... and those notes (taken in what, the '70's?) weren't dictated by a professor with a particular viewpoint or agenda, were they?
There you have it folks. "What's mine is mine and my descendants, what's yours is negotiable and subject to my judgment of suitability for your application relative to how it is perceived to possibly affect me or my descendants in the future based upon my pre-conceived notions." Lovely viewpoint that.
I don't think anyone here is saying that the implementation of technologies that truly save costs are a bad idea. But, those technologies need to compete in the market, not be forced upon people by the force of law because of somebody's idea of "public good" wrapped in junk science.
Correction, "using far more energy than it is willing to allow to be produced domestically". The environmentalists in this country haven't found an energy project or energy producing scheme that they don't hate and will fight with every fiber in their being from being developed. Examples abound, shale oil in Colorado, coal, oil fields in Alaska, wind farms in California, wind farms off the east coast, solar collection arrays (because they shade the natural beauty of the desert upon which they are erected), natural gas fields, nuclear power plants, hydroelectric dams. You name it, an environmental group has opposed it, taken it to court and fought to assure that the development is stopped or made to be too costly to be economically feasible.
There is ample energy here if we have the will to develop it wisely without the hysteria that *any* energy development is *bad* energy development.
BTW, who gets to judge wasteful lifestyle? You? Who gets to judge your lifestyle? How about if we get someone from say Vietnam, China, or North Korea to assess your "wasteful" lifestyle and impose their idea of "frugal" upon your living habits? One person's "wasteful" may be another person's "time-efficient utilization of available resources". I would prefer that decision be made by the person most closely involved in the process -- the person performing those actions.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+