On Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:19:48 +0000, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:



That means drilling until we can develop other methods of
supplying the energy.

I wouldn't argue with that. Drilling is definitely a *part* of the
solution, but the days off cheap energy are over. We need a
comprehensive energy plan, including drilling, *and* including
conservation. All this bitching about $4 gas, is just that, bitching.
We had one wake-up call in the '70s, $4 gas is a second wake-up call. If
we don't deal with it, we deserve to go down the drain.


What is interesting to me about this issue is that up until two years
ago, including one regular here who I respect greatly, peak oil theory
was all the rage. Oil hits $150 a barrel and now we're awash in oil -
there's freakin' oil everywhere. The Bakken Field is an older field -
you are correct. What you apparently don't know is that while the
original field is fairly well played out, the field UNDER the old field
is huge - 400 Billion (with a B) barrels of oil that can be recovered
with new vertical/horizontal drilling techniques.

I disagree. We aren't awash in oil, we are awash in talk of oil. It's
true, the higher the price of oil, expensive oil fields become
profitable, but it is still a finite resource, and we are still running
out. We import 1/2 our oil, but we are exporting our wealth. This is
perhaps the greatest transfer of wealth in history, and who are we
transferring it to? Not our friends.




The problem is this - there is no clearly defined energy policy - the
Democrats don't have one, the Republicans don't have one and the
environmentalists - climate change advocates don't have one. All sides
of the issue are at logger heads over inconsistent and frankly stupid
concepts and outdated theories of social progress.

30 years ago, Carter had one. He was laughed at.



Here's the hitch - there is no way to tax sun power. In short we won't
see this technology put into production because the power from the sun
can't be taxed. In short, there is no "use" tax on free power.

Yeah, but it's past taxes. It's getting real close to survival. Perhaps
not literally, but definitely economically.