Someone is being rather obtuse.
Look at the number of failed "green initiatives" following in the wake of Obama's porkulous. Why did they fail? I'm offering a far more PRODUCTIVE, and very cost effective solution that will spur growth, innovation and competition.
I'm still not even sure what your solution is, you haven't defined it very well. And yes green energy initiatives haven't always met with success, I'm not arguing that either. I'm simply thinking you haven't thought this idea out well enough as evident by the lack of detail.
Because that would make pakistan vulnerable to blackmail and extortion from India.
I take it that you haven't bothered to read the thread .. as in X Prize Foundation????
The thread was less than 2 pages long when I made my post, I've read it. And you've brought up an excellent point, I was kind of hoping someone would say "Well that's politics, its different" to which my response to that and your post is that oil is politics. Oil is just as much a commodity as it is a tool for politics, whether that's economy policy, military/defense/security policy, etc and its not something that will so simply be eliminated by a billion dollar prize. Of course I'm assuming that's what the "solution" the OP had in mind, because he hasn't defined what it is I'm going to assume he's thinking the most audacious thing because it makes my argument easier to make.
In other words what I'm saying, is oil is as critical to security for some states as Pakistan's nuclear program is to it's country's security.
Now the X-Prize foundation, it's made some headlines and certainly caught people's attention but what exactly has it changed? If we use it as a model for prize-based innovation creating change, it hasn't succeed well very so far, now maybe enough time hasn't past yet, changing something like the energy economy of the world takes some time. But if you look at the results of their prizes, none of them have so far radically altered the way the world works. For example the "Very Light Car" won 5 million dollars for achieving over 100MPGs, fantastic I'm sure some breakthroughs were made in sciences and engineering that I couldn't even understand.
However what has come of it? 5 Million dollars isn't enough to start a car company, no car company has bought the patent for the vehicle, and there's no effort to start mass producing the things. Now that was in 2010, barely over a year ago so yes I will concede that these things take time, however so far the progress doesn't look too good.
Also the technology for fuel efficiently greater than the average car already exists, so why aren't we using it?!?! The VW Bug diesel will get upwards to 70-75 MPGs if driven at the right speed(55mph) and maintained properly. The reason we all aren't driving diesel bugs, is because we'd all have to drive diesel bugs, its just that simple the culture doesn't want to accept that thing as their vehicle. Plus, who the hell wants to drive 55mph? I've got places to be.
In the end what I'm saying is, there's a whole lot more at play than simply money, the world isn't that simple.
