Sarah Palin, Republican Vice Presidential Candidate

[Krandor]

It's not really something a bandaid can cover as more of a giant gaping wound. Our dependence on foreign oil is bad and a severe problem, but it's not something we can hope to fix in a short amount of time. When the next election rolls around, I think putting the focus on Alternative energy will be big for both candidates, but right here and now, it's something that should be on the backburner while we solve our more immediate problem.

[Zilong]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the oils from offshore drilling be entered into the international market and not actually used exclusively for the domestic market?

[Maxxthepenguin]

that's great what she says, but she doesn't make McCain's policy, and his policy is basically the same as Obamas, with only a little more drilling. You really can't say McCain energy plan is terrible if you praise Obamas

I actually like aspects of McCain's more than Obama's. Though I think the drilling is a waste, his willingness to put Nuclear on the agenda falls more in line with my own thoughts.

[Deejay]

Sure, let's not try to find alternative energy now, let's wait for it to be an actual problem, k guys?

That's like saying you shouldn't even worry about HIV until it becomes full blown AIDS

I can't stand that way of thinking with todays voters. An energy crisis isn't something you can just "set aside", what the fuck.

[Elvis]

It's not really something a bandaid can cover as more of a giant gaping wound. Our dependence on foreign oil is bad and a severe problem, but it's not something we can hope to fix in a short amount of time. When the next election rolls around, I think putting the focus on Alternative energy will be big for both candidates, but right here and now, it's something that should be on the backburner while we solve our more immediate problem.

Since you broached the subject...

http://www.pollingreport.com/prioriti.htm

The above polls deal with the issues Americans (as surveyed by various news outlets) think are the most important and that are the deciding factors for their vote for the next president.

[Krandor]

And wasn't it already stated on this page that both candidates are going to be working towards it, it's simply that they have different priorities.

[SDSD]

Alternative energy sources still need alot of work, and the ones already in place (excluding Nuclear power obviously) are generally problematic. Wind energy is just plain bad (the net gain from Wind energy is minuscule, not to mention being incredibly reliant on weather patterns). Solar energy is ok, but it's viability can vary alot depending on location/weather.

The problem with alternative energy isn't the method of harnessing it. The base technology is there, but the problem is locational. Weather isn't a huge issue when you have solar farms in the SouthWest and wind farms in the MidWest. Even the current technology on the market is capable of generating more energy than we can use if utilized correctly.

The problem lies in the infrastructure to transmit that energy long-distance. Again the tech is there, but in a state regulated industry, it's going to be awhile till we can get the full benefits of alt-energy in places that aren't within a few hundred miles of the generation site.

[Kirin]

When the end of the day comes, some energies are much more viable than others. I remember reading a report where some airline decided to use coconut oil in one engine of a jetliner in a 2 hour or so flight. Took 150,000 coconuts for that one engine to run for 2 hours. Obviously thats not viable longterm.

The world as a whole is so entrenched in oil thats theres really no true "replacement" for it within possibly our lifetimes. We can make steps to make oil greatly more efficient in our lifetime with supplementing it with other uses, but candidates setting deadlines like "being oil free in 10 years" is almost silly to me, regardless of the candidate making the claim.

Clean coal, natural gas, nuclear, solar, and bio fuels that dont rape our grain crops into oblivion are the best bet while we work to find a much more efficient balance between depending on oil and utilizing oil (I personally think wind is a waste of time in the grand scheme...too many conditionals for it to work "properly").

Drilling where we can, when we can, with exisiting technology should be on both candidates plates in my opinion. Yes it is a bandaid but it is almost a necessary bandaid to expand the pool we can draw from while we look to build other pools. The US as a nation and the world as a whole is too smart to not have some breakthrough within a decade...but just saying now "no oil in 10 years" without having an infrastructure built up to support such a deeply ingrained switch would harm more than help by setting energy deadlines like that, in my opinion.

Also, I wish both candidates would recognize theres equal science to prove and disprove global warming and instead of making policy to curve climate change directly, focus more on conservation and just simply smarter uses of technology to avoid being as wasteful and damaging to our surroundings, global warming or not. I think McCains's cap and trade is junk, and I think Obama's stance is equally as silly.

[Daimen-G]

<!> CRUEL JOKE ALERT <!>

Anyone else think it's funny that Sarah Palin has a child named Trig who won't be able to do math, and another named Track who won't have any legs?

[SDSD]

Clean coal, natural gas, nuclear, solar, and bio fuels that dont rape our grain crops into oblivion are the best bet while we work to find a much more efficient balance between depending on oil and utilizing oil (I personally think wind is a waste of time in the grand scheme...too many conditionals for it to work "properly").

