It is this attitude that makes mass transit in Fort Wayne an unviable solution. Heaven forbid you walk to use the transit system. My aunt lives in Evanston, IL and commutes to work in Chicago. The nearest stop for the “El” is 8 blocks away. She basically walks across downtown Fort Wayne twice in a day to get to work. But the people in Fort Wayne can’t walk half that to get to a bus stop.

Mass transit can work, but the residents of a city have to want it to work. These systems are not solutions unless residents use them. If people don’t use them, we will continue to get the sprawl and extensive roadways we currently have.

Most of the public discussion I’ve heard is about finding alternative energy sources from wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear and biofuels. Of the commenters above, only Angela touched upon one of the most important issues. We continue to follow poor land-use patterns that make transit, walking and bicycling non-viable options for most people. If the continued sprawling of Illinois Road hasn’t made it into any urban planning textbook as a bad example, it should. Jobs, services and retail move farther and farther from residential areas, and the car-centric road systems that serve the malls, strip centers, and big-box stores make access hazardous by any means other than driving.

That’s on the local level. On the state level, continued head-in-the-sand planning brings us projects like the Fort-to-Port highway and the I-69 extension, both of which subsidize trucking in competition with freight railroads even as oil prices escalate. Over the long haul, railroads can move freight with three to five times the energy efficiency of trucks, and they build and maintain their own rights of way and pay taxes on them. New highways take land out of the tax base, shifting burden to farmers, businesses and home owners, and fuel taxes, excise taxes and other dedicated revenues don’t cover the ongoing costs of the new roads. In the 19th century Indiana intiated construction of the Wabash-Erie Canal, a project that brought near financial ruin, at a time when canal ventures in eastern states were already falling into bankruptcy because the then-new railroads did the work better. It doesn’t look like Hoosiers have learned much.

Thanks for giving some insight on what the rest of the world pays for gas. The US has had gas at relatively cheap prices for a long, long time. The fact of the matter is we are at a crossroads when it comes to energy and fuel consumption. Russia, China and India’s economies are booming and are continuing to expand. Energy and oil consumption will only continue to grow here and abroad.

Whether or not we make smart, intelligent decisions on how to supply the energy and fuel we need, is entirely up to us. There is only so much oil left in the Earth. Simply adding more refineries or opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling are short sided solutions.

Constructing more nuclear power plants in the US is not a decision to rush into. Extensive mining is needed to supply the reactors with uranium. Disposing of the radioactive waste produced from the plants is a controversial topic. Remember Yucca Mountain ? The people living around the nuclear waste storage facilities and nuclear reactors, rightfully have concerns regarding contamination and safety.

Adding more coal plants is gong backwards. Coal is one of the most dirtiest and harmful forms of fuel to use. The amount of carbon and sulfuric acid produced from mining is disastrous to the communities which live near the mines, not to mention the planet as a whole. The impact coal mining has on the environment, even long after a mine is closed down, takes years and great financial resources, often times billed to the taxpayers, to rectify. The people of West Virginia already have had enough contaminated ground water or acid rain than they desire.

What I am in favor of is clean, renewable energy sources. In particular, wind, water and solar power. These forms of energy represent the future of our energy consumption and have far less impact on our environment. The great thing is we are only in the infancy stage regarding these alternative forms of renewable energy. The sky is literally the limit. Spain and Germany now obtain almost 10 % of their electricity power needs from wind. Denmark is at nearly 20 %. Not only are these forms of energy sustainable and less harmful to our environment, but they also create new jobs.

As for the tree huggers, I am thankful for them. If it wasn’t for their love of our natural world, we would not have the great National Parks and forests such as Yosemite, Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. With a little luck, hopefully I will have the opportunity to take my grandchildren to see and experience some of these last great wild areas some day.

If the tree huggers would get out of the way and allow a few dozen more nuclear generators and low-emitting coal plants, U.S.oil consumption would be far less.

Have you seen the Cadillac Escalade commercials which show this good-looking guy who wasn’t part of the cool crowd in high school, but who now is successful and affluent, and drives a big gas-guzzling, behemoth, SUV Cadillac Escalade around town and guns it at every stop light in order to show the naysayers the meaning of the word cool ?

On behalf of the Cadillac Escalade and Hummer drivers of the world who desperately need more gas for future strutting around town and flooring it when the traffic lights turn green, I say, open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. Why should we deprive them of that much needed oil to fill up their gas tanks with ?

Also, there’s a certain stigma for busses that keep people in their cars too.