Time for the U.S. to develop new fuel

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, October 2, 2005

With oil in the mid-$60 range per barrel, and poised to go higher, it’s time that we came to the realization that world demand is increasing for a diminishing resource. If something isn’t done soon the increasing cost of oil will severely affect not only our economy but the economies of the industrial world.

There have been token efforts by the auto manufacturers with hybrids etc., but we need our government to get serious and make a national commitment to develop a power plant that uses something other than petroleum. I don’t care if it is fuel cells, bio-fuel or something else, I’ll let the scientists and engineers figure that out. Something that can be produced domestically and is renewable. Once this is done, legislation is passed stating that all vehicles produced in this country or imported to this country will use this technology and we share this technology with the world.

NASA wants to spend $100 billion on a trip to the moon. We went there and didn’t find a thing we needed.

Put those scientists, engineers and money to work on something that will do us some good. With the exception of the oil companies and OPEC, I think the world would get behind us on this one.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to put the oil companies out of business. There would be no point in duplicating their distribution system. The price would have to be controlled, either by controlling their supply or mark up.

Charles Barnett

Lynnwood