Put Exxon/Mobil out of business, or at least on the back burner. This is not some radical environmentalist talk, it's just pragmatic. In a few years, we will reach peak oil production. After that our supplies start to go downhill. Oil is not an everlasting source of energy. And oil kills--just ask the families of the soldiers who've died this time around in Iraq, no thanks to both Democrats and Republicans who sent them there.

Now Congress wants to give tax breaks to big oil. Shameless.

Americans are incredibly innovative. Ben Franklin, George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison, my friend Dave Weaver, Steve Wozniak--we have a rich history of invention and innovation. The technology and innovators exist to create viable, cheap, renewable energy sources like hydrogen. Just last month I met someone creating a hydrogen plant, and of course I said "but it takes more energy per unit to make hydrogen than it provides." Not so, grasshopper, not so. Not if you fuel the plant with solar energy. So by using one renewable source, we can create another, combustible, distributable, renewable source using clean energy techniques all along the chain. And not once do we have to invade another country to do it. I propose we invest $200 billion over the next 10 years to research, develop, and bring to market renewable energy sources, eliminating our dependency on foriegn oil.

I believe deeply in Americans' ability to innovate. Keeping in mind this thought of innovation, I have some sad news about an oil shortfall: The Dean Team drove the bus into the ground. It ran out of oil and the engine locked up, rendering it dead. So we're looking (in Pennsylvania) for another bus. This time, we're looking for diesel, and we're planning to convert it to bio-diesel. That means we'll be running it on vegetable oil--available at any fast food store as waste.

Do you have any stories about alternative energy sources?