Realty Check

Coal gassification is just converting coal to natural gas (usually by heating). You can also make gasoline if you try hard enough (the germans did this in WWII, and I believe south africa did this during the apartheid era). The only problem is you use a lot of energy to convert from one form to another...although in the case of generating natural gas that then is used to make electricity its a pretty good combo.

Well said. But be prepared to be attacked.

If someone says we should have health insurance for all Americans, they say "socialist". If someone says we should increase the CAFE standards, they say "socialist".

Regarding the former, didn't Jesus say "heal the sick"? What would the conservatives amoung us say about him if he said that today?

Walking, strolling, biking. Well, that's a great idea. Except for those of us living in the heartland and 20 miles away from any grocery store. And in my case 22 miles from where I work. To ride a bike 44 miles a day and do hard labor on the job. Could be a little much. Not to mention a little cold in the winter when the wind chill is -10. This is what frustrates most about comments like these. Like we're lazy. Next year take a vacation through rural Ohio and Kentucky. And then head on out west. Spend some time in the real country side. Farm country.Even the high gas prices are affecting my Amish neighbors. Costs more to feed the livestock and their horses. They are struggling too.

City living is now and has always been the most sensible, most civilized way to go. In my Baltimore neighborhood, I can and do walk to the bank, the grocery store, the bookstore, the wine shop, the museum, the university, the dry cleaner, the cobbler, the hospital, several restaurants including one of my favorites in the whole city, the weekly Farmers Market, several bus lines, and the train station. I see my neighbors all the time, talk to the dogwalkers and mothers with children in strollers, chit-chat with the garbage men and mail carriers, keep up with neighborhood news. It's a great life.

Miki--
I completely understand -- I'm not saying this would work in rural America. I'm talking about redesigning cities -- where people already live closer together. Take London, for instance.. Many of its neighborhoods once were separate villages, with their own butcher, 'fruiterer', baker, dry cleaner, etc. They've all grown into one big metropolis now, but it means that every neighborhood is walkable, and most services that you need, you will pass on your way home from work. Instead, we build subdivisions which are all about having houses with huge lawns and not a single store or business within a mile. There's no reason to walk -- there's nowhere to walk to! But I guess it's all about size and resources -- we're a huge country, and things have been cheap for us for a very long time, so we spread waaaaaaaay out. Well, now we may need to rethink some of that and get 'cozy' again.

When one makes the choice to live in the city one of the main attractions is the ability to walk to your destination. In Baltimore, from my Oakenshawe neighborhood, I can walk to the grocery store, the farmer's market, the book store, coffee shop and on and on but also the Baltimore Museum of Art, Johns Hopkins University, the library, a major medical center and variety of parks and restaurants. You interact and indeed, live within your community. I know my neighborhood. I rarely need to use my car and in fact, my husband and I have only one car now. We combine trips when we do need to use it. It is a healthier, safer way to live as well as more energy efficient. A walking life is a more involved life.

The key here is planning. So much of today's American urban sprawl seems unplanned.

Well there's also a lot of money to save when you don't have a car.

Insurrance , gasoline, tires,repair , windshield washer oil etc...
Car payment.

A couple thousands dollars every year on and on, it's incredible the amount of $ we spend on cars.

The issue also is that when we build infrastructure of civil ingeneering we think about cars not pedestrian.

One thing about such debates is that what you hear from politicians is rarely based on fact, like Schweitzer's completely false statement "There just isn't enough oil in America, on land or offshore, to meet America’s full energy needs,"
Get educated on oil shale, oil sands, and other oil fields that have been arbitrarily set aside, and you would find that there is over 60 years worth of domestic fuels available.
One example of screwball energy policy is the offshore drilling ban. These same areas will be soon drilled by China (they are already using Cuban fields). Is it somehow better for the USA environment if China harvests that energy instead of the USA?

I blame the Republicans and their fearmongering. That's what started "white flight" and "suburban sprawl." They also support large corporations that are against new technology and alternative energy because too much of their profit would have to be spent on redesigning their factories to retool for new products.

I blame the Republicans and their fearmongering. That's what started "white flight" and "suburban sprawl." They also support large corporations that are against new technology and alternative energy because too much of their profit would have to be spent on redesigning their factories to retool for new products.

rider89 needs to do some more research. The Dittoheads think that drilling in Alaska is the answer to all our energy needs despite the fact that all conventional wisdom says that the oil they find there would only support the US for 6 months. Why destroy a beautiful, pristine area for so little? Because it keeps the public from concentrating on real problems/solutions.

I'd be willing to bet the technology for sustainable solar energy, electric energy and wind energy already exists, but is being kept under wraps by conservative politians who are owned by big business!!!

Frank,
you have demonstrated my point exactly.

Dear Mrs. Vicki Mabrey
Humane energy as an alternative source of transportation. What could be included in that? The ability to ride a bike to school, to work, to a friend’s house the list is endless. I sat down one day and had a conversation with my children and together came up with the idea of inventing a better bike as a novelty experiment. We succeeded and were able to fit together four sprockets and two chains on one bicycle. At the time my daughter was fifteen and my boys were thirteen. Three years later I have made changes to the bike and came up on other ways of making bicycling faster for the riders.