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MichaelFabey, Air Force explores space-basedsolarpower, Aerospace Daily& Defense Report, August 29, 2006, News; Pg. 1 Vol. 219 No. 40

Perhaps the hardest technological hurdle needed to be overcome would be developing arocket capable of putting the panels into space ,Preble and other experts say. The currently plannedexpendable rockets won't be able to do the job.And space itself is considered risky business.Nearly every U.S. Air Force or other quasi-military satellite program is now behind schedule and over budget. "There are nocompany(s), however, prepared to assume the immense financial risk of initiatingconstruction of (a space solar power system), however. It would be akin to asking a company to build Hoover Damor the interstate system without federal assistance," Preble says."There are simply too many engineering,financial, regulatory and managerial risks for any group we have been able to identify toundertake ...today."

No Author given, Pew Charitable Trusts Research Center on Global Problems,

Global Warming, Environment Reports, 2007

The worlds leading scientists agree that the planet is warming and that human activitiesespecially the burning of fossil fuels and the clearing of forestsare a big part of the cause.In a2007 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the international group ofscientists charged with reviewing, validating and summarizing the latest research concluded thatthe warming of the climate system is unequivocal. They stated that it is 90 percent certain thathuman-generated greenhouse gases account for most of the warming in the past 50 years.Manypublished scientific reports have documented the actual observed impacts of a warming planetincluding dramatic melting of the Arctic ice cap, shifting wildlife habitats, increased evidence of

wildfires, heat waves and more intense storms. Americans are now seeing the impacts of globalwarming in their backyards. The warming trend poses serious risks to the economy and theenvironment.

Douglas Durante and Todd Sneller, Energy Security, , A Publication of Ethanol AcrossAmericaSummer20055

Since 1949, U.S. interests and objectives in the region have included maintaining theuninterrupted flow of Persian Gulf oil, ensuring the security of Israel, and promoting a comprehensive resolutionof the Arab-Israeli conflict. The 1990 Persian Gulf War provided the United States with first handexperience of the cost of protecting oil supplies associated with an escalated militaryconflict in the Middle East. The original intent of Saddam Hussein, said Senator John Glenn (R-OH) in 1990, was totake over 70% of the worlds known oil reserves. That would give him control over much of the energy for the whole industrialized

world. The energy security cost to the U.S. of maintaining the uninterrupted flow of oilfrom this area is approximately $50 billion per year, and depending on various assumptions in severalstudies, can make the true cost of oil, counting military and energy security expenses, as high as $100-$150per barrel. A study by the National Defense Council Foundation (NDCF) in 2003 provides the most in-depth examination of this

http://www.ipcc.ch/http://www.ipcc.ch/

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subject since the 1987 study by the General Accounting office, which was prior to the first Gulf War. The NDCF study found that

America spends $49.1 billion defending Persian Gulf oil, adding more than one dollar to the cost of a gallon of gasoline. Thestudy further concluded that the overall economic toll of this dependence on foreign oil isstaggering. The diversion of capital and investment resulting from spending nearly $100 billion annually on foreign oil, i.e.money that would otherwise be spent in the U.S., costs the U.S. economy more than800,000 jobs per year, and costs federal, state and local government treasuries $13.4billion in lost revenues. A National Defense Council Foundation study found that when taken together, theeconomic losses, the defense costs, and oil supply distribution costs bring the total cost of imported oilto approximately $250 billion per year, or close to $4.00 per gallon over the current purchase prices of gasoline.

By LeonardDavid, Special Correspondent, Space News Space Based Solar Power Fuels

Vision of Global Energy Security, September 2007

The U.S. Department of Defense has an "absolute urgent need for energy," Smith said,underscoring the concern that major powers around the world not just the United States couldend up in a major war of attrition in the 21st century. "We've got to make sure that we alleviate

the energy concerns around the globe," he said."Energy may well be the first tangible commodityreturned from space," said Joseph Rouge, Associate Director of the National Security SpaceOffice. "Geopolitics in general is going to be a large issue. I don't think there's any question thatenergy is going to be one of the key next issues, along with water ... that's going to be thecompetition we're going to fight."

AlGlobus; AdAstra; Solar Power From Space: A Better Strategy for America and the

World?; May 17, 2007

SSP is environmentally friendly in the extreme. The microwave beams will heat the atmosphere slightly and the

frequency must be chosen to avoid cooking birds, but SSP has no emissions of any kind, and that's not all. Even

terrestrial solar and wind require mining all their materials on Earth, not so SSP. The satellites can be

built from lunar materials so only the materials for the receiving antennas (rectennas) need be mined on Earth. SSP is probably the

most environmentally benign possible large-scale energy source for Earth, there is far more than

enough for everyone, and the sun's energy will last for billions of years.