This is a comment I found on AMERICAblog:In 1962, President Kennedy said: We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
Less then 7 years later, we accomplished that goal.
If if US government put together the money and told the scientific community, "Make cars that can run on dog shit," there is no doubt in my mind that it would happen. We only lack the focus and the drive.
And we're being sabatoged by the oil companies. They don't want us to develop alternative fuels.
UPDATE: Here's another comment that makes some excellent points:
What really ticks me off about all of this: There has been NO word from the president about CONSERVATION. Maybe if the Chimp would address the nation and ask people to do simple things like combine trips/errands, etc.. so they are not running around all the time, and spend more time off the streets, some of the "conservatives" might listen.
I also think a luxury tax should be charged nation-wide for all SUVs (and the profits used to reduce the gasoline taxes) unless a person can prove they use the SUV for a private business (No need to tax construction workers, plumbers, etc... out of business).
I also want to know why there is not a big push for modernizing and building more public transit infrastructure so it is more efficient and more widely available. I think $400 billion spent in Iraq could have gone a long way toward that. Instead, our "leadership" does nothing, and while the American public's pockets become emptier, the oil companies profits continue to grow.
Oh, and a nation-wide mandatory recycling program for all plastics to help reduce demand could make a huge difference. People often forget that Petroleum is also used for plastic!!!
Now, do you think there's any chance - any chance at all - for the above suggestions to be implemented? It's in the neighborhood of that proverbial snowball, I'm afraid.
Ellie
ReplyDeleteOver here BP (who you own now - well not you personally - you, as in, you lot) keep telling us through adverts that they're developing bio fuels for cars. We have plants producing the stuff already - but not for car use. Some naughty (as in not paying any tax naughty) people run their diesel cars quite efficiently and cheaply on vegetable oil straight out of the bottle. BIO FUELS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED - don't believe anyone who tells you differently - the problem is, as you identify, deception of the public by government and the oil companies. People might pay high tax and prices for Arabian oil but they're not going to be happy paying it for the stuff growing in the field next to where they live.