The Unnecessary Energy Crisis:
How to Solve it Quickly

Position Paper
Association of Distinguished American Scientists

T. E. Bearden

June 24, 2000

All Rights Reserved
The Unnecessary Energy Crisis: How to Solve It Quickly

T. E. Bearden, LTC, U.S. Army (Retired)
CEO, CTEC Inc.
Director, Association of Distinguished American Scientists (ADAS)
Fellow Emeritus, Alpha Foundation's Institute for Advanced Study (AIAS)
Final Draft
June 24, 2000

Introduction
The World Energy Crisis
The world energy crisis is now driving the economies of the world nations.  
There is an escalating worldwide demand for electrical power and transportation, much of which depends on fossil fuels and particularly oil or oil products.  The resulting demand for oil is expected to increase year by year. Recent sharp rises in some U.S. metropolitan areas included gasoline at more than $2.50 per gallon already.
At the same time, it appears that world availability of oil may have peaked in early 2000, if one factors in the suspected Arab inflation of reported oil reserves.  From now on, it appears that oil availability will steadily decline, slowly at first but then at an increasing pace.
Additives to aid clean burning of gasoline are also required in several U.S. metropolitan areas, increasing costs and refinery storage and handling.
The increasing disparity between demand and supply—steadily increasing demand for electricity using oil products versus decreasing world supplies of oil, with other factors such as required fuel additives—produces a dramatically increasing cost of oil and oil products.  Further, newer supplies of oil must be taken by increasingly more expensive production means.
Manipulative means of influencing the price of oil include (i) the ability of OPEC to increase or decrease production at will, and (ii) the ability of the large oil companies to reduce or increase the holding storage of the various oil products, types of fuel, etc.  Interestingly, several large oil companies are reporting record profits {}.
At the same time, the burgeoning populaces of the major petroleum producers—and their increasing economic needs—press hard for an increasing inflation of oil prices in order to fund the economic benefits.
As an example, Saudi moderation of OPEC is vanishing or has already vanished.  The increasing demands of the expanding Saudi Royal Family group and the guaranteed benefits to the expanding populace have overtaken and surpassed the present Saudi financial resources unless the price of OPEC oil is raised commensurately {}.
The Federal Reserve contributes directly to the economic problem in the U.S., since it interprets the escalating prices of goods and services (due to escalating energy prices) as evidence of inflation.  It will continue to raise interest rates to damp the economy, further damping U.S. business, employment, and trade.  The Fed has already increased interest rates six times in one year as of this date.
International Trade Factors
Under NAFTA, GATT {}, and other trade agreements, the transfer of production and manufacturing to the emerging nations is also increasing and trade barriers are lowered.  Some 160 emerging nations are essentially exempt from environmental pollution controls, under the Kyoto accords.  In these nations, electrical power needs and transport needs are increasing, and will continue to increase, due to the increasing production and movement of goods and the building of factories and assembly plants.  Very limited pollution controls—if any—will be applied to the new electrical plants and transport capabilities to be built in those exempted nations.  
The transfer of manufacturing and production to many of these nations is a transfer to essentially "slave labor" nations.   Workers have few if any benefits, are paid extremely low wages, work long hours, and have no unions or bargaining rights.  In some of these nations, to pay off their debts many parents sell their children into bondage for manufacture of goods, with 12 to 14 hour workdays being a norm for the children {}.  In such regions the local politicians can usually be "bought" very cheaply so that there are also no effective government controls.  Such means have set up a de facto return to the feudalistic capitalism of an earlier era when enormous profits could be and were extracted from the backs of impoverished workers, and government checks and balances were nil.
The personal view of this author is that NAFTA, GATT, and Kyoto were set in place for this very purpose.  As the transfer builds for the next 50 years, it involves the extraction of perhaps $2 trillion per year, from the backs of these impoverished laborers.  It would not appear accidental that Kyoto removed the costly pollution control measures from this giant economic buildup that would otherwise have been required.  The result will be increased pollution of the biosphere on a grand scale.
Ironically, the Environmental Community itself was deceived into supporting the Kyoto accords and helping achieve them, hoping to put controls on biospheric pollution worldwide.  In fact, the Kyoto accords will have exactly the opposite effect.
Resulting World Economic Collapse
Bluntly, we foresee these factors—and others {}{} not covered—converging to a catastrophic collapse of the world economy in about eight years.  As the collapse of the Western economies nears, one may expect catastrophic stress on the 160 developing nations as the developed nations are forced to dramatically curtail orders.
