John Lounsbury

Solar Breaks Oil Price Dependence

Before Henry Ford only the wealthy could afford a car. Does anyone think the Henry Ford of solar technology is in the future?

Solar's Warm, But Not Hot - Barron's

Rhino, frflyer and others - - -

If we continue the current activity, the direct cost over the next 30 years will be $24 trillion paid to foreign oil sources. This number assumes today's oil price, today's energy consumption and today's domestic oil production, all of which are likely to move in directions that would increase our expenditures for imported oil. The hidden costs cited by frflyer add up to another $24 trillion, again using today's costs which are almost certain to increase.

The bottom line: in the next thirty years our current energy policy has a cost ($48 trillion) far exceeding the projections of national debt over much longer time (50 years) and is much larger than the estimated unfunded liability for Medicare and Social Security combined ($40.8 trillion according to the Government Accountability Office Long-term Fiscasl Outlook, Jan. 2008).

You don't even need to look at subjective environmental damage issues regarding quality of life to see the needed direction for future energy production. Continuing what we have been doing is literally the path to burning tens of trillions of dollars.

Too many people are looking at a few trees and completely missing the forest.