Anyway, I think you are right — there is no one innovation that is going to replace oil overnight. A range of things are going to have to be explored. Not the least of these are going to be more energy-efficient devices, appliances, and machines — things that can quickly level the playing field in developing societies.

It takes things like this, though, to prove that it can be done.

That said, the real problem is that we have too many people wanting too many things and using too much energy for the environment to sustain indefinately without something giving. I find it both amusing and saddening that even off shore wind farms are being opposed in my home state of Massachusetts.

Hopefully this study yields some sort of compromise here. I think we can have energy independence but there is no magic bullet, no one energy source that is going to save us at least in the short run.