International Strategic Threat Aspects
History bears out that desperate nations take desperate actions.  Prior to the final economic collapse, the stress on nations will have increased the intensity and number of their conflicts, to the point where the arsenals of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now possessed by some 25 nations, are almost certain to be released.  As an example, suppose a starving North Korea {} launches nuclear weapons upon Japan and South Korea, including U.S. forces there, in a spasmodic suicidal response.  Or suppose a desperate China—whose long-range nuclear missiles (some) can reach the United States—attacks Taiwan.  In addition to immediate responses, the mutual treaties involved in such scenarios will quickly draw other nations into the conflict, escalating it significantly.
Strategic nuclear studies have shown for decades that, under such extreme stress conditions, once a few nukes are launched, adversaries and potential adversaries are then compelled to launch on perception of preparations by one's adversary.  The real legacy of the MAD concept is this side of the MAD coin that is almost never discussed.  Without effective defense, the only chance a nation has to survive at all is to launch immediate full-bore pre-emptive strikes and try to take out its perceived foes as rapidly and massively as possible.
As the studies showed, rapid escalation to full WMD exchange occurs.  Today, a great percent of the WMD arsenals that will be unleashed, are already on site within the United States itself {}.  The resulting great Armageddon will destroy civilization as we know it, and perhaps most of the biosphere, at least for many decades.
My personal estimate is that, beginning about 2007, on our present energy course we will have reached an 80% probability of this "final destruction of civilization itself" scenario occurring at any time, with the probability slowly increasing as time passes.  One may argue about the timing, slide the dates a year or two, etc., but the basic premise and general time frame holds.  We face not only a world economic crisis, but also a world destruction crisis.
So unless we dramatically and quickly solve the energy crisis—rapidly replacing a substantial part of the "electrical power derived from oil" by "electrical power freely derived from the vacuum"—we are going to incur the final "Great Armageddon" the nations of the world have been fearing for so long.  I personally regard this as the greatest strategic threat of all times—to the United States, the Western World, all the rest of the nations of the world, and civilization itself {} {}.
What Is Required to Solve the Problem?
To avoid the impending collapse of the world economy and/or the destruction of civilization and the biosphere, we must quickly replace much of the "electrical energy from oil" heart of the crisis at great speed, and simultaneously replace a significant part of the "transportation using oil products" factor also. Such replacement by clean, nonpolluting electrical energy from the vacuum will also solve much of the present pollution of the biosphere by the products of hydrocarbon combustion.  Not only does it solve the energy crisis, but it also solves much of the environmental pollution problem.
The technical basis for that solution and a part of the prototype technology required, are now at hand.  We discuss that solution in this paper.
To finish the task in time, the Government must be galvanized into a new Manhattan Project {} to rapidly complete the new system hardware developments and deploy the technology worldwide at an immense pace.
Once the technology hardware solutions are ready for mass production, even with a massive worldwide deployment effort some five years are required to deploy the new systems sufficiently to contain the problem of world economic collapse.  This means that, by the end of 2003, those hardware technology solutions must have been completed, and the production replacement power systems must be ready to roll off the assembly lines en masse. 
The 2003 date appears to be the critical "point of no return" for the survival of civilization as we have known it.
Reaching that point, say, in 2005 or 2006 will not solve the crisis in time.  The collapse of the world economy as well as the destruction of civilization and the biosphere will still almost certainly occur, even with the solutions in hand.
A review of the present scientific and technical energy efforts to blunt these strategic threat curves, immediately shows that all the efforts (and indeed the conventional scientific thinking) are far too little and far too late.  Even with a massive effort on all of the "wish list" of conventional projects and directions, the results would be insufficient to prevent the coming holocaust.  
As one example, the entire hot fusion effort has a zero probability of contributing anything of significance to the energy solution in the time frame necessary.  Neither will windmills, more dams, oil from tar sands, biofuels, solar cells, fuel cells, methane from the ocean bottom, ocean-wave-powered generators, more efficient hydrocarbon combustion, flywheel energy storage systems, etc.  All of those projects are understandable and "nice", but they have absolutely zero probability of solving the problem and preventing the coming world economic collapse and Armageddon.
Those conventional approaches are all "in the box" thinking, applied to a completely "out of the box" problem unique in world history.
The conventional energy efforts and thinking may be characterized as essentially "business as usual but maybe hurry a little bit."  They divert resources, time, effort, and funding into commendable areas, but areas which will not and cannot solve the problem. In that sense, they also contribute to the final Armageddon that is hurtling toward us {}.
