Re: The United States in Full Thrust

----- Original Message -----

> I do not have the history handy, but I suspect that the collapse of
the
> US was precipitated by the sudden lack of oil.  While all economies
> would suffer from oil's departure, Canada and the US would suffer
> significantly more than the other industrialised nations from the
simple
> lack of a trans-national electrified railway.  Russia, Europe, and
Japan

Uhhh. . . Do some math.  Post-fusion economies are not as dependant on
oil.
Regardless of the Green propaganda, the real issue on fossil fuels is,
always has been, and always will be electrical power generation.  If
that is
superceded by fusion power, then our oil requirements drop by several
orders
of magnitude.  And with the improvements in battery technology, the
reason
for your average city dweller to own a hydrocarbon-powered vehicle wil
be
slim to none.

Oh, yeah, and HMT engines are ALSO gonna be a lot more efficient. . .
and
will be also in use.

Oh, yeah, and we have fuel cell technology also coming online.	What
happens
then?  We start burning hydrogen.  Hydrogen falls from the sky for
free--we
just need to set up the simple and easy machinery to seperate it from
the
oxygen it's attached to.  That's just a matter of electricity.	That's a
problem--oh, wait!  We just solved that with the fusion power.

> can all move goods with their central powerplants, and China still
uses
> coal fired steam engines.  The current power of the USA is predicated
on
> free access to ample reserves of oil.  Take that away and the USA
> becomes a third world country with a developed system of government
and
> justice, but saddled with an inability to keep everyone fed, due to
the
> problem of the food being too distant from the cities.
>
> But if you want to write your own background, go ahead.

Have you any clue at all what the condition of the US's oil reserves
are?
Do some math--then assume that fusion power is commercially viable some
time
in the next 25 years and then double-check your answers.  Then go back
and
do the math on improved exploitation technology allowing more marginal
oil
reserves to be developed.  Fun fact:  There are a lot of oil reserves
out
there that are not developed commercially because they are not
economically
cost-effective.  If the price of oil goes up, then a higher cost of
pulling
each barrel out of the Earth becomes acceptable.  It's called
capitalism--which is why Communism (and it's modern camoflaged auxillary
called "environmentalism") suffers--these calculations are pulled out of
the
equation.  Oh, and with the increased stability of the Russians under
the
Romanovs in the GZG background, you'll have a lot of European and
American
corporations falling all over each other helping the Ruskies out with
the
massive deposits of fossil fuels that the Soviets havn't had the
brains^H^H^H^H^H^H technical expertise to develop.

Oil is out there--it's all a matter of dealing with it.