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  •  Good point about hard v. soft. (none / 1)

    What can make the difference is addressing both supply and demand. Bush only talks about supply - hot to get more energy, whether drilling in ANWR (if only those pesky environmentalists would get outta the way) or discovering alternative sources, to serve the same demand, i.e, to support the same consumerist, commodity-driven ethic that's gotten us (and our planet) into this mess. You hear next to nothing from him about decreasing demand, about using less (and we all know why). But unless we combine new resources with decreased demand, I think we're in for that hard landing. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see any of these schemes substituting for the cheap oil binge we've been on since the happy motoring days of Ike's Interstate.    

    "One cannot be pessimistic about the West. This is the native land of hope." Wallace Stegner

    by Mother Mags on Tue Jan 31, 2006 at 10:48:40 PM PDT

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    •  I suspect that... (none / 1)

      ...if Bush concerns himself over any soft landings at all, it would have to do with the landings that are provided by golden parachutes. And of course, Bush's landings usually involve banners alleging "Mission Accomplished".

      When it comes to landings, there's a world o' difference between a Bush landing and a stellar performance...

      by luckydog on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 12:44:20 AM PDT

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    •  I'll probably get flamed (none / 0)

      for this, but I'm becoming partial to nukes as the only alternative to an oil-based economy. Unfortunately, we should have recognized in the 1970s, when the U.S. hit peak, that we needed to get started on these technologies in order to be prepared for the world oil peak a couple of decades down the road. Now, I think it might be too late for full-scale nuke substitution, although anything would help lessen the impact.

      But, I do think the U.S. has a lot of room for scaling back consumption and contraction in petroleum use without huge lifestyle impacts, but it won't be enough, in the long run.

      I belong to a Yahoo group called Know Nukes, where I have learned some great stuff about nukes in the post Peak Oil age. Lots of experts checking in there, if you are interested in this topic.

      by grayscale on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 11:07:07 AM PDT

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