Do you think that winning the 21st Century Economy (Clean Energy) will be as challenging as the Space Race?

8 Responses to Do you think that winning the 21st Century Economy (Clean Energy) will be as challenging as the Space Race?

1. Entropy says:

   July 2, 2012 at 5:24 am

   Clean energy is a very difficult thing. Democrats have been underestimating how hard it is since the 1970s when Jimmy Carter naively thought it was right around the corner. The problem is basic physics. Fossil fuels are concentrated energy. They are the flesh of animals and plants that consumed large amount of energy over their lifetimes that died and spent hundreds of millions of years being concentrated and distilled by natural processes.

   Alternative sources like wind and solar are extremely diffuse. The energy is nearly limitless globally, but it is spread out such that you cannot harness alot of it at any given time. This is why this is a major engineering problem. Improvements have been made, but these technologies still take huge upfront investments to produce mediocre amounts of energy over their lifetime. It is ONLY through govt subsidies that they are even worth building, and there are only so many subsidies the govt can afford to make.

   This is why Democrats need to embrace nuclear as a middle term solution. Nuclear is 100% carbon free, yet produces energy at volumes capable of supplying an industrial economy. Any democrat who opposes nuclear power is NOT SERIOUS about global warming. You simply cannot have it both ways.
2. Mike Bloom says:

   July 2, 2012 at 4:30 am

   It wouldn’t be if we just built like 100 more nuclear power plants. We can bury the waste under a mountain in Nevada. Or Utah. Or Arizona. Or New Mexico. We have plenty of wasteland. Then just hope Chevy keeps improving on the Volt and that the other car companies follow suit. I also heard that there’s a way to make big trucks run on natural gas. That’s a good idea to pursue as well.
3. Ed says:

   July 2, 2012 at 4:24 am

   I think it will be an even greater challenge, we have too many politicians in debt to too many lobbyists close to oil, and coal.
4. Fed Up says:

   July 2, 2012 at 3:49 am

   Yes, it’s something we’ve been kicking around for 40 years. But we have no choice and someday we’ll find the silver bullet.
5. Kevin says:

   July 2, 2012 at 3:38 am

   We do Democrats and liberal republicans make good goals? Yes, challenging. I hope we can succed with JFK
6. John D "Your ad here" says:

   July 2, 2012 at 3:14 am

   It will probably be more challenging. We were able to land 12 men on the moon using slide rules. We’re going have to work very hard to put a dent in our $500 billion a year imports of foreign oil.
7. Nuts for Liberty says:

   July 2, 2012 at 3:12 am

   Probably more challenging because the oil lobby is strong in Washington, oil holds a monopoly on the market, and the energy market isn’t even free.

   Private companies have tried to develop different alternate energies and the government has either prevented them from doing that or make it impossible for them to profit from it.
8. John Doe says:

   July 2, 2012 at 2:50 am

   I think its a bunch of empty talk from a guy with no real workable ideas.