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Home Front: Tech
Energy guru sees oil-free world
2004-11-29
The United States has a future beyond oil, and Amory Lovins has a plan to take the country there. Lovins, who emerged as one of the nation's most influential energy thinkers during the last oil crisis three decades ago, drives a hybrid that gets 64 miles per gallon and lives in a solar-powered house that is so energy efficient, he's able to grow bananas in an indoor jungle high in the Rocky Mountains. Now, as crude prices hit record highs and American soldiers battle to control Iraq, he's preaching what he practices, trying to persuade America's business and government leaders that the nation can end its dependence on foreign oil, and make money along the way.
Posted by:tipper

#13  Lovins is one of those 'elite scientific' types who thinks his years of Literature criticism and pure feelings make for expertise in energy science. The guy's a major socialist and anything he proposes probably 1)costs a lot of taxpayer money, 2)will never, never ever turn a profit, and 3)probably involves some sort of suppression of freedoms such as property rights. If Lovins is for it, it's probably a really bad method of doing it.

Dave
Posted by: davemac   2004-11-29 8:28:29 PM  

#12  turkey gutz + seaweed + wave action/ethanol_methanol transduction used with

excess baby karma and wishful thinking will lead automatically to justrightfusion.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-11-29 7:04:32 PM  

#11  http://web.mit.edu/pebble-bed/
Posted by: Cheaderhead   2004-11-29 5:58:40 PM  

#10  The current best bet for a revived nuclear industry is of course the Pebble Bed http://web.mit.edu/pebble-bed/ while the possibility of Fusion is at least 20 years away, just like it has been for the last 50. I think the only way to see if Fusion is possible is take the project away from the Dept of Energy and give it to the Navy with the stipulation that they work on designs that could fit inside a Los Angelos or Virginia class sub. The current machines that Princeton and the DOE have built are more suited for producing PHDs than energy.
Posted by: Cheaderhead   2004-11-29 5:58:10 PM  

#9  Nukes are expensive and have gotten a bad press? Also, they're not much for transportation. Shame how that nuclear-powered train never really got out of the station...

But yeah, this guy seems to be the exact sort of ripe ex-hippie moonbat which made growing up in the back-wash of the Sixties so tedious and disillusioning.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2004-11-29 5:15:32 PM  

#8  Seriously, why is nuclear power not the logical route forward out of our predicament?
Posted by: lex   2004-11-29 5:06:05 PM  

#7  Without resorting to nuclear weapons this is the absolute best way to defeat radical Islam. Cut-off their oil exports and you cut-off their money. Sooner or later we're going to have to do it anyway. If we wait for Detriot and the oil companies it will never happen
Posted by: Cheaderhead   2004-11-29 4:51:55 PM  

#6  why sneer at this man. The war on terror will never be over until we end our dependence on foreign oil and the middle eastern countries can go back to farming dirt.
Posted by: 2b   2004-11-29 4:40:10 PM  

#5  Nuclear power. Faster, please.
Posted by: lex   2004-11-29 4:27:18 PM  

#4  Run cars on snake oil. Now, why didn't I think of that.
Posted by: phil_b   2004-11-29 2:11:09 PM  

#3  To make it happen, he says the government should spend more on research into fuel efficient technology, advanced materials and alternative fuels; charge fees for inefficient vehicles while offering rebates for efficient vehicles; scrap inefficient vehicles; and help low-income Americans buy or lease efficient ones.

And there's the plan: the government is going to do everything.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-11-29 11:09:16 AM  

#2  I'll believe it when the ROP'ers put a contract out on him. When the Fraudis and their death cult brethren feel threatened by alt-energy theories, then we'll know we're on to something.
Posted by: BH   2004-11-29 10:13:21 AM  

#1  I'd love to live off the grid... just as long as it's near the 270 Corridor...
Posted by: eLarson   2004-11-29 9:41:28 AM  

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