Something no one is talking about

[knight_of_the_star]

And something I'm waiting for a candidate to say and something all of them should be saying:

WE NEED A MANHATTAN PROJECT FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY AND ENERGY INDEPENDENCE!

This is something EVERY one of the Dem candidates should be saying, so who is saying it cause none are making any noise about anything like that.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. Apollo Alliance. Check it out:

http://home.apolloalliance.org/splash.html

This organization has been going around the country educating citizens and legislators about energy independence and numerous related issues.

[JDPriestly]

3. Needs a lot more support and money.

[JDPriestly]

2. You are so right.

Had the money spent on Iraq been spent on developing alternative energy sources and legislating taxes and fees fairly so as to allow alternative energy to be economically competitive, we would not have gone to Iraq. The Middle Eastern countries that are fomenting terrorism would be a lot poorer, and terrorism would be a lot less of a threat, and we would all be better off. The fundamental error of the Bush administration has been to ignore the need for a Manhattan project for alternative energy and energy independence. Recommended.

[YvonneCa]

23. No...

...that's not right...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3363439&mesg_id=3365065

[GOPBasher]

4. I agree. Our ecological sustainability, national security and economic prosperity

are all at risk from our dependence on fossil fuels.

[SaveElmer]

5. Hillary Clinton has...

"Hillary has championed policies that encourage development of alternative energy technologies and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. She has proposed an Apollo Project-like program dedicated to achieving energy independence.

Hillary recognizes that global climate change is one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. She supports policies to reduce carbon emissions and other pollution that contribute to global warming.

In the White House, Hillary will lead the charge to stop global warming by investing in clean energy technologies, establishing a national market-based program to reduce global warming pollution, increasing our fuel efficiency, and restoring the United States' rightful place as a leader in international efforts to address the problem of climate change."

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/energy/

[Like It Is]

6. Get Real!

Who put this together for her? She wouldn't know Regular from High Test.

[SaveElmer]

7. Huh...did you say something?

[CTyankee]

21. Maybe she's just a "typical woman" then?

I truly can't think of another reason for such an off the wall remark. Her Senate colleagues, including several Republicans, have publicly stated that NO ONE does her homework on issues and legislation better than Hillary.

[YvonneCa]

24. This guy would...

...check it out! :7

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3363439&mesg_id=3365065

[Turn CO Blue]

8. I keep expecting to hear that the X Prize contest is going to

shift its focus ... instead of being about space flight it would be about alternative energy. I envision teams competing in different categories for measureable improvements/efficiencies/technology in hydrogen cell, solar, geothermal, wind, etc.

And the prize money should be huge and the open to any competitive team.

Oh wait, space flight is a much more pressing issue! /sarcasm

Anyway, the X Prize foundation should get on the ball here and shift focus.


Hell I just want someone to invent a stationary bicycle like on "Gilligan's Island" where we can generate energy for TV or whatever or for battery storage. Surely if these inventors can come up with gadgets for rotisserie chickens, contorting ladders, and various exercise machines (serving most their time as clothing racks) then they can come up with a simple bicycle powered generator.

[otherlander]

9. I thought those already existed.

Didn't the Vietcong power their medical stations with something like that?

[Turn CO Blue]

12. Maybe so. It'd be a good time for someone to hawk them on

infomercials. Timing is right. Everybody's feeling "green" and 3/4 of America is overweight or obese so riding a bike to run one's TV is a great idea.

[otherlander]

13. Yeah. It's kind of funny to see how

enviromentalism has become fashionable all of the sudden. It gives me hope, but it also makes me say on some level, "Posers, I was concerned before it was cool!" :P

[Turn CO Blue]

15. Feel the same way about Al Gore...

I loved him before it was cool!

[YvonneCa]

26. Me, too...

...have you read Assault on Reason? He sets out his 'Manhattan Project.'

[YvonneCa]

25. You were not alone...

... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3363439&mesg_id=3365065

[Spurt]

18. Get on your bike.......

Buy one

http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm

or build one

http://www.scienceshareware.com/bike_gen.htm

[Turn CO Blue]

30. hey thanks!

[ljm2002]

10. So true, it is exactly what we need.

Here's hoping that our next president -- who will, of course, be a Democrat -- will make it happen.

[YvonneCa]

27. That can only happen when...

...'we, the people' create the momentum for it. Did you catch LIVE EARTH? :7

[eallen]

11. No Manhattan project would work as well as a tax on oil....

And other fossil fuels. Put a floor on their prices, and that spurs development of alternatives. A Manhattan style project works great if there is a focused goal.

But where the goal is to shift economic technologies, it tends to produce subsidized products that don't really have the economic advantage that they promise. The problem is that there is no way to measure that except by their success outside of such a project.

Of course, no one wants to hear that what's needed is higher energy prices. They want something whiz-bang for the future. As long as that doesn't affect their consumption now. So a Manhattan project for alternative energy is very attractive politically.

