Reasons ForReplacing Fossil Fuels

Many reasons exist to actively seek replacements for fossil fuels. At a minimum, they include the following: We will eventually run out of cheap oil; oil is too valuable a resource to burn; we give huge amounts of money to people who don’t really like us; and fossil fuels may or may not seriously disturb the environment.

Even if you disagree with points three and four, as a society, we cannot ignore points one and two. We need to continue to evolve our energy sources; when we get bogged down in the global warming debate, we are taking our eyes off the ball. It doesn’t matter if the environmental debate is true or not; we need to make the same changes to our energy production for many other reasons, and faster would be better. Furthermore, whoever comes up with technologies that can replace fossil fuels is going to have a great future. I’m not sure how the path forward could be any clearer.

Richard Heidebrecht Jr.
Somerville, Mass.