I wish people would shut up about clean coal. It's never going to happen because there's no place to put away all that carbon. It's only a front for energy companies to reap government subsidies while doing jack-shit.

[Kuya]

Krandor, what are the economic policies of McCain that you support, and why? Forgive me, but i'm getting a feeling here that you're just clinging to McCain in the face of rising evidence that he's not the better candidate, and what's worse, i think you know it. Furthermore, drilling in ANWR would prove to have minuscule results, and it would be a terrible idea to let things such as that to be our focus.

[Seraph]

I wish people would shut up about clean coal. It's never going to happen because there's no place to put away all that carbon. It's only a front for energy companies to reap government subsidies while doing jack-shit.

Goddammit, why haven't we covered Montana with Solar Panels yet? >:O

[archibaldcrane]

The thing about energy is...

...we can't power our cars with wind energy, and we aren't burning oil for electricity. Nuclear/wind/hydroelectric/etc. doesn't really reduce our dependence on oil, we need cars that burn significantly less gasoline. Which means at the moment, more ethanol, more hybrids and soon electrics. Hopefully in the future the fuel-cell, natural gas and hydrogen cars will be viable (well, natural gas is viable just not widespread).

We only get 2% of our electricity from oil burning - that's not the problem.

[Demosthenes11]

uh, ethanol is not efficient at all and is extremely expensive >.>

[Beckwin]

archibald, I think you're off on a couple things. For one, we use oil for heating and we do actually use some for electricity (not much though, like you said). Ethanol is fairly terrible unless you get it from something like cane sugar; corn is proving to be disastrous not only in cost efficiency but what the demand is doing to third world countries' food sources (mexico for corn; poorer southeast asian nations that depend on cheap subsidized US crops for soy are seeing price increases). We actually do have the technology for 300 mile range fully electric vehicles; they're on the road right now. Toshiba and a couple other battery makers are closing in on an auto battery with 5 minute charge times and 10 year lifespans. Hydrogen is only a type of battery- not an efficient source of new energy or anything.

Wind, nuclear, hydro(although more care needs to be taken in respect to local ecosystems), natural gas, clean coal (although coal needs to start getting weeded out too tbh), solar etc are all technologies we can currently put into place, it's just gonna take effort and Americans aren't attracted to that when the "easy" option is just DRILL DRILL DRILL.

[archibaldcrane]

My point, which I thought I made clear, is that:

Wind, nuclear, hydro(although more care needs to be taken in respect to local ecosystems), natural gas, clean coal (although coal needs to start getting weeded out too tbh), solar etc

don't replace oil's main consumption source (natural gas can) - powering automobiles. Ethanol isn't a particularly good source to power automobiles, but it's currently available. Wind, nuclear, hydro, "clean coal"(lol), solar don't replace gasoline. Period.

This is not me saying "drill drill drill" it's saying "push way fucking harder for forcing auto manufacturers to provide alternatives. Force capitalism way further in that direction".

70% of U.S. oil consumption is used for transportation. We need alternative ways to power our transportation or ways to do so much more efficiently in order to fix this problem. Most of the "alternative energy solutions" don't address this crucial fact.

[Beckwin]

My point, which I thought I made clear, is that:
don't replace oil's main consumption source (natural gas can) - powering automobiles. Ethanol isn't a particularly good source to power automobiles, but it's currently available. Wind, nuclear, hydro, "clean coal"(lol), solar don't replace gasoline. Period.

This is not me saying "drill drill drill" it's saying "push way fucking harder for forcing auto manufacturers to provide alternatives. Force capitalism way further in that direction".

70% of U.S. oil consumption is used for transportation. We need alternative ways to power our transportation or ways to do so much more efficiently in order to fix this problem. Most of the "alternative energy solutions" don't address this crucial fact.

we have battery cars.

you put electricity in batteries.

hydro, nuclear, solar, wind create electricity.

[Maxxthepenguin]

we have battery cars.

you put electricity in batteries.

hydro, nuclear, solar, wind create electricity.

It's not often addressed, but a lot of the country's power grids wouldn't be able to handle everyone having electric cars. Some areas already have problems with outages simply because of too much electrical demand. We need infrastructure improvements to make widespread electric cars feasible.

[Beckwin]

so... we improve electric infrastructure?

no one really says the switch is gonna be a snap of the fingers kind of thing, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.

[archibaldcrane]

Does anyone have any information on the relative energies necessary to charge an electric car battery?

@ Beckwin - When electric cars are 0.001% of vehicles on the road, worrying about the source of electricity to power them is stupid. Electric cars need to be pushed, not electricity sources for them considering their absurd scarcity. All the wind and solar electricity in the world doesn't replace gasoline if everything is still using gasoline.