An interesting thought...

[MessiahRp]

We have this new Ethanol gas station here in Oshkosh an I go there for the partial ethanol unleaded because my car can't handle the ethanol fuel by itself yet. I save a few cents and that's nice but I really wish my car could handle the E85 fuel because I would save 35 cents a gallon as well as supporting farmers rather than terrorist supportive Middle Eastern regimes.

Which got me thinking... for countries where there is a dependency on sale of oil to foreign countries, what would happen to them if say the major powers in the world all changed to environmentally friendly alternatives like ethanol or hydrogen?

I almost think that these countries should start to build contingency plans to develop new goods and services so when that inevitability happens (even if it's 50-100 years down the road) and the major countries use alternative fuels they don't collapse.

The reason I say this is because with all the turmoil in those countries already, the financial system collapsing could cause revolt and a regional war. Look, I'm all for certain regimes to get ousted (House of Saud anyone?) but for our other allies in the region this could be disasterous and somehow you know some tyrannical leader over there will turn the blame onto us for collapsing their economy.

Maybe I am thinking aloud here and lord knows it will take forever for countries to push for change with how into their pockets oil execs are but do you think it would be a good idea to say have the UN work with countries in the region about changing the dynamics of their economies for the impending slowdown of oil sales that is sure to occur over the next century?

Rp

[bbinacan]

1. I agree with much of what you

say, but when we can't even get a wind mill farm off Cape Cod. then our country is not serious about alternate energy supplies. Too much, "not in my back yard".

[MessiahRp]

2. I agree with that...

I think it's bullshit that people are so against the windmill farms. It's not that much noisier than living by train tracks or in a high traffic area and people do that all the time.

So people who are against windmill farms can piss off in my book.

Rp

[bbinacan]

3. The Cape Cod

mills would be so far off shore that only on a clear day, they'd look like a mast of a ship in the distant horizon.

[MessiahRp]

4. So what's the conflict they are having with them then?

Here it seems to be a noise issues every time the windmill idea comes up.

Rp

[ddeclue]

5. They'd start running out of money really quickly...

They have a lot to go through invested in the U.S. and elsewhere but they'd burn through it faster than we've burned through their oil over the last 50 years.

Doug D.