russell, i am with you on this one,
we as a nation better dummy up quick, either we are going to have to go the coal to gas route or go neuclear in a big way, sooner than later.
when you think about history in general and how it tends to repeat itself over and over again several things seem to be past due.
1. depression, historically it happens every 30 to 50 years, we are far past due for a serious correction.
2. global warming, i am not a proponent of the theory, but i am realistic enough to know that it is indeed possible that we are either responsible for a warm up or the earth is entering a long cycle of warming, with some serious consequence.
3. world war, seems to me we are quite past due for something to set off another one of those bad boys
4. migration to and from cities to the country, you have to be insane not to see that the migration back to the farm is happening now, but at much higher cost than at anytime in history. the last time it happened (after the great depression) corporate farming was not much of a player, now it is a serious player and has most of the good land locked up.
5. oil energy, we all know what is going on with this one, and it ain't going to get better, maybe relax a bit for a time, but not better. we will see 4 to 5 dollar gasoline in the next 5 to 10 years with extreme consequence in our economy.
6. government and political attitudes, here we have the gamit of folks, those that don't want neuclear anywhere anytime, those that want us all to ride bicycle's, and no drilling off the coast of california, florida or in the anwar (sp), this alone will slow progress until we have a crisis so severe that we may not be able to overcome it in a reasonable amount of time.
my thinking is in the event of a serious crisis, it would take at least 10 years to put in place anything that would alleviate the problem beit neuclear, coal to fuel, wind or whatever.
some of these things are happening now as we speak, some will happen at some point in the future, and we better be waking up to this reality as a nation.
things are hanging in a very precarious and delicate balance as i see it right now.
add to all this the loss of so much of our vast manufacturing base, and the ever present lunatic dictators of the world and the picture looks even more precarious to me.
during the last world war, or rather just prior to it, we had a vast industrial base, our own oil, alot of trained man power, and perhaps the most valuable of all a superb work ethic in this country.
how much of that remains today?
not enough to get into another world war, without neuclear deterent.
after pulling that pin, with north korea, russia, now iran and god knows who else will certainly feel free to do as they like
with their nukes, after which life will be very different for all of us.
so to dovetail all of this into your thread (at long last) yes we have the coal, many years of it, we understand it, and should work to derive liquid fuel from it "yesterday" if at all possible.
i remember the 90's and the tech industy being the "new economy" (remember that?), this was to save us from all the industial decline in this country, well we see how that worked out didnt we?
we are going to be stuck with this economy for a good long time, and lets face it, it is fueled by hydrocarbons.
bob g