aeroripper

What'd everybody think of that part about "ending america's oil addiction".

Excuse my ignorance, but the only alternatives I heard was nuclear power, new coal plants, ethanol alternatives and hydrogen. Are any of these really a major chunk out of the energy we get from oil every year? Are any of these reliable or withstanding enough to support our huge demand for energy? Even with a combination of all of them? How can we ween off fossil fuels without having a mass reduction in consumption?

Again, if I'm wrong, please correct as I'm remembering this off the top of my head but:

nuclear - most plausible in my eyes, except for the not-so-small problem of nuclear waste and the danger of it. This still doesn't cut oil out of the picture, you still need oil-powered trucks to get uranium out of the ground and transport it.

solar - Might work in small scale, but unlikely to ever take off big time. Even if it does I doubt it will ever be able to even come an inch from the energy we consume every year from burning fossil fuels.

ethanol alternatives - From what I've read, every square inch of the US would have to be covered with corn to even produce a fraction of the energy used every year as it is now.

hyrodgen - Isn't this expensive? Doesn't it require minerals (silver, platinum) that are already in scarcity? If we are applying this to transportation, how many decades would it take to retrofit millions and millions of cars with this new technology, assuming they can figure out how to make it work on its own without fossil fuels.

coal - no real comment on this, but the pollution is a problem, although not like the administration really cares what the EPA has to say.

Or is this another case of when worrying about oil futures, the government blows the dust off the speech about solar power and making energy from manure?

I guess this plan is to get the US off relying so heavily on mid-eastern oil, but then we still have massive consumption, where do we get it from? Venuezela? Nigeria?

I really don't think he has presented a realistic approach to weening us off mideastern oil (especially true in the upcoming decades).

Steeler

The problem with petroleum is that we use it for a lot more than fuel. Plastics, manufacturing, chemicals, food additives, cosmetics, medicine, etc. It's remarkably useful stuff. We will always need some of it. What we need to reduce is our dependence on combustable hydrocarbons in general, both for public health and conservation. It would be nice to see something along the lines of a Cold War space race for clean fuels - promoting science education, funneling cash and resources into directed research, etc.

I suspect that, given the market-driven ideology of the current administration, "reducing our dependence on foreign oil" means opening up more public land to drilling and exploration and more subsidies to oil companies. Dubious solutions at best, counter-productive at worst.

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Wyzcrak

Accurate or not, I was surprised to hear him use the word "addiction."

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Steeler

So it turns out, that whole "reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern Oil" thing? Just kidding.

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ScratchMonkey

Random thoughts on the big speech

ABC says that "48 of 62 paragraphs could’ve been said by Bill Clinton".

Top Ten Highlights from the President’s State of the Union Speech...

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