The Petro Syndrome (with apologies to "The China Syndrome")

The Old Gray Lady (aka The New York Times) went out of her way last weekend, with a story about our current energy problem. If you remember the old song, "Put the blame on Mame, boys; put the blame on Mame." she did a paraphrase with her version of "Put the blame on Jane boys, put the blame on Jane." The Jane to which she referred was Jane Fonda, with reference to her starring in"The China Syndrome."

Seems like the movie opened only a few weeks before the near calamity on Three Mile Island fell upon us. The concurrence of these two incidents, effectively put the kibosh on nuclear power plants This resulted in our increased dependence on oil, especially as it refers to power generation.

The story starts with:

"If you were asked to name the biggest global-warming villains of the past 30 years, here’s one name that probably wouldn’t spring to mind: Jane Fonda. But should it?"

For the full story in the paper, please go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/magazine/16wwln-freakonomics-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

So, my question today is: Do we build nuclear plants, and get the petro-monkey off of our backs? We're trying ethanol, solar, winds? Isn't this also reasonable solution? To me, as of right now, petroleum should be used only for powering moving vehicles.

And, as an aside, what the world needs now is a modern day George Washington Carver, to do for coal what he did for peanuts, soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes. (To mention but a few of his accomplishments.)

: )