PRVBwealth: "...it's too late in the game to be saved by alternative energy sources."
I tend to agree (and I'm a bigtime greenie):
1) Hydrogen cars: a joke. Uneconomical, undeveloped infrastructure, unnecessary.
2) ethanol: uneconomical, a farming/eco disaster dreamed up by the corn lobby.
3) nuclear: great potential, but long timeline, massive cost overruns, uranium supply issues.
4) solar: still waiting on that quantum jump in solar cell efficiency that's needed.
5) wind : a joke// hydro: an eco disaster that's tapped out// tidal power: another joke// fusion: still theoretical, too expensive, a job-security program for researchers in applied physics.
6) coal, coal gasification, etc. Possible. Very dirty. Unnecessary.
7) geothermal: Limited; need to tap into that big magma reservoir under Yellowstone to get any decent energy amounts.
Well, it looks like natural gas (and oil) is still on the plate: plentiful, cheap, existing infrastructure, clean relative to coal. As for pollution concerns, central power plants can be scrubbed of CO2 and other noxious emissions many, many times easier than mobile power sources can. Mobile sources hopefully will cease to be an issue as the internal combustion engine is replaced in the next 10-15 years by electric motors powered by batteries and/or hypercapacitors. As we switch to electric powered transportation, central electric power plants will have to multiply to replace gasoline refineries.
AI
