In article . com, says...

stevejduf... says:

* It seems to me that every gallon of oil that is pumped out of the
ground will be burned, well almost every, producing more CO2. I don't
see how Kyoto or any other treaty is going to change this.*

There you have it. It does not mater how good the science is. If the solutions
are so unpalatable that they can not be sold to politicians or the public,
then it is largely irrelevant: preaching to the choir.

Now there is a scary story if ever I heard one.

I like 'deep heat mining':
http://dhm.ch/
and wave power:
http://www.wavegen.com/
neither of which generate harmful gasses (heat pollution yes). Put
together with superconductors to transport the power:
http://www.amsuper.com/ or http://www.ultraconductors.com/
there seems to be some realistic hope.

Yes, there are technical solutions that do not require burning more fossil
fuel. So far, the perception is that these solutions cost more than the
cheap oil we have come to expect. Except for coal that is. There is the
potential to supply vast amounts of energy from the U.S. coal reserves
and replace lots of oil imports by so doing.

Trouble is, the decision can't be made on strictly economic grounds. The
environmental consequences of switching to a coal based energy system are
very much larger than what we've seen from the oil age.

BTW, electricity is a premium energy source and making a switch to an all
electric economy will be much more expensive than burning gasoline in your
SUV. After all, traditional electric power production wastes about 60%
of the energy available in the primary energy source, such as coal.
Electricity is best used in ways that exploit it's unique characteristics,
which do not include powering a large vehicle or space heating with resistance
devices. Heat pumps (that includes A/C systems) are great, but their efficiency
declines as they are used to pump with larger temperature differences.

--
Eric Swanson --- E-mail address: e_swanson(at)skybest.com :-)
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