N. Roubini touched on a topic I've been wary to bring up

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[Charles Dean]

That's exactly true. electric cars and plugin hybrids are the only way in my mind to get us off of oil. Ethanol may help, but I agree that it's ultimately not as renewable as everyone likes to think. Wind, solar and geothermal are the way we should be going.

[jon]

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[mukoh]

I think a combination of different approaches is best, and it is the most viable way to create more jobs as well.

PUD is testing 15 tide and current generators, which I think is a great resources.

Wind power has proven to be a long lasting product as well as recouping upfront costs in 6-7 years.

Underground Thermal power is a good option for some areas.

I think there is not one single approach, but four or six that should be taken at the same time.

[Charles Dean]

Mukoh is right on I think. Geothermal, wind, solar, tidal, coal carbon recapture, more drilling and new forms of ethanol. Just one way won't do it. Exactly why "drill, baby, drill" is so idiotic.

Also, if there is ever a way to stabilize nuclear waste into a solid form, then I think that's a great option for power as well, because then it'll be pretty safe.

[WestSideBilly]

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[jon]

[Charles Dean]

I'm assuming then, that you haven't read any of the studies, even ones from Bush that say that more offshore drilling won't help us for at least 10 years, and even then the effect will be negligible.

And when someone says, "drill, baby, drill", they do think that this will solve our problems. I've talked to at least a dozen people who think that drilling more will solve our energy problem. If they meant something other than that, then I think they would say something different.

I said that I do think that we need to drill more, but that it's not going to help us much if at all.

[Charles Dean]

In fact, it should be noted that OPEC just decided to reduce production by 1.5 million barrels a day. That's about 7 times more than what we can produce by expanding offshore drilling. So with a stroke of their pen, they make the drill argument irrelevent.

Also, it should be noted that oil companies already have millions of acres in land leases that could be drilled on that they're not drilling on. Nothing is stopping them from doing this.

[WestSideBilly]

Charles, you beat me to the punch.

One point of clarification - "Drill, baby, drill" inherently includes ANWR, which moves the 200k BBL/day up to about 800 BBL/day in a 7-10 year window. Which is still barely a blip on the map in terms of global production.

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[WestSideBilly]

[mukoh]

The DRILL NOW argument from the right I think is short sighted as of course they are trying to squeeze all the profits. I think if we actually stopped drilling. Concentrated fully on creating our own energy in a lot of ways, it would add jobs, taxes, as well as keep the money in the country. Then when most of the other countries run out of oil, then we can tap our reserves and sell it to them at a premium.