Originally Posted by
ryane946
I read this article earlier today. Liquid coal?? Sounds interesting. It could be the next great thing that will lower energy prices and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Sounds great. Where do I sign up??
JUST KIDDING. There is one BIG problem with this solution. Coal is still a fossil fuel. The long term solution for energy cannot depend on something that will eventually run out.
But don't you feel that any new process that eliminates the dependence on foreign imported oil is a good thing? Be it for cars, trains or even planes. Seems to me that the major reason we still have such a great dependence on foreign oil is that our domestic (Ford, Chrysler, GM) manufacturers haven't really done a good job with the development of a vehicle of any real fuel efficiency. You can't tell me that we can put a man on the moon, but we can't find some way to tweak cars to get an average of 100 MPG. We need to get on with the technology of conservation of these resources, however, our leaders, for whatever reason, still are not putting the correct amount of pressure on the manufacturers to produce 1) cleaner burning fuels to help fight global warming, and 2) more efficient vehicles, to preserve the fossil fuels that are still in the ground.
So any new fuel type that relies less on foreign oil and foreign governments is, in my mind a good thing. Until the technology and inventiveness of the world improves, we still need to rely on oil and coal. Hopefully for not much longer, but the day of the "wind powered" airplane is still some time off. However, once that day does come, and it hopefully will, a year or two later, no one will remember anything of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and for the most part, the other oil-rich, third world countries.