:hippie:

[Telly Savalas]

14. Obama is talking about it.

But Barack Obama got down to business quickly. The Illinois senator called for an end to the war in Iraq, a "Manhattan project" to search for new energy sources and for a return to fiscal restraint.

http://www.thenewhampshireprimary.com/news/2007_03_17_news_2.html

[seasat]

16. Richardson actually referred to it as a Manhattan Project

From his March energy speech:

I’d like to lay out a part of my vision for regaining America’s energy security---a combined program of business innovation and government investment comparable in scale to the Manhattan project to split the atom, or the Apollo Project to put a man on the moon.

Also from his speech where he laid out his final energy policy:

We need a man-on-the-moon program to end this addiction, this hemorrhage. But we need it much faster and much more boldly than people are suggesting.

When John F. Kennedy challenged this country to reach the moon, he challenged us to get there in TEN years, not twenty, or thirty, or forty.

On energy policy, we need to change fast, or sink slowly.

I am issuing a call to action, for Congress, the energy industry, and the public. I am calling for a new American revolution – an energy and climate revolution.

He even used the nasty "S" word...sacrifice.

[bananas]

17. Grist Magazine - Where the presidential candidates stand on climate and energy issues

http://grist.org/news/maindish/2007/07/06/candidates/

How Green Is Your Candidate?
Where the presidential candidates stand on climate and energy issues
By David Roberts

All of the Democratic presidential candidates put energy independence and climate change among their top-tier issues. They all support carbon cap-and-trade systems of varying strengths. They all at least gesture at renewable energy and hybrid cars. Most support ethanol and "clean coal." The aggressiveness of their climate and energy plans rises inversely with their chances of winning -- the better the chances, the weaker the plan.

Here's a quick and dirty rundown of some of the Democratic contenders' stances. We'll add descriptions of Republicans and additional Democrats and make any updates as needed as the campaign season progresses. These descriptions of candidates' positions are not and should not be perceived as endorsements. Grist does not endorse political candidates.

Clinton | Obama | Edwards | Richardson | Dodd

<snip>

[bread_and_roses]

19. And none of them telling the truth

...that absent near-magical technological break-throughs it is the very "American way of life" they all promise to preserve that is the root of the problem.

"Clean coal" and Ethanol are the Corporate "answers" because they promise to preserve the status quo while preserving Corporate profits.

from: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/06/2334/

...we in the Global North are continuing to consume way beyond the means of the earth to sustain itself, all the while telling the rest of humanity that with enough hard work, World Bank loans and inducements (complete repatriation of profits, lax labor and environmental laws) to Western corporations to invest in their countries, they too can join the global consumer paradise. We seem always to forget to mention that if Americans, at six percent of the world’s population, needs to consume about a quarter of its wealth and resources to maintain our standard of living, the idea of the rest of the world even approaching our levels of consumption, energy usage and exploitation of land, water, resources and people would mean the end of civilization, if not most life on the planet, in a very short period of time...

...The simple but profoundly depressing fact is that the entire world economic and political system as it exists today is based around practices that are destroying the planet slowly but surely. The corporations, political elites and others who benefit from the existing system are ...will do whatever is necessary — lie, cheat, steal, oppress, exploit, murder and wage war — to maintain control of a world economy that sees half the world living on $2 per day or less while inequality and poverty increase in line with the amount of CO2 in the air, in order to continue to reap their huge salaries and bonuses and maintain their stranglehold on power.

Which of them will tell us that? Hillary? In the language here, BWWWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Right.

[YvonneCa]

28. LIVE EARTH...

...is the start of that. Did you see it? Global...change oriented.. Leader? AL Gore.:patriot: Read Assault on Reason.

[bread_and_roses]

29. Gore is not a declared candidate, so my post does not apply to him

I hope he does run, btw. But even Gore can't tell the voters the whole truth on this one and get elected. He, though, comes closer to the truth than anyone else and can, I think, get away with that. It's a start.

And no, I didn't watch Live Earth. Though I'm glad it occured and by all accounts was inspirational and a great symbolic gesture it was just that - a symbolic gesture. I've seen a good few inspirational concerts for important causes come and go without actually effecting change (I'm old!). But it, too, is a start, and hope springs eternal, as they say - maybe this one will be different.

[donsu]

20. YES - all of them should be talking about it LOUD

nt

[YvonneCa]

22. Kerry has been talking about it...

...FOREVER. Many people still have yet to understand that the media won't cover him...or Al Gore. (Anyone here notice the talking heads gushing today about the HUGE numbers and impact of LIVE EARTH? Case closed.)

A couple links:

Text of speech in 2005 to CFR http://www.cfr.org/publication/9390/real_security_in_a_post911_world.html

Read this book http://www.johnkerry.com/momentonearth/


Go to the archive for more at johnkerry.com


:patriot: