopefully as more solar panels are put up the electric company should look into selling solar panel services to home owners and should develop a new business model in the new energy environment. The gov. should mandate that electric company to not rely on old technology and should push forward on renewable energy sources.

To reduce oil dependencies for the car market, car companies should have a mandate to have at least one fully electric vehicle for sale in their product line within the next 5 years. There should be tax incentives for people to purchase electric cars as well as allowing electric cars to go on HOV lanes nation wide.

Start by riding a bicycle to do all your local errands - change begins with one person - you might actually feel better and lose weight in the process. If everyone in the country did this then Exxon/Mobil would not be posting a 14 BILLION dollar profit for the 3rd Quarter of the year.

Drive less. Drill here drill now.

Change the business and individual tax structure to incentivize clean/alternate energy construction & consumption, and DE-incentivize carbon based production/comsumption. This is not complicated...It is hard however. Hard because the stake holders in the present carbon based system are VERY dominant and have had a 100+ year head start.

They have tens of billions of strategically placed dollars...multi-decade personal relationships with politicians...and an infrastucture designed JUST for them.

This will cost us more BEFORE it costs us less...that is why NO politician who desires a future in elected office will tell US what we really need to do...they're all scared. No one has the courage of their convictions...really.

Start using electric cars.

Agressively implement the Pickens Plan. Use windpower (generated in the center of the USA and solar power (generated in the sunny SW of the USA) transmitted throughout the country via a new robust smart grid) instead of natural gas in our nation's power generation system. Use domestic natural gas to power our vehicles while we perfect technology to provide us with better alternatives, e.g. hydrogen or fully electric. (This means all our cars and trucks will have to built new or retrofitted to use this fuel and refueling stations will have to be installed everywhere.) Mandate from the federal level that all levels of government immediately encourage "cottage power" generation and provide adequate incentives for property owners to participate in this ultimate decentralization of power production. (We only have to look back to World War II for a precedent in the "victory gardens" that helped feed a nation in spite of enormous diversion of food stocks to feed our troups.) These steps will immediately create millions of jobs, income and massive revitalization of our economy.

Harness more Hydro power.
There so many streams (espicaly in the north wood anyway) that have Damms those can be ultalized.
why is it we dont utalize this consistence source of power?

I would first rename new energy sources as "secure energy" because our legacy energy sources at this point in history destablize our economy, promote conflict and severely impact our water supply, air quality, food supply and climate.

Subsidies for oil must end, tax loopholes closed and use of the military in acquiring oil must be greatly reduced and paid for directly in the cost of oil. Direct and substantial assistance to coal producing towns and cities would have to become a priority as these people are faced with hazzardous work and are in a position where their very livelyhood is destroying their own land. But there is no such thing as clean coal in production or use and it must be phased out.

Institute an economic stimulus package for 2009 that focuses almost entirely on re-building our electrical grid so that it can more readily accept and store energy produced from private gererators, businesses and consumers - this will allow for an untold array of sources and truely spark invention. Subsidize mass installation of power generating and conserving devices such as solar, wind etc. at businesses first and then homes.

Mass transit and resource conservation are far more useful targets than electric cars. The auto industry needs to be refactored into new lines of business not subsidized to increase production of marginally better vehicles that promote poor city planning and excess consumption.

It is important to put into place plans that are not subject to the ebb and flow of current energy prices. We are forced to pay for this change with money borrowed from China and paid for by future generations. Much money currently going to developing offensive weapons with little value in our current world can be diverted to developing truely secure energy.

Walking.I quit my job 44 miles away ,and walk one half block to work now.

I would have the government build a very large solar and wind plants. Using the same type of program used for dams. Use part of the power replace all current electric production. Use the rest to convert CO2 to gasoline (look it up, multiple patents).

They could use the electricity and the gasoline to pay back to project. They could store the gasoline to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.

Politicians and news media are all in agreement, Ford, Chevy and Chrysler build gas guzzlers because we buyers demand 400 horsepower under the hood.

Its like cigarette companies arguing that they may enrich themselves upon the misery of smokers because the market corrupts their morals.

So the issue is two fold: (1) Who is tempting who?
(2) May the big three knowingly enrich themselves upon the misery of our environment?

So, answer to the first question is immaterial. And if the big three think they may get rich upon our misery, then into bankruptcy they should go.

A well thought out comprensive long range plan using many of the types of energy sources that are available in the United States, such as wind, water turbines, coal, oil, natural gas,and solar. The sources must not have a harmful residual effect on the environment. Coal one of our biggest resources needs extensive studies to develop a clean burning product not toxic to the atomsphere. Nuclear, a clean source, but spent uranium has to be developed so it is not radioactive. Burying the product is just passing the problem on to later generations. Oil, need to continue drilling our own, reducing dependency on foreign sources,Natural gas is available to us, why not in our cars. Ethanol, is not an answer. Look at what it has done to the price of corn. Check the energy costs to produce a gallon of ethanol, not cost effective . Since the autos are the biggest consumer of oil, concentrate on getting improved MPG from other sources. Not a quick fix as in the past, but a well thought out solution.

first of all I would stop playing around with those highly inefficient solar panels and scrap the whole idea. secondly it's now time to symbolically convert all our cars and trucks to run solar, "without dramatically changing their engines" thirdly it's time to harness the heat from that solar furnace that reigns supreme in the Southwestern deserts of the United States. the solution to all our energy needs has been staring us right in the face for eons, now is the time to harness the full potential that our sun has to offer us.

