For the record, I don't care if we drill in anwar or not. It won't save us from our selfs or destoy the enviornment beyond repair. I don't see it drasticlly lowering my
fuel bill. Further more, If the market starts paying for alternatives, then more Ideas and investments will flow.
Consider where cell phones were in the eighties, nighties and today. Look how far computers have come in that same time. Now check out biotech, or agriculture.
As to the federal government, it funds plenty of research through grants and scolarships. States do as well. I wouldn't be oppsed to raising the gas taxes and indexing them to inflation, but sulutions are useless if no one is willing to give up what they don't feel is a problem. There in fact has been a whole lot of new ideas tried and produced in the last ten years. It didn't all stop when the eighties ended. The oval piston was produced by honda for a number of years. It was discarded because it was to expensive. They also played with a 2 stroke that was great on
fuel.
There are races that focus on
fuel consumption. They are each given the same amount of
fuel and the winner is the one who completes the most laps. When you talk about cars not getting better
fuel milage since the boost after the opec crisis. You've got to remember that car makers, make what sales. The consumer has wanted the extra power created though out the nighties and zeros to go into extra horse power rather then extra miles.
This is why our
fuel consumption is going up. When you consider that America probably uses more power running personal fish Aquiriums then brazil uses to produce its fresh water supplies. Then you start to see where the real lack of energy independence comes from. Trying to achieve independence would do more to damage our economy then just making sure we can cover our butts in the event of a major crisis.
The senarios that have the middle east blowing up into a huge war don't bother to mention that whether we're energy independent or not, we're going to get sucked in and things are going to change. In fact no matter what, things are going to change. I just don't think there is much reason to get worked up about the rising prices.
Don't forget that in the event of a real shortage of energy. Every watt of power you don't use is three saved. There is a lot of power consumed in the generation and delivery of electric. Same is true of gas. A lot of
fuel goes into getting the oil from under ground to in your
fuel tank.
That's my main point, we are for all purposes energy independant for the basic essitials as well as a few luxeries such as ice, air conditioning and a few hours of TV even if all hell breaks loose. Beyond that, Trying for independence gets expensive really fast, and won't last long anyway.