Obama speech on energy

[jelopez777]

Heard the president's State of the Union speech on the country's energy initiatives. Nowhere does he mention the word "fusion". All I heard was clean energy this, clean energy that. The world's energy need will expand exponentially and he is focusing on low energy, intermittent, space consuming, maintenance nightmare, expensive, exotic metal, needing battery storage, manufacturing/recycling pollution, sugar labeled "clean" energy sources. The ITER and NIF fusion our country is stuck on, costs billions and highly doubtful if they will work and be practical. There is a close mindedness on low cost fusion iterations such as IEC fusors and at least "trying out" variations to develop the technology. I think we are headed towards a dead end, not knowing the possibility of less expensive options and we will all suffer for it. This forum is probably the only avenue for low cost fusor development, which is sad.

[Steven Sesselmann]

Politics is all about money..., I recall our ex primeminister John Howard holding talks on how Australian coal was actually clean energy......

One of the local satirical cartoonists portrayed our then primeminister with an apron and a dish washing bowl full of soap bubbles, and a brush, ....cleaning coal

Steven

[Conrad Farnsworth]

Throughout the entire speech, I kept waiting for him to mention fusion power. He only bashed the oil companies and kept talking about "investing" all of this money promptly after he talked about cutting parts of the budget he would most like to have kept. Oh well.
P.S. Eliminating the oil industry right away would also eliminate an extremely large portion of the job market. Although alternative energy sources and alternative source jobs should be sought out.

Happy Fusing!
-Conrad Farnsworth

[Richard Hull]

Coal and fission are the only thing that will give short term gigawatts with unstable gas and oil supplies being a distant third placer. Fusion is and will remain a long and far away dream.

Politicians are not part of the energy mix beyond serving as a drag. Money and expediency are king and always will be. Fusion power can be part of the mix when it is real. Until then, it is and will remain part of a "keep busy" and "make work" project for any number of pitch men, scientists and technicians.

Richard Hull