As far as electric atvs, I think you would still have the "wanton destruction of riparian habitat" to deal with. And on a side note I have a two atvs, one is a sport and makes plenty of noise the other a lot more quiet and subdued. I have seen more wildlife up close with the sport atv than while riding the quieter. In the last week or so I have ridden within feet of moose, elk, deer, mountain goat and an eagle most of these being in AF Canyon. All these animals I have seen up close (within yards) on the trail.
So, if I'm reading this right, you are trying to imply that the louder ATV you ride somehow attracts wildlife--or at the very least scares no more away than the quieter one? lol, I think you have insufficient information to make that conclusion, but your first hand experience is worth while. I think it's more luck than anything, and regardless, very few people would rather have the louder machine (or be around the louder machine) when enjoying the outdoors. If being around loud obnoxious things is your speed, I have a printing press you can stick your head in just for kicks
The free market will create the path to the next energy technology with or without the governments help.
This I agree with, but there is no sense in waiting until it's a survival strategy. Explore alternative energies now, get the head start on the frame work, and in 10-20-50-100-200 years when we have converted to cleaner sources of energy, we'll be X amount of years ahead of the other economies that we are not being proactive about it, then we can sell it to them
The USA is a gigantic business, and for any business to continue to be successful over a long period of time it has to be able to stay ahead of the curve and part of that might be making tough choices now that we will benefit from later. Sure, jobs might be lost in one industry, but eventually created in another. If you have a job that is in a field that the government is aggressively looking to become less dependent upon, then maybe look into developing another skill set or finding another field to work in prior to it being too late. That's just common sense IMO.
Whether or not I agree with Gore (which I 90% do not--I think he's an great alarmist, a passable politician (for what that’s worth), and a terrible scientist), I can’t be against the development of cleaner technologies just because I'm afraid of change and I think someone somewhere is pushing their own private agenda upon us. No matter what it is, a private agenda is in play and the 'concept' of cleaner energies is something that is at least worth exploring. Like you said, the big oil companies will have their hand in it and try to get their piece of the pie, and that’s fine. They have lots of private money, and are probably really good at taking government money, to put into developing these technologies.
for the record, I haven't had time to even click your link, so I'm not really arguing directly with you or your point, but more from a devil's advocate position.