If we continue conventionally and with the received scientific view, even with massively increased efforts and a Manhattan Project, we almost certainly guarantee the destruction of civilization as we know it, and much of the biosphere as well.
Bluntly, the only viable option is to rapidly develop systems which extract energy directly from the vacuum and are therefore self-powering, like a windmill in the wind {}.  Fortunately, analogous electrical systems—open systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium in their exchange with the active vacuum—are permitted by the laws of physics, electrodynamics {} and thermodynamics {}.  Such electrical systems are also permitted by Maxwell's equations, prior to their arbitrary curtailment by Lorentz symmetrical regauging {} {} {20}.  
The good news was that the little mathematical trick by Lorentz made the resulting equations much easier to solve (for the selected "subset" of the Maxwell-Heaviside systems retained).
However, the bad news is that it also just arbitrarily discarded all Maxwellian EM systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium (i.e., asymmetrical and in disequilibrium) with respect to their vacuum energy exchange.
So the bad news is that Lorentz arbitrarily discarded all the permissible electrical power systems analogous to a windmill in a wind, and capable of powering themselves and their loads.  All our energy scientists and engineers continue to blindly develop only Lorentz-limited electrical power systems.
The good news is that we now know how to easily initiate continuous and powerful "electromagnetic energy winds" from the vacuum at will.  Once initiated, each free EM energy wind flows continuously so long as the simple initiator is not deliberately destroyed.
The bad news is that all our present electrical power systems are designed and developed so that they continually kill their "energy winds" from the vacuum faster than they can collect some of the energy from the winds and use it to power their loads.
But the good news is that we now know how to go about designing and developing electrical power systems which (i) initiate copious EM energy flow "winds" in the vacuum, (ii) do not destroy these winds but let them continue to freely flow, and (iii) utilize these freely-flowing energy winds to power themselves and their loads.
So we have already solved the first half of the energy crisis problem {} {}: We can  produce the necessary "EM energy wind flow" in any amount required, whenever and wherever we wish, for peanuts and with ridiculous ease.  We can insure that, once initiated, the electromagnetic energy wind flows indefinitely or until we wish to shut it off.
A tiny part of the far frontier of the scientific community is also now pushing hard into catching and using this available EM energy from the vacuum {}.  However, they are completely unfunded and working under extremely difficult conditions {}.
In addition, there are more than a dozen appropriate processes already available (some are well-known in the hard literature), which can be developed to produce the new types of electrical energy systems {}.
What Must Be Done Technically
We have about two and a half years to develop several different types of systems for the several required major applications—and particularly the following: 
(1)	self-powering open electrical power systems extracting their electrical energy directly from the active vacuum and readily scalable in size and output,
(2)	burner systems {} to replace the present "heater" elements of conventional power plants, increasing the coefficient of performance (COP) {} of those altered systems to COP>1.0, and perhaps to COP = 4.0, 
(3)	specialized self-powering engines to replace small combustion engines {}, 
(4)	self-regenerating, battery-powered systems enabling practical electric automobiles, based on the Bedini {} process, 
(5)	Kawai COP>1.0 magnetic motors {}with clamped feedback, powering themselves and their loads, 
(6)	magnetic Wankel engines {} with small self-powering batteries, which enable a very practical self-powering automotive engine unit for direct replacement in present automobiles, 
(7)	permanent magnet motors such as the Johnson {} approach using self-initiated exchange force pulses {} in nonlinear magnetic materials to provide a nonconservative field, hence a self-powering unit, 
(8)	iterative retroreflective EM energy flow systems which intercept and utilize significant amounts of the enormous Heaviside dark energy {} which surrounds every electrical circuit but is presently ignored, 
(9)	Iterative phase conjugate retroreflective systems which passively recover and reorder the scattered energy dissipated from the load, and reuse the energy again and again {}, 
(10)	Shoulders' charge cluster devices {} which yield COP>1.0 by actual measurement,
(11)	self-exciting systems using intensely scattering optically active media and iterative asymmetrical self-regauging {}{}{} {67}, 
(12)	true negative resistors such as the Kron {} and Chung {} negative resistors, the original point-contact transistor {} which can be made into a negative resistor, and the Fogal negative resistor semiconductor, and 
(13)	overunity transformers using a negative resistor bypass across the secondary, reducing the back-coupling from secondary to primary and thus lowering the dissipation of energy in the primary {}.
What Must Be Done for Management and Organization
To meet the critical 2003 "point of no return" milestone, the work must be accomplished under a declared National Emergency and a Presidential Decision Directive.  
