The existing fleet of heavy,
The existing fleet of heavy, reciprocating piston engines, calibrated to burn hydrocarbon fuels, is an investment with no future. To pursue hydraulic fracking, putting groundwater at risk, for minimal displacement of imported hydrocarbons, is futile. The US currently consumes over 20 million barrels of oil a day; and we are contribute 25% of the global warming problem. These two facts mean that expensive domestic oil will never replace a significant amount of domestic consumption. The US should pursue sustainable, efficient, and large scale technological solutions to the problem of energy use and transportation, an investment in technology that will make us the leader in the 21st century, providing solutions and alternatives. Our failure to do so is caused in part by the fact that we have invested heavily in old, obsolete technology (the modern automobile is not much different, fundamentally, from the designs of the 1920s.) We can continue moving heaven and earth to sustain the unsustainable, and deny the future a chance to thrive, or foolishly squander opportunity while saddling the future with the debts of today. I gave up 99% of my driving three years ago, lost 50 pounds and manage to do it all on a $50 bicycle. When the future comes and your grandkids ask why the climate is messed up and the water table is polluted, will they ask if you had fun driving to and from the store? Were you fat and warm and comfortable? Or will they ask why you polluted their planet, and handed their future over to China and India while you blew the tops off mountains and drilled into the ground? So to sum up, no, we should not invest in foolish "bridge fuels" that will not produce meaningful value for future generations, only costs. It is a short-sighted and selfish thing to do. If we do not pursue marginal shale oil, we will be proud we didn't lay waste to the landscape and water table in the future, and we will be happy that our kids don't string us up by our necks for the damage we did to their world.