Al Gore's recent "challenge" to replace all "dirty" fossil fuel with clean wind and solar in 10 years has to be the most absurd proposition I have heard since "We will greeted as liberators and they will throw flowers at our feet."

Today about 90 percent of all of U.S. energy used is fossil fueled. To replace it all in 10 years would require the discovery of the planet where the "Star Trek" ships found their dilithium crystals for power. Gore states that we can replace all of our fossil fuels with "clean, cheap" wind and solar power.

First, calling wind and solar cheap is like calling the war in Iraq a victory.

For wind and solar to play anything like a significant role in displacing fossil-fueled power generation, a major overhaul of the power distribution grid will need be required.

T. Boone Pickens is calling for massive wind farms to be built in the U.S. Midwest and they could "power the whole country." How does that power get from isolated Midwestern wind farms to the high-electric demand regions like the coasts? Magic?

The power distribution transmission systems are not there to support that concept. In fact the power transmission infrastructure in the United States has been stagnant for decades and is a potential course of its own crisis. Plus there is nowhere near the production capacity to manufacture and install the overwhelming quantity of equipment needed to meet this "challenge."

There are a few other major flaws in this alleged challenge, flaws that are mentioned by hardly anyone when discussing alternative energy: Unless we decide to stop commercial air travel, eliminate freight trains, river barges, ocean shipping, steel manufacturing, glassmaking, and untold other energy consuming processes, we cannot stop using fossil fuels - ever.

Remember what a great idea corn ethanol was? Well, guess what - rushing to chase another fantasy solution as proposed by Gore and Pickens will cause more damage in the long run than doing nothing.

What we need to do is to take a breath (while we still can, according to Gore), sit down and develop an objective comprehensive energy policy with a long-term time horizon.

Everything has to be on the table as well, from wind and solar to more hydroelectric generation, recycling spent nuclear fuel instead of finding a hole to stick it in, new nuclear power plants (of standardized design), waste-to-energy plants, aggressive recycling programs in cities, landfill gas, animal waste methane, etc.

If some one is trying to tell you they have they answer you should say thank you and keep looking. Even if it is someone with a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award.

Raymond A. Miller is superintendent of utilities and adjunct assistant professor in the University of Cincinnati College of Applied Science.