The work must be amply funded, with authority—because of the extreme emergency—to utilize any available patented processes and devices capable of being developed and deployed in time, with accounting and compensation of the inventors and owners separately.  
As an example, two of the above mentioned devices—the Kawai engine and the magnetic Wankel engine—can be quickly developed and produced en masse.  However, they have been seized by the Japanese Yakuza {} {} {} and are being held off the world market.  The two devices are quite practical and can be developed and manufactured with great rapidity.  As an example, two models of the Kawai engine were tested by Hitachi to exhibit COP = 1.4 and COP = 1.6 respectively.  Use of these two inventions, under U.S. Government auspices, will greatly contribute to solving a significant portion of the transportation power problem, at low risk for this part of the solution.  Use of them cannot be obtained by normal civil means, due to the involvement of the Yakuza.
The technical part of the project to solve the energy crisis is doable in the required time—but just barely, and only if we move at utmost speed.  
Thanks to more than 20 years work on unconventional solutions to the problem, much of the required solution is already in hand, and the project can go forward at top speed from the outset.
The remaining managing and organizing problem is to marshal the necessary great new Manhattan Project as a U.S. government project operating under highest national priority and ample funding.  The Project must be a separate Agency, operating directly under the appropriate Department Secretary and reporting directly to the President (through the Secretary) and to a designated Joint Committee of the Senate and the House. 
The selection of the managers and directors must be done with utmost care; else, they themselves will become the problem rather than the solution.  We strongly stress that here even the most highly qualified managerial scientist may have to be disqualified because of his or her own personal biases and dogmatic beliefs.  Leaders and scientists are required who will run with the COP>1.0 ball on a wide front.
The compelling authority to assign individual tasks to the National Laboratories and other government agencies is required, but under no circumstances can the project be placed under the control of the national laboratories themselves.  Those laboratories such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are far too committed to their entrenched Big Science projects and the resulting bias against electrical energy from the vacuum.
Assigning management of the project to them would be setting the foxes to minding the hen house, and would guarantee failure.  Those agencies whose favored approaches are responsible for the present energy crisis, cannot be expected to direct an effective solution to it that is outside their managerial and scientific ansatz and totally against their institutional and professional biases.  If they are allowed to direct the project, then implacable scientists, who adamantly oppose electrical energy from the vacuum from the getgo, will hamstring and destroy the project from its inception.
Not only will they fiddle while Rome burns, but they will help burn it.
Enormous EM Energy Flow Is Easily Extracted From the Active Vacuum
	At any point and at any time, one can freely and inexpensively extract enormous EM energy flows directly from the active vacuum itself.
There is not now and there never has been a problem in readily obtaining as much electromagnetic energy flow from the vacuum as we wish.  Anywhere.  Anytime. For peanuts.
Every electrical power system and circuit ever built already does precisely that {}{}.  But almost all the vast EM energy flow that the present flawed systems extract from the vacuum is unaccounted and simply wasted.  It is wasted by the conventional, seriously flawed circuits and systems designed and built by our power system scientists and engineers in accord with a terribly flawed 136-year old set of electrodynamics concepts and foundations.  Specifically, it is wasted because Lorentz discarded it a century ago {45}.  Since then, everyone has blindly followed Lorentz's lead.
Our electrical scientists and engineers have not yet even discovered how a circuit is powered!  They have no valid concept of where the electrical energy flowing down the power line actually comes from.  They do not model the interaction that provides it {}, in their theoretical models and equations.  This vast scientific "conspiracy of ignorance" is completely inexplicable, because the actual source of the EM energy powering the external circuits has been known (and rigorously proven) in particle physics for nearly half a century!  However, it has not yet even been added into the fundamental electrical theory used in designing and building power systems.
We have a scientific mindset problem of epic proportions, and scientific negligence and electromagnetics dogma of epic proportions.   I sometimes refer to this as an unwitting "conspiracy of ignorance", where I use the word "ignorance" technically as meaning "unaware".  We certainly do not intend the phrase to be pejorative.
So we do not have an energy problem per se.  We have an unwitting conspiracy of scientific ignorance problem.
Because of its bias, our electrical scientific community also strongly resists updating the 136-year old electrodynamics foundations even though much of it is known to be seriously flawed and even incorrect {} {}. Indeed, organized science has always fiercely resisted strong innovation.  As Max Planck {} so eloquently put it,
"An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul.  What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning."
