The other point in all this debate is that "replacing our current oil consumption" implies "replacing all the energy we currently use driving cars around." Which is to say, we're taking it for granted that transportation in general and road transportation (cars and trucks) in particular is something we'll be able to continue.

Roughly 13% of the energy in a litre of gasoline goes into imparting momentum to the vehicle. (It's more like 30% if you don't count the time idling and sitting in traffic, but of course that assumes that traffic will be abolished--something thousands of very bright people have spent six decades and billions of dollars failing to do.)

Most of that energy (about two-thirds of the original fuel content) is lost as heat in the engine because burning stuff isn't a very efficient way of generating motive power.

Anyway, so, 13% goes into providing and maintaining momentum in the vehicle. The vehicle itself weighs at least three times the payload (I'm assuming something like my old Toyota Tercel at 1000kg and four people my size at 75kg each.) So we're talking about a form of transport which is, AT BEST, about 5-6% efficient in turning gasoline into passenger travel.

So the question is not, how much alternative energy is out there? The question is, what form of energy is cheap enough that you can afford to piss away 95% on getting from A to B?

A lot of our energy problems are probably manageable except for the fact that we have built a set of energy-intensive spatial relationships (i.e. dispersed land uses) between everything, which has very little demand flexibility built into it.

Where, where, where are the Democrats?

In the face of obvious bullshit, where are the Democrats?

Handed total political "gimmes" on a silver platter, where are the Democrats? Where are the Democrats?

Faced with talking points that a four-year-old could debunk, where are the goddamn Democrats? Where are they? Where?

Where are the Democrats?

Where are the Democrats?

Where are the goddamn Democrats?

Where are they?

Where are the Democrats?

Where?

Where are they?

Where are the Democrats?

The Republicans are disintegrating. You don't have to be Franklin Roosevelt. You don't have to be John F. Kennedy. You barely even have to be Walter Mondale.

Clinton, Reid, Kerry--YOU HAVE NO GODDAMN RIGHT TO DO THIS TO US! YOU ARE THE ONLY OPPOSITION PARTY AND YOU HAVE NO GODDAMN RIGHT NOT TO OPPOSE THESE PEOPLE! DO YOUR GODDAMN JOB OR MOVE OVER AND LET HOWARD DEAN AND PAUL HACKETT RUN THINGS!

I recall hearing, on several occasions, that a disturbingly large proportion of the soldiers in Iraq think Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11; that apparently the Army is limiting the information and websites to which soldiers have access (all the Limbaugh you want, but no Wonkette); and, of course, Dubya never misses an opportunity to imply that the two are one and the same.

So, as inexcusable as torture is, we should keep in mind that it's a lot easier to succumb to the temptation to brutalize people if you think they are associated, for instance, with a plot to kill thousands of your fellow citizens, than it would be if they were merely enemy combatants.

In this respect, George W. Bush is directly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.