Energy diversity brings stability.

Energy diversity brings stability W hen I pull up to a gas-station pump, I have three choices: regular, premium, or something in between. I make the obvious choice and fill up with the cheapest option (while I wonder who uses those even more expensive fuels). It is the same scenario whether I'm in State College, Pa., or Los Angeles. All across the U.S., we have a transportation infrastructure based almost entirely on one fuel and one source: gasoline and oil. Our energy portfolio for electricity production is only slightly more diverse, with coal and oil providing most of our energy needs. Despite our brush with a national oil crisis in the late 1970s, we still have not gotten serious about alternative and renewable energy. Rather than facing serious energy shortages in the U.S. by developing other options, we simply extended our pull of energy to substantial reserves outside the country and postponed the inevitable decision to face our " addiction to oil ". Current plans to increase drilling in environmentally sensitive areas or exploit new types of fuels, such as coal gasification or mining methane hydrates, miss a more critical point: We must solve our energy needs while addressing climate change. Our situation is not as simple as it was 30 years ago when we exploited additional sources of carbon-based fuels: We must now solve the energy issue and reduce emissions of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases. There seems to be an underlying need in our energy planning for " the answer " —some sort of techno-magical solution that can solve all our energy needs. Such a technology doesn't exist and, barring a miraculous breakthrough in fusion, isn't likely to be developed soon enough. Instead of searching for a single solution, we need to pursue all the little solutions that, when taken together, add up to something more powerful. We need energy diversity. We could stretch our own national reserves of oil, using it as a fuel of choice in remote areas, while building a new infrastructure based on different fuels that match our potential for energy production in other areas. For transportation, I can imagine biodie-sel-and bioethanol-powered cars in the Midwest; hybrid vehicles augmented by solar energy and hydropower on the West Coast; and clean, hydrogen-gas vehicles in our cities. For housing, I envision strict building codes for eco-minded, energy-efficient housing and government-financed energy-conservation fixes. We must also …