“We have a lot of money, people, recently available land, and resources. This is not always going to be true, and if society were better governed, it would be seized as a golden opportunity for positive change rather than an excuse for more of the same.”

We need politicians and business leaders alike to understand the huge opportunity we have here that could solve many environmental, economic, and social problems.

To repeat what Angeline said: The American public, as a whole, needs to step up and recapture the entrepreneurial spirit that brought us the technology we enjoy today – and combine it with the wisdom of sustainability that will carry us into the future.

Speaking of basic engineering: the water issue affects ALL thermoelectric power systems. If you use algae generated ethanol or solar thermal… anything that uses thermal conversion needs water or equivalent (e.g., there are reactor designs where the turbine exhaust is cooled by air or fuel cells that need less water for cooling). My technical training would say to put the eggs in many baskets: fuel cells, geothermal, renewables, and even some nuclear. Most engineers I know want all of the options on the table.