John:
Methane — Methane may be produced by biomass, but is not limited to biomass. It is also the primary component of natural gas, which is in comparative plentiful supply. There are also vast deposits of methane hydrate under pressure under the sea floor in some areas that have never been exploited. Of course, if it is obtained from natural gas or methane hydrate, you don’t get the “recycle” effect of immediately returning carbon to the atmosphere that was only recently removed into biomass. But I have serious questions about the validity of CO2 concerns, anyway.
Nuclear — we are in agreement.
Solar — Long term. I really think that Solar won’t ever become viable until it is collected outside of the atmosphere and beamed (microwave, laser, or whatever) to receivers here on the planet surface. There are still way too many technical hurdles to overcome before that ever becomes viable. But a hundred or so years down the line I wouldn’t be surprised if that is where the bulk of our energy supply comes from.
You are correct with hydrocarbons. Supply of them is the problem. Many people overlook the volitility of H2 — it is quite hard to store, and is dangerously explosive if released. Of course, Methane is also dangerously explosive if released, but it isn’t as hard to store, and isn’t as volitile. H2 has to be stored under quite high pressure in order to liquidize it, and then you have the problem of tiny molecular size which means that it will “Ooze” out between the molecules of a lot of container materials.
Mass Transit — Mass transit can only work when dealing with sufficient population densities that are appropriately distributed. For commuter mass transit to work, the bulk of a population must live in relatively restricted, densly populated locations, and the employment areas must be similarly localized. Then mass transit lines may be laid to link those areas. While that may work in places like NYC, it will never work in places like Atlanta (where I am now) where the existing system is inadequate, similar to what you describe, and Houston, which is where I grew up and call home. Those cities are just not “laid out” with mass transit in mind. The people are spread out all around the cities in widespread suburbs, and the places of employment are not nearly as centralized as cities like NYC. Places like these need to think about further de-centralizing the employment centers and moving them out to the suburbs, shortening the commutes on the existing surface road systems. To a certain extent this is already happening.
Car Batteries — You have a point here. Battery technology needs to be improved to make this viable. But for a sizeable portion of the population, electric vehicles are just not practical, at least for those who would own only a single vehicle. Electric vehicles would be ideal for those who limit their driving entirely to commutes and around town trips. But until battery technology improves to where 500 mile one way trips at interstate speeds in a mid-sized vehicle — not a “roller skate”, but one with enough room to take along a couple, 3 kids and a trunk load of luggage — then it will only be a niche, as people won’t buy it as their primary passenger vehicle.
