Reshared post from Darin R. McClure Is one day of power worth it? Watch this now, do not turn ...

After 40 years we should have a comprehensive plan for alternative and clean energy sources, but we don't. It gets talking points by both parties in lead ups to elections, but nothing get pushed through with any type of dedication.

There has been a half hearted attempt to foster the solar energy industry, but it has been poorly executed to say the least.

I don't know what Japan's options are in this regard, but the catastrophe that struck their nuclear plants would have been quite difficult to forecast, to my knowledge. I do know that there are several groups who feel they should pursue harvesting energy from their surrounding ocean.

There needs to be the equivalent of a Manhattan project, but this time in pursuit of a clean energy source.

One of our long-term issues is that it is very cheap to do things the way that we are doing it, but it isn't sustainable in the long run. However, since all of our actors (both governmental and private industry) are incentivized based on short-term returns, it doesn't get fixed.

+Moses Wilson the Manhattan Project is the right idea: Commit every necessary resource to do whatever you have to do in order to get it done. The only problem with that comparison is that they understood that they had to do it for their survival. The fear that Hitler would crack the atom was real and very possible (luckily he wasn't wrapped too tightly); but we lack the same fear to motivate us today.

I just looked it up on Wikipedia...and the Manhattan Project took roughly 5 years, employed 130,000 people and cost almost $25B in today's dollars. That's it. That's nothing in this year's budget. But say that estimate needs to be doubled: I bet we could actually solve this with a hardcore $50B investment over 5 years.