A Reaganite’s Support for Incentivizing Fuel Compeition (CM)

Robert McFarlane, who served as President Reagan’s national security advisor supports the case that Robert Zubrin, Anne Korin, James Woolsey, I and others have been making:

We spend $500 billion each year on our military forces. One of their most vital missions is to protect the flow of Persian Gulf oil which fuels the global economy. The disruption of those oil flows -- such as by terrorists disabling a major Saudi processing terminal -- would bring down economies throughout the industrialized world.

Here again, one can conceive a strategy for neutralizing this threat. It involves moving urgently to introduce a profoundly different national energy policy designed to do the following:

• Provide market-based incentives to justify the essential re-tooling of our  automobile industry to enable it to produce flexible-fuel, plug-in hybrid electric cars and trucks, using carbon composite materials (as Boeing is doing in the new 787 airliner);
• Accelerate the commercial production of cellulosic ethanol, butanol and other bio-fuels; and
• License new nuclear power plants.

He makes many other solid points in this WSJ op-ed.

Comments

[Formercorpsman]

Are there any serious projects of this magnitude currently being pursued at our Universities now?

[davod]

Bio fuels are a political not a scientific solution. I am surprised you are still pushing this.

The very idea that we are now taking land off food production to dedicate to energy production is simply insane. Especialy when we have our own fossil fuel resources.

The move off fcssil fuels has lead to increases in the price of all foods and will soon lead to serious food shortgages in areas of the world where starvation is a serious problem.

We should be drilling for oil and gas, and digging up coal, here in the USA. We should also be streamlining the approval process for refineries, amd all power stations, including nuclear.

[Not Telling You]

I've never seen such Straussian jackasses such as your collective selves come this close to the truth before. Let's simply admit it now and save ourselves the time: we're interested in securing Iraqi oil. Period.

[Don]

Benjamin Franklin, in the Poor Richard's Almanack of 1738 is known to have written: "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."

[Chris (myfreegasonline.com) Waters]

Yeah I think some type of better incentive for the car makers to speed up technology in alternative cars. Obviously the car makers are hurting right now so tax breaks would help.