200 billion spent on alternative energy research

If we spent 200 billion dollars on research into alternative energy resources, could we wheen ourselves off middle-eastern oil?

What could we accomplish with a 200 billion dollar investment?

200 billion is the number I've seen as the cost of the Iraq was so far.

Good question.

Answer: We probably won't find out what that kind of money could do until oil becomes not-an-option.


**Edit** However, there are many companies who do heavy research into it right now simply because owning that patent would be priceless.

[edit on 18-9-2005 by white4life420]

Trust me when I say this, there is much more then 200 billion being invested into new energy technologies noadays. We need it now more then ever. As you can see in the graph above Solar Power is increasing at an almost exponential rate of growth. Note the soaring stock prices as well

>What could we accomplish with a 200 billion dollar investment?

Would you settle for zero dollars, and a few tens of thousands of people writing letters to their local governments?

Read this.

Note the date. Here's the company's website: www.changingworldtech.com...

Sounds like they have one plant that is already running commercially, though on a small scale. What do you think would happen if local city governments across the country started endorsing the process, and building facilities? Start by simply replacing the existing waste management processes, then sell the resultant oil, water and fertilizer.


[edit on 18-9-2005 by LordBucket]

An individual can't get a government grant for research of alternate energy sources. This is too bad because I think that there are a lot of good ideas out there that could solve a good deal of our energy problems. I have a few ideas, but my only problem is having the money to build prototypes and do research.

For $200 billion I could solve the energy problem. The government don't want to because too many in power have made their fortunes in the oil industry.

Even if we were to discover a new and powerful source of energy tomorrow, what would we do with all of the automobiles and fossile-fuel powered homes, factories, businesses, etc?

The average person cannot afford to just dump their car in the trash and buy whatever it is that's coming out. The same goes for businesses, jobs, etc.

Originally posted by Rasputin13
Even if we were to discover a new and powerful source of energy tomorrow, what would we do with all of the automobiles and fossile-fuel powered homes, factories, businesses, etc?

The average person cannot afford to just dump their car in the trash and buy whatever it is that's coming out. The same goes for businesses, jobs, etc.

Proper government funding and recycling could be used as a crutch.

There would be no need. Once the technology is commercially available the old would naturally phase itself out in time. Taking your example of automobiles...if next year all new models made use of a different technology, even with no incentives, no government intervention whatsoever, after ten years the vast majority of cars on the road would be those newer models.

Originally posted by MBF
For $200 billion I could solve the energy problem. The government don't want to because too many in power have made their fortunes in the oil industry.

This happened to the Coal industry and they didn't succeed in suppressing the Internal Combustion Engine now did they? They got extremely rich and then they got pushed out for a time(on the way back now )

Originally posted by LordBucket
There would be no need. Once the technology is commercially available the old would naturally phase itself out in time. Taking your example of automobiles...if next year all new models made use of a different technology, even with no incentives, no government intervention whatsoever, after ten years the vast majority of cars on the road would be those newer models.

But it'd be entirely different than today. People wouldn't be able to get the thousands of dollars in cash, or the thousands of dollars in trade-in value for their current gasoline powered vehicles when they go to purchase this new alternative vehicle. Basically, the cars of today would only be worth their value in steel (and more and more modern cars have less and less steel). Unless we ship all of our cars overseas to countries who are very far off from making the transition to this new automobile technology, then we're going to find that most people will see it more economically feasable to stick with their current gas-powered automobile rather than give it up for virtually nothing. Get where I'm coming from on this?

Ok, yes...but I still don't see it as a problem. So some people keep their old models. What's the problem? There are still diesel cars on the road as well. You don't need 100% conversion. Even if after ten years only half of all automobiles use the new technology, that's fine.

I can see that some people might be worried about their investments with oil and would try to stop any other type of fuel.

But what if the people who were rich off of oil were the ones to start the new fuel research? When they got it completed, they could advertise the hell out of it, they could make it the new staple of civilization, villify the oil producers, and make everyone in the world rely on America for their fuel.

How wierd would that be - everyone is currently sucking on the oil-teat of the middle east. What if America became the bosom of energy for the future? The fatcats could still make their m/billions - they would just do it more efficiently in my opinion.

I dont know how far 200 billion would go if invested in alternative energy resources.

But I could tell you that could have paid for a manned mission to Mars. I would much rather have had my tax dollars go toward that then Iraq. But thats IMHO.

Originally posted by sardion2000

This happened to the Coal industry and they didn't succeed in suppressing the Internal Combustion Engine now did they? They got extremely rich and then they got pushed out for a time(on the way back now

)

It's a lot easier to pump gas than it is to shovel coal. The coal industry was a replacement for burning wood. You could have a load of coal dumped in a bin easier than cutting a tree down, then cutting it up, then splitting it and then stacking it.

Everybody wants things more convenient with no work involved.

its all relative. if people don't want to change they wont. it is like giving someone information. No matter what you have to support it, they wont listen. Some just prefer to complain.

It wouldn't even take $200 billion, try $100 billion.