2018: The Year of Petroleum Independence?
Former Vice-President Al Gore says we cannot wait until 2050 to curtail our carbon emissions. In Washington this week Gore made his case for eliminating petroleum from the United States economy by the year 2018. Is his goal too ambitious?
Editor’s Note: This is Anthony’s first post as a contributor to Gas 2.0. Anthony works on sugar-based biofuels at the Raines Lab of Petroleum Alternatives, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
I have a lot of admiration for Al Gore. I was in the 7th grade when he lost his bid for the presidency, and even then I could feel that something awful was upon us. Fast forward eight years and we find ourselves in a world where Al Gore is running a campaign to help mankind in a much more focused manner. Instead of defecting to the private sector, Gore remains a public servant dedicated to the environment. Recently, he called for the United States to lead the way to stop global warming, and now he is calling for the United States to be off of carbon based fuels by the year 2018.
