Here's my idea:

[FirstLight]

We always say that the best thing about America is the ability for the people to come up with new ways of doing things when the going gets tough.

So why not sponsor programs in college labs and with private individuals to come up with these solutions?
We need a quick answer to the internal combustion engine, oil cleanup in sand and wetlands, etc, and so many other things associated with this spill and the gas and oil dependent lives we have...

what if the answer to our problems only took a grant of 25K and a group of college kids with access to a good lab?

There is a HUGE untapped resource in the abilities of the average student or weekend hobbyist that can think out of the norm.
THIS is what we could be investing in...

thoughts?

[izquierdista]

1. Rain on your parade

Like orphan drugs and open source software, if it can't become a cash cow to be co-opted by large corporations, it isn't going anywhere. Right now I'm sitting on top of bioremediation materials that could clean up the oil that is washing up on beaches, and I feel like a Jewish mother (you never call, you never write, what are you, ashamed of me?)

What America has turned into is the best place for people to come up with new ways of making money when the going gets tough. I'm sure the people giving HAZWOPER training, selling oil dispersant, and filing class action lawsuits are going to be making a killing.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. ideas to replace the internal combustion engine don't get far

[FirstLight]

3. Give the cynicism a rest willya...?

I'd say that there is more of a chance that someone whoi is a closet genius has a better chance at seeing the solution to a problem ...


And seriously, why *not* a National Contest or a Grant Award to those who can really make a dent in the technology and come up with some prototypes.
(Kevin Costner had LOTS more money, but the PRINCIPLE is what counts here)

At this point we have nothing left to lose but more time, and our survival clock on this planet is not too keen, since we have pretty much fucked ourselves beyond repair. I agree with Al Gore in the sense that we are in critical moments as a race and we need to really start hustling with our cutting edge concepts...
So let's get crackin' Just becaue you don't have a PhD isn't a reason to try
& dont think it is a bad idea to just see who can come up with what...

[Celebration]

4. a contest might work

Isn't there one for spaceships, and one for cars that don't use gasoline?

I have to agree that there are some fairly easy, known answers out there, yet we don't use even what we know. Brazil became oil independent very easily. They simply required every new car to be able to be run on alcohol OR gasoline. It only costs about one hundred extra dollars per car. When a critical mass of cars on the road can do that, then alcohol pumps crop up. How easy is that? Why in the world don't we do that? No, it isn't the answer to global warming but this would make a huge difference in the amount of oil we use, five years down the road.

So simple, and the road map is already there.