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ENERGY_FUTURES


                                             July 30, 2007

Having trouble envisioning a
post-fossil fuel oil world?          Possibly "fossil
                                     fuel" should be in
Here's mine:                         quotes, if you're     GOLD
                                     a Thomas Gold fan.

(0) For now, don't
worry about oil.        Let the Middle East
                        take care of itself     Trying to "manage it"
(1) Coal burning is     for awhile.             hasn't worked very
a bigger problem:                               well, has it?
we need to
immediately begin        NUKE
switching to
nuclear power as an                    Nuclear fuel, like
electrical source.                     coal, has plentiful
                                       domestic supplies.
(2) Zoning regulations
need to be fixed so                           If we don't stop using
that it's legal to                            coal powered electricity,
build "real cities"      Some thought         "electric vehicles" (even
again (i.e. high         should be            trains!) are dirtier than
density ones).           put into             gas burners.
                         retrofiting
   Places like New       suburban                 This is a nasty problem
   York and San          towns to                 even before you start
   Francisco have        allow them               talking about "greenhouse
   become hugely         to grow into             gases".
   popular: it           real cities.
   should not be
   illegal to build         (But the political
   more places like         problems inherent
   them.                    in that one makes
                            my head hurt, even
     ILLEGAL_LANDS          in utopian-scheming
                            mode.)
(3) Public transit.
Really.  It's not that
hard to find places        Possibly: a moritorium
where it works, even       on road building?
in the US.
                           Possibly: need to perfect
  And bicycles are         toll roads (with automatic    Note: the version
  even better:             sensors?) to fix the          of "congestion
  bike facilities          illusion that driving on      pricing" that NY
  are cheap, and           them is "free".               just avoided strikes
  you get health                                         me as insanely
  benefits out of                                        over-engineered
  them too.                                              and invasive.

       And bicycles                                         If NY wants to
       *on* public                                          discourage
       transit can be                                       driving, it's
       a killer                                             as simple as
       combination: it                                      jacking the
       fills in the                                         bridge and
       gaps neatly,                                         tunnel tolls,
       solving the                                          along with the
       usual problems                                       metered parking.
       with transfers.

(4) Fund experiments and
trial programs with "renewable
energy" and keep pushing
for "conservation".

   Wind and solar fanatics
   always seem to have an
   exaggerated notion of what         The trouble is that
   can be done with these, but        they involve
   what the hell, the research        harvesting extremely
   is cheap, it's likely to           diffuse, intermittant
   have interesting spin-offs,        sources of energy.
   and even if they only stay
   niche technologies, there's             Wind and solar
   nothing wrong with having               has a very nice
   some niche technologies.                and harmless vibe
                                           going for them,
                                           but that's
                                           because they're      But there may
                                           really wimpy and     be a trick
                                           toothless.           in the deck
(5) Now we're at the stage where                                we're missing:
"electric vehicles" make some
sense: doing this at the earlier                                  POWER_SATS
stages would be solving the                      Or "clawless":
wrong problem.
                                                 "It is because I deem
                                                 you capable of evil
                                                 that I expect the good
                                                 of you.  Verily I have
                                                 often laughed at those
                                                 who thought themselves
                                                 good because they had
                                                 no claws."

                                                       --  Nietzsche,
                                                           Kaufman translation
                                                           (from memory)








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