Thanks - and No i am absolutely not against alternative energy. As i posted further up, i have worked on engineering a prototype, subsea tidal generator.... it was the hardest thing ever......
Alternatives are obviously the future, and they are great - but what i am trying to get across to you is that - im not against them, NOBODY is... the fact of the matter is simply this - economies of scale.
If i own a ranch in sunny California, I can run all my power needs on Solar and wind, but only just.... I could have a huge area of solar panels, and a couple of wind turbines to power my ranch and my Air Conditioning. Now take that ratio of required space, investment, maintenance etc etc vs power production (minus losses in transmission...).... let alone if i wanted to use solar in say, Aberdeen Scotland.. where it's never sunny! you start to understand the problem.
Now - for me personally, the future of Clean power production, and im talking electricity here, in the USA is Natural Gas. It's abundant onshore, therefore very cheap, and it burns very very efficiently and cleanly. If the US could harness that, and build a huge national pipeline grid to transport it around the country to fuel very clean, efficient power stations... then no more coal (Clean coal is a myth, no such thing IMO).... and if you "spill" it (i.e. a leak) - it just evaporates.... obviously less risky then nuclear.
In the mountains, Hydro Electric works very well, look at Switzerland. Huge dammed reservoirs up high, power generating turbines down low.... say hello to mr gravity.... but is VERY costly to set up given the engineering required, and also has a BIG environmental impact visually and ecologically... plus if you lose a dammed reservoir up high, the risks to human life and property are obviously high.
Wind - rocks, again IMO - but people hate windfarms??... plus, ironically - any idea how much oil it takes to build and actually maintain a giant windfarm? From lubrication to paints to plastics etc etc.... and large scale, they're too inefficient.
It's like a very very complex mathematical equation that is very very difficult to balance.
As for the rest of the world, they are streets ahead in terms of reducing their consumption fossil fuels... they have become much more efficient at using the oil they do, and even recycling it where possible.... The USA is highly inefficient when it comes to oil consumption... putting V8's in everything is unnecessary... the first step in all this is try to use less.... and use it more economically. Then the second step is supplementation - power generation from alternatives, new materials based on synthetic materials.... etc etc... we need to ween ourselves off it slowly.... you cannot go on tv and say right, that's it - we're done with this shit... :-)