SSPS still viable?

From: "John Frazer"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 10:28 PM
Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: SSPS still viable?

[snikt]
> I think it was an OPEC minister who said (paraphrase) "The
> stone age didn't end when we ran out of stones, and the oil age
> won't end because we've run out of oil". Meaning that something
> else will replace fossil fuels before we've run out of all options
> for recovering it.
>

I hope so.

[snikt]
> Note about the author: Richard S. Courtney is Technical Editor,
> CoalTrans International. Is it any surprise that he'd say that
> renewable energy won't help?
>
> Note that he also says of a SPS power beam "Failure to sustain
> focus on the ground targets could provide a disaster on an
> unprecedented scale."
>
> More of the disinformation and sneering derision I mentioned.
>

There are not only fallacies, but also plain lies, like "It is not possible
for wind turbines to produce electricity as cheaply as coal-fired
electricity.". In fact, the cost of wind energy is the same of coal energy
since several years ago, and the use of this renewable source is growing
impressively in Europe, for example.

When I said that the article was "interesting", I was being half-ironic and
half-serious. Sometimes, it is interesting to see an opposite point of
view...

[snikt]
Lucio