[mtlakejim]

The real debate is not on what TYPE of vehicle will be used in the future but how the ENERGY for that vehicle will be created!! I have no doubt that one day the Internal Combustion Engine will be replaced. I can see there is significant progress on electric vehicles already. It would not surprise me if we make the leap to them in my lifetime but they still require a source of energy.


What I don't see is solar or wind power replacing natural gas, oil and coal as our primary sources of energy creation in less than 20-30 years if ever. There is so much infrastructure that has been built up over decades and truthfully the current "green" energy sources are simply not good enough to produce more than a tiny percentage of our requirements.


It may feel good for the local TV station to report that "green" energy produced 6% of the electricity at PEAK production for a given day (they never report what it did for the total 24 hours because it is never over 1% due to low winds or something called night time) but truth is we are simply not anywhere close to producing 100% "green" energy for several decades. And the suggestion that we should have an agenda to FORCE it to happen is simply unrealistic. We can't wreck our economy to force something that will over time happen anyway. We are gradually heading towards new technology. I recommend that we focus on RESEARCH and spend the money there rather than throwing money at feel good green projects! I'm all for research but not agenda motivated boondoggles. Thinking something all the way thru before implementing I can get behind but not knee jerk "we have to do something" doomsday kind of BS I hear from some. The sky is a little dark but it is not falling.


Before someone starts screaming at me, allow me to state: I do believe that climate change is real. It has been happening since the Earth was created. I also believe that humans do impact that change to some degree. I do NOT think we impact it as much as some would suggest. But I do think we impact it enough that we should be changing our ways. I do not think we should be in panic mode though. We should fully think thru the changes that we implement and not wreck our economy trying to force something to happen because we have an agenda and end up doing more harm than good (you know like growing corn to produce ethanol or throwing money at companies like Solendra).


For sure the folks on either extreme side of this debate need to decide it is time to meet somewhere in the middle.