Say we replace oil with a portfolio of nuclear, wind, solar, biofuel, etc. We’re not giving money to Iran and Saudi Arabia; we’re not contributing as much to global warming; we’re creating non-offshorable American jobs harnessing the energy. Everybody wins, except Exxon-Mobil, but they’re basically a horse-and-buggy manufacturer in 1900 – history’s passing them by. They can either jump on alternative fuels like BP and other compaines have, or enjoy their dwindling market while they can.

Now, to clarify a few things: the left is against drilling in ANWAR because IT WON’T HELP! There’s enough oil there to keep the country going for maybe a few months. I honestly get the impression that ANWAR drilling is intended as a “go fuck yourself” to environmentalists more than a solution to our energy problems.

The left’s concerns about nuclear power are: 1) what do you do with the waste? Carting it all over the country to a mountainside and hoping nothing goes wrong along the way isn’t a good enough answer. Someone has to find a way to render this stuff non-harmful, or at least harmful for less than 100 years. 2) what happens if the Republicans deregulate the nuke industry to the point where there aren’t succificient safety protections? Coal might burn clean, but it sure as hell doesn’t come out of the ground clean, and the coal industry has so much political muscle in coal-rich states that there’s very little oversight, and not much to stop them from flooding small towns in coal dust. Now that’s bad, but turning small towns into 3 Mile Island or Chernobyl is much worse. Basically, build nuke plans, just make sure Homer Simpson doesn’t get put in charge of safety.

Back to Giuliani for a minute. He is pro gun-control, which is a big part of why New York is now the safest large city in America. That doesn’t mean he “wants to take your guns away.” What you have to understand is, New York is different from middle America. There are no hunters in Brooklyn. If you own a gun, you’re either in the NYPD or the Bloods. What Rudy fought to do wasn’t to take guns away from responsible gun owners – it was to stop the flood of illegal guns from out-of-state into the hands of drug dealers and criminals. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much exactly what the Democrats have been trying to do all this time the right has been hand-wringing about “taking your guns away.”

As for school choice, again, New York is a different animal from the rest of the country. We have hundreds of public schools in a few square miles, ranging from some of the best in the country to some of the worst. So every 8th grader applies to their high school of choice like they’re applying to college. The smart hardworking kids get into the elite high schools, the slackers get into the run-of-the-mill ones, but it’s based entirely on aptitude, not money.

Bush’s voucher program, by contrast, simply gives upper-middle-class kids better access to private schools. A voucher of a few hundred bucks isn’t going to pay private school tuition for a working-class kid, so it’s of no help.

Anyway, I do really like Guiliani, and would love to see him run. But that’s mostly because he’d represent a sea change in Republican politics. Besides specific issues he disagrees with Bush and the hard right on, Rudy has a different overall philosophy: he believes in good government, and he’s effective at delivering it. We should be so lucky as to have someone like that in office.

I agree that we need alternate sources. We need to make the switch without shutting down the economy. The replacements must be practical. For example, the windmills on California’s Altimonte Pass were killing birds. Sen. Kennedy feels they would spoil his view off of Hyanis Port. Solar cells have gotten much better, but they are still expensive, and less than 10% efficient. Bio-fuels require substantial energy to farm and refine them.

Nuclear technology has improved greatly since Three Mile Island. Recycling the waste is still not quite there, but for the time being we can store it in Iran and Saudi Arabia :-) With oil approaching $100 per barrel, it’s time to take another look at it.

Oh and while we’re upgrading our energy sources, we should harden them against EMP attacks and run lines underground to prevent storm interruption.

http://www.nationalcenter.org/KyotoSenate.html

Scotty, what alternate energy sources (other than nuclear) can replace the AMOUNT of energy we are currently deriving from fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal)? Wind, solar, and geothermal are drops in the bucket.

I’m not suggesting there are other sources immediately available that can produce more energy than fossil fuels. But there ARE other sources, both currently available and theoretical that will eventually replace fossil fuels. At least we should HOPE that we an replace them, since the libs won’t allow us to exploit our own energy potential (which leaves us at the mercy of foreign nations)!

Let’s see, who was in that? Oh yeah, Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, Jack Lemmon, Al Gore… (well, he should have been!)

It will be a cold day in hell…

There is no energy crisis, there is a Congressional Crisis There is no oil shortage. We have all the oil we could ever use up in Alaska and I am not talking about ANWAR.

Back in 1976, Arco Oil discovered the largest oil reserves in the world at Gull Island but the US Government ordered the well capped. Arco also discovered huge natural gas fields that have been ordered by the US Government to be pumped back into the ground. Our own Government has stopped production on the Alaskan North slope and has created this so called Energy Crisis.

Read Jerome Corsi’s Black Gold Stranglehold or Lindsey Williams book to learn about the energy fraud perpetrated by our own Government.

Lyndsey Williams Book is posted online for free:
http://www.reformation.org/energy-non-crisis.html

As for nuclear power: I shudder to raiuse them as example of ANYTHING, but the French settled on a cookie-cutter nuclear power plant design long ago and built scores of the same design for a LOT cheaper and faster than any of our plants. Time we did the same thing.

BTW S_que: I could also see myself supporting Rudy if he dropped amnesty. (Big “if”.) He’s not perfect, but neither were some of our Founding Fathers (like Ben Franklin, et al). The nation needs leadership, and Rudy just might be the person to provide it.

and Bush killed it….

I hope my memory is not going out that fast…LOL

Scotty, what alternate energy sources (other than nuclear) can replace the AMOUNT of energy we are currently deriving from fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal)? Wind, solar, and geothermal are drops in the bucket.

President Bush did open up the waste disposal site in Nevada a couple of years ago, but tons of radioactive wastes are still being stored above ground at all active (and some inactive) nuclear plants around the country waiting for transport to Nevada. But that site will not be available forever. What do we do then?

In addition, nuclear energy is really not that advantageous from an economic point of view. The plants are expensive to build, operate, and maintain. Power companies don’t see great returns on their investment, hence the lack of orders for new plants.

I think there are other forms of energy generation that will soon become more popular to pursue than nuclear. Nuclear is fast becoming a dinosaur. Too bad. :(

I only glowed for an hour or two; otherwise–no problem!

You were you own dive light?

The Kennedys don’t want windmills off the coast, how about a nuclear facility in their backyard as an alternative? My guess is the windmills would begin to sound pretty good.

Beside, coal burning is clean and coal is abundant. The moonbats got us into burning coal in past 30 years and I think we should keep burning coal….LOL..

That is the primary and only reason why we must not sign that stupid Kyoto accord. We almost got checkmate by the liberals!

Consider us lucky for ducking a bullet. This one is credited to Bush.

We also need a national water grid to offset the flood/drought cycles that we experience periodically. Power the pumps for the water grid by the nuke grid.

We need vision and leadership to get things like this done. The last time we did that was when Ike built the interstates. (Ike’s/JFK’s space program was important, but not on a national scale.) Perhaps Rudy is the man to do it, if he can overcome his baggage. But it won’t be easy – these are very different times.