"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in
message ...
So I was off by a factor of 10.... or so.
Still, a lot of energy is available.
If the Big Oil lobbyists are ever kicked out of DC, mebbe things will
progress faster.
Or when Big Oil gets into solar cells.
--

It doesn't matter whether Big Oil gets into solar cells or whether a law is
passed in D.C. or whether the world is run by those in Patik-print dresses.
There is no way sufficient solar energy can be captured or stored to make a
positive difference in our energy needs. It is a physical impossibility.

Of course being physically impossible won't stop the politicians. Look what
happened in Hawaii recently when the state government imposed price controls
on gasoline. Governments LOVE to tinker with the general marketplace.
(Taxes, quotas, price controls, tariffs, etc. The general marketplace always
wins.)

We CAN exist with a high-percentage of our energy needs coming from solar
power if we're willing to change our lifestyle, i.e., reduce our consumption
dramatically. But that's solving the wrong problem. Somehow, giving up air
conditioning, communications, and eating anything from farther away than the
next county is just not acceptable - that's the way they live in Darfur.

Remember, it was "BIG OIL" in the personification of John D. Rockefeller
that brought the price of Kerosene down from $3.00 per gallon to five cents
(in only three years). Of course this put the whale-oil people out of
business, but we did have light.