Re: Citizenship silliness. Re: e$: crypto-expatriatism (fwd)

[Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

> Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 10:03:25 -0500
> From: Petro <petro@playboy.com>
> Subject: Re: Citizenship silliness.  Re: e$: crypto-expatriatism (fwd)

> 	There already are several, the problem is the cannot be centralized
> the way oil is.

That's not really the problem...

> 	Alcohol is acceptable (and in some ways better) than gasoline for
> cars and motorcycles, but anyone can set up a still and compete with RDS &
> Standard.

The problem with alcohol is that there isn't enough free land in order grow
enough plant material to provide the necessary quantities without seriously
restricting the amount of land available for actual foodstuffs and living
space (unless you want everyone to move to Black Rock desert or live on the
top of a mountain).

Alcohol is also much more of a fire hazard than gas. It burns hotter, isn't
put out by water spray easily, and burns invisibly (well all right in the
near-UV).

> A mix of solar

Again not enough land to make it feasible, not to mention the low efficiency
of even the best panels.

> wind

Not enough places in the US (or anywhere else for that matter) where the 
wind blows with sufficient force 18 hours a day to make it economical.

> coal

Coal isn't an acceptable substitute, mainly because there isn't enough
low-sulphur deposits in the world to supply the US, let alone the rest of
the world. Plus it isn't renewable.

> hydroelectric

Not enough rivers with sufficient hydrodynamic head to make this work
for the US let alone the rest of the planet.

> nuclear

I'll buck the general consensus because I like nuclear energy, however there
is a single MAJOR caveat, we need fussion and not fission reactors to make
it economical. The waste problem with fission reactors is enough to vote
in the negative on them.

> and other sources

cop-out.

The reality is that the clathrate deposits occur across the entire ocean.
The existing Magnesium Nodule treaties could be extended to cover the
countries that don't have coastlines. They are the first renewable,
occurring in sufficient quantity, and with realizable and economicly
feasible methods for mining, processing, and distributing to have been put
on the table.

As to the gas and oil folk being against them, they're about the only ones
with an existing infrastructure (ie extracting oil and gas from the sea
floor) to take advantage of the source, implying that existing changes in
the infrastructure would be minor.


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