Solving Energy Crisis Demands a Sustained Effort

Rod Adams — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:26:15 +0000

A number of participants in the energy debate have recently suggested that what America needs is a new federal project on the scale of the Manhattan Project or the Apollo Project that brought large scale teams together to achieve great things. My suggestion is that the better model to follow would be Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway project - or a much more ancient model.

As successful as Manhattan and Apollo were at achieving their stated goals, both share a common flaw as a model for attacking our energy supply challenges - they were sprints that left their respective teams panting and wiped out when the initial goal was achieved. In contrast, the Interstate Highway system was a more distributed, long-term effort whose accomplishment required a sustained, methodical approach lasting more than 50 years (so far). It was more of an endurance relay event than a sprint.

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Solving Energy Crisis Demands a Sustained Effort