Make oil solution our national calling

I fear our country may soon face a crisis not seen since the Civil War, Great Depression or World War II -- The Oil Crisis.

As an industrialized country, oil is our food, water and air. Without it, our way of life will die just as sure as we would die without nourishment.

The only long-term solution is to wean ourselves from the oil narcotic.

Our country must institute another type of Manhattan Project or Apollo Space program to develop all-electric automobiles.

Let's bring together the best and brightest physicists, scientists and engineers to make better motors, greater capacity and faster charging batteries, and a continental system of charging or battery swapping stations.

We don't make enough electricity to replace oil, so new methods of generation must be developed too.

Environmentalists don't like coal, nuclear or hydroelectric dams, but under the rule of unintended consequences, the solar, wind and wave generation they prefer might lead to further climatic and social consequences yet known, just like corn-based ethanol usage drives up food prices and sugarcane-based ethanol leads to the deforestation of Brazil.

We should learn to make electricity in space. NASA has been little more than a glorified high school science experiment for the last 40 years, so they will finally have a task that benefits mankind and justifies the trillions they've spent.

Electricity made in space will have zero effect on our climate, its energy source is free and it can never be controlled by a foreign cartel.

Only the federal government can undertake a job so immense and complex.

The atom bomb was developed in less than five years, and we put a man on the moon in less than 10.

We already know how to make electricity from the sun and laser beams to send it back from space, but not on the scale required.

We still have time to act, but it requires a president with enough courage to stand up to the business and labor lobbies, foresight to believe in the science and leadership skills to convince the nation this course of action must be taken.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Let's hope our next president doesn't duplicate his folly or we might fall like the Roman Empire.

John Schadl

Arlington Heights