I would put together a combination of solutions. I would move to a wind power solution in the center of the USA, such as the Pickens plan.

And then in energy thirsty corridors along the East and West I would use off shore, deep water wind farms that sit 30 miles out away from the line of sight of the eye...and I would cable electricity in land. The technology has come along to a point where it is competitive with coal fired electric plants....

Then, in parallel I would create incentive programs to move cars into a hydrogen program...and in the mean time use gas and electricity to power the cars....starting slowly and then rushing the plan forward as fast as possible.

I would add some targeted nuclear power plants...and some solar where solar is most effective (California, Nevada, Arizona, etc..)

I would do away with Coal Fired plants...as soon as possible...

I would put every incentive into energy efficient houses, building etc... I would offer incentives for high MPG cars...and rush as fast as possible toward hydrogen and electric cars.

The price of oil would plummet...but we must avoid the temptation to be lured back to oil...regardless of the price, we cannot afford it!

Mark Manniso
President
Forte Creates

We, as in all 300M of us, can overcome our dependence on foreign oil the same way you eat an elephant: one bite at a time. People snickered when Obama suggested we fully inflate our tires. As a member of the 50+ mpg club, when the temperature drops and lowers the pressure in my tires, my miles per gallon drops by about 5mpg or 10%. There are several things (bio fuels, better engineered cars, drive at 55mph, etc.) that individually account for only a small savings (5-10%) but cumulatively would save 25-50% of a barrel of oil. It'll take every American, each attentively doing our part; we got ourselves into this mess, only we can get ourselves out.

I think holdenoversoul has come up with a great analogy: "how do you eat an Elephant," but I'd like to add some perspective concening the magnitude of the problem. The real problem is "How do you eat an elephant in 10 minutes?"

We have been making use of the an energy source (naturally occuring hydrocarbons) that is an order of magnitude more "convenient" (= cheap, high energy density, portable, ...) than the alternatives since 1859. Replacing it will require huge and long-term lifestyle changes for the typical American. Remember, Americans use several times the energy per person than the average person on Earth as a whole. That's why we have such a nice lifestyle.

The best rigorous (not politically or financially motivated) comparison of alternatives is in "Beyond Oil" by Kenneth Deffeys(sp?). It is a depressing read but should be the first place one goes if they want to build opinions based on facts and not simply shift the massive profits to solar panel makers, dam builders, or CO2 disposers. Conservation is the only way individuals can make a difference over the next 25 years.

Ask yourself this. If King Henry the 8th had decided that he wanted to be the first man to travel to the moon, would he have made it, even spending his entire country's wealth? That is our dilemma.

haveing spent a large part of the last 30 years, in the trucking business, (over half of it in the oil industry) i beleive that the real issues about dependence on forieghn oil have been glossed over by just about every body, except the people who's livelyhood depends upon the price of a barrel of oil. The untold truth of the matter is that we have enough oil in this country to last us for a while. the cost of produceing that oil has made it non competitive in the scope of a world economy. i have worked on oil feield locations where we were putting a steel lined hole in the ground that was 5 miles deep. the cost of putting an oil well on line is so high, (when you have to do it responsibly). that it's nearly impossible to compete with a foriegn source that has considerably lower production costs. we could survive with our present consuption habits on domestic crude alone, but the price turns out to be enough to put the country on it's knees. which is what we're paying for now. the oil industry has pretty much been sitting on it's hands since the early 80's when the last oil boom ended, and we all lost our jobs. the problem was that oil could be imported from abroud cheaper than it could be produced here, which was good for the economy (cheap gas and deisel prices) but a calamity for people that relyed on oil and gas production for a paycheck. i bought a home in oil feild country for $3000.00, after all the jobs left. The real reason that we went to was in the middle east was because the only way to raise the price of a barrel of oil to a profitable level, was to eliminate a part of your competition. unfortunatly it has put the world economy in a shambles
we have been spoiled by cheap energy for eons, and the real answer to energy independance is to quit useing so much of it. watching the way we ship products around the country, the traffic on the roads that consist of one person per car, the fact that we need to light up our environment with flood lights and neon. we are the problem, and cheap energy has been the opiate that has fueled our present dilemia, and not being able to afford to do it anymore is the only thing that will cure the addiction.

News update Jan 26th, 2009: President Obama has called for the U.S. to become energy independent, saying its reliance on foreign oil and global warming posed threats. Outlining his energy priorities, he said the country would not be held "hostage to dwindling resources, hostile regimes, and a warming planet".
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