On Thursday, July 16th, 2009; the National Security, Energy and Climate Forum was held at the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Mo.  Guest speakers (amongst others) included Dennis McGinn (Vice Admiral - U.S. Navy RET.), Phillys Cuttino (Director; U.S. Warming Campaign, PEW Environment Group) as well as the newly retired 5 term U.S. Senator John Werner (R - Virginia).

At the end of this Forum; I had had the opportunity to personally thank Sen. Warner for his comments and genuine concern regarding these issues.

Just a few weeks ago the House passed HR2454 (The American Clean Energy and Security Act) by a narrow margin.  While nothing is perfect - we as concerned citizens are faced with a choice - either to continue to talk and debate this issue while continuing the same status Quo; take action and instruct our "hard working employees" in the Senate as to our position - or continue in our traditional established customs, ego's and belief that that all is Ok.

...any thoughts???

For the most part the government should not be involved in what type of energy we use. Nor should the be involved in the research to find alternative energy. They should not subsidize any energy sources or anything else. The free market should decide those things.
Overall our government is doing a very poor job of governing.

The irony of socialists and communists being forced to change their mantra from “global warming” to “climate change,” as though that has never happened before, in the face of consistent measured global cooling would be quite amusing if it were not doing immense destruction to the US economy. But that has been the plan all along.

Climate change has always happened and always will. People cannot affect it even if they wanted to. The trace gas of CO2, which is required by all life, certainly has nothing to do with it.

The climate is never static. The lemmings who fall for the global warming fraud better pray to whatever tree they worship that it is warming because the alternative is global cooling and the mass starvation it brings.

The current measured solar output indicates that we are going to get very bad extended winters and dramatic cooling over the next years. Of course the global warming profiteers will attribute global cooling to global warming and do it with a straight face.

Always ask them, “If global warming causes global cooling, what does global cooling cause?” Within three sentences you will be called names like “Nazi” because facts are toxic to Liberalism.

wildblue,
Do you honestly believe that mankind cannot change our environment and climate?
You don't have to be 'tree hugging liberal' to look out your window and see the changes man has brought to this planet.
The world I live in is nothing like the world my grandfather lived in. And unless you live 5 miles from your nearest neighbor, with no paved roads or other 'conveniences', you don't either.
Every new freeway and subdivision affects this planet's environment and climate. Every new 'McMansion' buit, every new SUV built, affects this planet. Every time we do more than we need to, just because we can afford to, we affect adversely affect this planet.
OK, I'm going to stop preaching. I would not have called you a 'Nazi', but other terms do come to mind.

If we make sure that the cost of energy to the end consumers is correct, then I agree, the free market will address the problem most efficiently. This cost needs to include environmental effects, health effects, security effects, deprivation of future generations, etc - not just the smaller drilling/pumping/refining/delivery costs. The energy industry is currently heavily subsidized in this way.

The environmentalists need to get realistic about conservation being a viable complete solution and should support nuclear power. Standardized reactor designs and streamlined regulations would help with this.

After watching the performance of the "free market" over the past few years, I do not have much confidence that they are the solution without a coherent Federal energy policy.  Unfortunately, I do not have much confidence in the government's ability to do that, either.

To me a coherent energy policy involves rewarding conservation, penalizing consumption and promoting energy independence (in that order).  The only energy that has no impact is the energy that is not consumed.  That also means using our resources in the most efficient manner.  I am no energy expert, but the following seems logical.

Because our dependence on the automobile, which is not likey to change because of the difficulties and the investment required for dependable public transportation, we will continue to consume a lot of oil even with efficient/hybrid/electric cars.  Ethanol is not a viable solution and economical hydrogen is a long way off.  That is not to say that we should not press on for alternative fuels, but let's not count on them to save us.  I would like to minimize the use of oil by reducing automotive gasoline consumption and investing in technology to reduce oil consumption as an industrial feedstock.  Our oil supply is limited, so let's use our oil for things that it can be most efficiently used for.

Natural gas is good for heating, is a valuable industrial fuel and, I believe (per Mr. Pickens), can be synthesized into gasoline.  Our gas situation is a bit better than our oil situation, but making electricity is probably not its highest and best use.

Wind and solar can help generate electricity, but they will not satisfy demand.  Nuclear power is really good for generating electricty (that can also power cars on a limited basis) and I think we need to ramp this back up.  At the same time, the Chinese seem to be developing reasonably clean coal burning power plants.....why can't we?  I am not crazy about the idea of creating more nuclear waste and gouging holes in the earth, but I think it CAN be done more responsibilty and in the end, I don't think we really have much choice if we want to minimize our foreign dependence. 

Bruce

Natural gas is a cost effective and clean fuel for automobiles that doesn't take major modifications. Not sure why it hasn't been promoted more. I'm in the process of converting my car to run partially on compressed natural gas (CNG).