Even if there was some miracle discovery today of a new cleaner fuel, it would likely be many decades before a complete switch was made. You are talking about replacing every vehicle in America from personal vehicles to planes, trains, buses, trucks, boats, tractors and more. Then you must replace energy plants along with furnaces, hot water heaters, stoves, and even dryers in millions of homes across the country. And still you would have items that use oil and grease for lubrication or plastics for production.

And on top of all that cost, think of all that waste which will have to be dealt with. Millions of cars now useless, millions of appliances to the dump, all those other vehicles, and...

Even if there was some miracle discovery today of a new cleaner fuel, it would likely be many decades before a complete switch was made. You are talking about replacing every vehicle in America from personal vehicles to planes, trains, buses, trucks, boats, tractors and more. Then you must replace energy plants along with furnaces, hot water heaters, stoves, and even dryers in millions of homes across the country. And still you would have items that use oil and grease for lubrication or plastics for production.

And on top of all that cost, think of all that waste which will have to be dealt with. Millions of cars now useless, millions of appliances to the dump, all those other vehicles, and the energy plants themselves. And for those people that want it to happen because they just hate those big evil oil companies, do they think that somehow all this will happen without either the oil companies themselves or some new companies springing up to make a fortune off what this new miracle energy will cost us?

We have the means to replace oil today. The only hold up is cost and investment. Electric cars are available and quite doable. Even if they were to remain viable for families and small business cars the decrease in oil demand would be significant. It would lower cost through transportation of the big rigs, airlines, and military.

To curb the increased energy load more electrical industry would need to be built (more jobs) using less destructive fuels (such as coal and oil) with more cleaner fuels (like dams, wave technology, nuclear plants, solar, etc) which would stimulate the economy as these industries grow.

The more investment and development away from oil and gas will grow the industr...

We have the means to replace oil today. The only hold up is cost and investment. Electric cars are available and quite doable. Even if they were to remain viable for families and small business cars the decrease in oil demand would be significant. It would lower cost through transportation of the big rigs, airlines, and military.

To curb the increased energy load more electrical industry would need to be built (more jobs) using less destructive fuels (such as coal and oil) with more cleaner fuels (like dams, wave technology, nuclear plants, solar, etc) which would stimulate the economy as these industries grow.

The more investment and development away from oil and gas will grow the industry and allow the cost of building it to decrease as it grows.

Of course the swap doesn't happen overnight, but the first stage would be to no longer make combustion cars and begin selling electric or air pressure cars (or whatever other technology that has been developed). After a decade or two the gasoline automobile will be a museum item.

So, you think that vehicles which take hours to refuel are viable replacements? They are fine for some city commutes, but they are far from replacing cars and trucks everywhere. Hybrids are getting closer, but I have checked some out and in the $3 a gallon range, it would take five to six years just to break even, and that is if those numbers the dealership gives you are accurate (and they never are). And, of course, hybrids still depend on the oil and gas industry.

Solar energy will likely never be the sole energy producer for an area since it is expensive, takes up lots of valuable space, and most importantly it is inconsistent. Same problem with wind. A wind/solar combo might be better, ...

So, you think that vehicles which take hours to refuel are viable replacements? They are fine for some city commutes, but they are far from replacing cars and trucks everywhere. Hybrids are getting closer, but I have checked some out and in the $3 a gallon range, it would take five to six years just to break even, and that is if those numbers the dealership gives you are accurate (and they never are). And, of course, hybrids still depend on the oil and gas industry.

Solar energy will likely never be the sole energy producer for an area since it is expensive, takes up lots of valuable space, and most importantly it is inconsistent. Same problem with wind. A wind/solar combo might be better, but it will still take a lot of land to provide energy for a major city.

Hydro-electric is a good source of energy, but it can't be put to use everywhere, and it has it's own ecological impacts that cause many environuts to oppose it.

Nuclear is a very viable energy source, maybe you could ask president Obama why he is doing his best to kill any advancement of nuclear energy in the US.

But there is nothing that could replace the internal combustion powered vehicle at this moment. Even hybrids come up short when it comes to variety and power. I have yet to see any electric cross country buses, or electric jet planes, or electric one ton trucks, or electric eighteen wheelers, or even electric half ton pickups. We are likely decades away from even being able to start phasing out gas powered personal vehicles, and further from other types that need even more power and distance capabilities.

One design, the Tesla, allows over 220 miles per charge. The charge time is like any cell phone or battery charger - you plug it in at night and its ready by morning. Most people are not going to be driving over 220 miles in a single day.

Hydro-electric dams have many miles of river ways in which they can be placed without causing any ecological damage.

Nuclear energy suffers from public ignorance. Most reactor facilities, after aggressive filtering and cleaning, produce around 1 ton of radioactive waste material a year. I challenge you to find any energy industry that produces less than that. But nuclear energy is...

One design, the Tesla, allows over 220 miles per charge. The charge time is like any cell phone or battery charger - you plug it in at night and its ready by morning. Most people are not going to be driving over 220 miles in a single day.

Hydro-electric dams have many miles of river ways in which they can be placed without causing any ecological damage.

Nuclear energy suffers from public ignorance. Most reactor facilities, after aggressive filtering and cleaning, produce around 1 ton of radioactive waste material a year. I challenge you to find any energy industry that produces less than that. But nuclear energy is a short term sollution because the technology in other fields that have a smaller 'frighten' level to the general ignorant population are well on their way to development.

Solar energy is also experiencing huge strides in technology. Better collectors, cheaper production, and improving technology continues to make this a very viable source.

But again, there are so many alternatives that no one single type need be relied on. We have wind power, wave power, air power, solar power, geothermal energy,

I personally don't like hybrids as anything more than a temporary approach because I look forward to a time of no dependency on fossil fuels.

There is also research in biological engines fueled from the heat created when micro-organisms digest food, hydrogen engines (admittedly still a future technology), biomass methane engines, etc

These alternatives are not just going to pop into place. For every drawback you can find in using any one of these there are a half a dozen draw backs in the current fossil fuel energies we currently use.

The technology is here. It's just a matter of getting it into use.

As I pointed out, the energy grid will have to be built up. This is what we've been discussing - the various technologies to supply the energy to the increased demand.

As with anything, the initial costs are going to be higher. Calculators that did more than basic arithmetic cost in excess of a thousand bucks when they first came out. VCR's and early video game systems where the same. But with a higher demand then production costs come down. Its simple economics.

The India Air car (runs on compressed air, gets about 900 miles per charge and allows speeds up to 96 mph) sells for about $18,000 American. It takes a fe...

As I pointed out, the energy grid will have to be built up. This is what we've been discussing - the various technologies to supply the energy to the increased demand.

As with anything, the initial costs are going to be higher. Calculators that did more than basic arithmetic cost in excess of a thousand bucks when they first came out. VCR's and early video game systems where the same. But with a higher demand then production costs come down. Its simple economics.

The India Air car (runs on compressed air, gets about 900 miles per charge and allows speeds up to 96 mph) sells for about $18,000 American. It takes a few hours to charge at home with a built in air compressor, or compression stations can do it in about 4 minutes. It costs about $2 of electricity to power the compressor to fill the car. More info here.