Yin Yang

This is one of those push/pull kind of things.  For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

By example:  The Turks are pissed off at the Israelis for shooting up their blockade running cruise ship and have sworn revenge.  But it turns out that Israelis comprise the lion's share of tourists on Turkish Mediterranean beaches and out of fear, have been canceling vacation reservations by the thousands, thereby leaving dozens of Turkish tourist resorts in dire financial straights.  Who would've thought?

The same kind of impossible to foresee consequences occur in almost any and all human interactions and endeavors.  Let's look at energy.

Excepted from an article in the NY Times.

WASHINGTON — Burning fossil fuels costs the United States about $120 billion a year in health costs, mostly because of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution, the National Academy of Sciences reported in a study issued Monday...

Nearly 20,000 people die prematurely each year from such causes, according to the study’s authors, who valued each life at $6 million based on the dollar in 2000. ($6 Million?? I don't think so. C) Those pollutants include small soot particles, which cause lung damage; nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog; and sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain...

The study lends support to arguments that society should pay extra for energy from sources like the wind and the sun, because their indirect costs are extremely small.  (The logic behind this eludes me. C)  But it also found that renewable motor fuel, in the form of ethanol from corn, was slightly worse than gasoline in its environmental impact... 

Eethanol, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent unleaded gasoline, or E85, showed slightly higher damages to environment and health than ordinary gasoline, because of the energy required to raise the corn and make ethanol from it...

This same cost/benefit applies to hydrogen and even electric vehicles as well.  The cost of producing the hydrogen and electricity outweighs the gains.

Now lets factor the environmental and economic costs of an uncontrolled oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico into the equation and see how the figures turn out.

Here's an idea: