Forwarded message:
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 10:03:25 -0500 From: Petro
Subject: Re: Citizenship silliness. Re: e$: crypto-expatriatism (fwd)
There already are several, the problem is the cannot be centralized the way oil is.
That's not really the problem...
Alcohol is acceptable (and in some ways better) than gasoline for cars and motorcycles, but anyone can set up a still and compete with RDS & Standard.
The problem with alcohol is that there isn't enough free land in order grow enough plant material to provide the necessary quantities without seriously restricting the amount of land available for actual foodstuffs and living space (unless you want everyone to move to Black Rock desert or live on the top of a mountain). Alcohol is also much more of a fire hazard than gas. It burns hotter, isn't put out by water spray easily, and burns invisibly (well all right in the near-UV).
A mix of solar
Again not enough land to make it feasible, not to mention the low efficiency of even the best panels.
wind
Not enough places in the US (or anywhere else for that matter) where the wind blows with sufficient force 18 hours a day to make it economical.
coal
Coal isn't an acceptable substitute, mainly because there isn't enough low-sulphur deposits in the world to supply the US, let alone the rest of the world. Plus it isn't renewable.
hydroelectric
Not enough rivers with sufficient hydrodynamic head to make this work for the US let alone the rest of the planet.
nuclear
I'll buck the general consensus because I like nuclear energy, however there is a single MAJOR caveat, we need fussion and not fission reactors to make it economical. The waste problem with fission reactors is enough to vote in the negative on them.
and other sources
cop-out. The reality is that the clathrate deposits occur across the entire ocean. The existing Magnesium Nodule treaties could be extended to cover the countries that don't have coastlines. They are the first renewable, occurring in sufficient quantity, and with realizable and economicly feasible methods for mining, processing, and distributing to have been put on the table. As to the gas and oil folk being against them, they're about the only ones with an existing infrastructure (ie extracting oil and gas from the sea floor) to take advantage of the source, implying that existing changes in the infrastructure would be minor. ____________________________________________________________________ The seeker is a finder. Ancient Persian Proverb The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------