Arthur C. Clarke {} expressed it succinctly for our more modern scientific community, as follows:
"If they [quantum fluctuations of vacuum] can be [tapped], the impact upon our civilization will be incalculable.  Oil, coal, nuclear, hydropower, would become obsolete—and so would many of our worries about environmental pollution."  "Don't sell your oil shares yet—but don't be surprised if the world again witnesses the four stages of response to any new and revolutionary development: 1. It's crazy! 2. It may be possible—so what?  3. I said it was a good idea all along.  4. I thought of it first."
With respect to extracting and using EM energy from the vacuum, our present scientific community is mostly in Clarke's phase 1.  A few scientists are in phase 2 but surmise that "it may perhaps be the science of the next century."
We do not have a century remaining.  We have two and a half years.
For nearly half a century (i) the active vacuum, (ii) the vacuum's energetic interaction with every dipole, and (iii) the broken symmetry of the dipole {} in that energetic interaction {55} have been known and proven in particle physics. These proven COP>1.0 vacuum energy mechanisms have not been incorporated into the electrodynamic theory used to design and build electrical power and transportation systems {}.  We are still waiting for the "old scientific opponents"—adamantly opposed to the very notion of electrical energy from the vacuum—to "die off and get out of the way."
Hence our universities, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Science, the National Laboratories, etc. have not taken advantage of the enormous EM energy so universally available from the active vacuum, and in fact universally and copiously extracted from the vacuum by every EM system today—and wasted.  Indeed, present organized science will not fund and will not tolerate research that would violate the presently decreed view of power systems and their functioning.
Hence, our present organized scientific community will strongly resist funding of a vigorous program to gather all this proven, known physics together and rapidly use it to change and update (modernize) the terribly flawed EM theory and the design of electrical power systems.  Most scientists attempting to do this research have had to proceed on their own.  They have undergone vicious and continual ad hominem attacks, lost research funds and tenure, been unable to get their papers published, and in fact risked being destroyed by the scientific community itself {21}.
The bottom line is this: Left to sweet reason, because of the depth of its present bias the scientific community is totally incapable of reacting to the problem in time to prevent the destruction of civilization.  If we wish to survive, government will have to directly force the scientific community to do the job, over careers and "dead bodies" (so to speak) if necessary.
But first the government itself must be motivated to do so.
Only the environmental community has the clout, financial resources, and activists to motivate the government in the extremely short time in which it must be accomplished.  So it would seem that the most urgent task is to educate and wake up the environmental community.  It has been "had", and it has been "had" since the beginning.
Understanding What Powers Electrical Circuits
Let us cut through the scientific errors in how electrical power systems are presently viewed: Batteries and generators themselves do not power circuits.  They never have, and they never will.  They dissipate their available internal energy {} to do one thing and one thing only: forcibly separate their own internal charges to form a "source dipole" {}.  Once the dipole has been formed, the dipole directly extracts electromagnetic energy from the active vacuum {}, pouring the extracted EM energy out from the terminals of the battery or generator.
	Batteries and generators make a dipole, nothing else.  All the fuel every burned, the nuclear fuel rods ever consumed, and chemical energy ever expended by batteries, did nothing but make dipoles.  None of all that destructive activity, of itself, ever added a single watt to the power line.
Once made, the dipole then extracts EM energy from the seething vacuum, and pours it out down the circuit and through all surrounding space around the circuit {56}.  A little bit of that energy flow strikes the circuit and enters it by being deflected (diverged) into the wires {57}.  That tiny bit of intercepted energy flow that is diverged into the circuit, then powers the circuit (its loads and losses) {58}.
All the rest of that huge energy flow around the circuit just roars on off into deep space and is wasted.
The Dipole Extracts Enormous Energy from the Vacuum
The outflow of EM energy extracted from the vacuum by a small dipole is enormous.  It fills all space surrounding the attached external circuit (e.g., surrounding the power lines attached to a power plant generator) {}.  In the attached circuits, the electrical charges on the surfaces of the wires are struck by the mere edge of the violent flow of EM energy passing along those surfaces.  The resulting tiny "intercepted" part {} of the EM energy flow is deflected into the wires, very much like placing one's hand outside a moving automobile and diverting some of the wind into the car.  The deflected energy that enters the wires is the Poynting component of the energy flow.  It is not the entire EM energy flow by any means, but only a very, very tiny component of it {}.
Only that tiny bit of the energy flow that is actually diverged into the wires is used to power the circuit and the loads.  All the rest of the enormous energy flow present and available outside the circuit is just ignored and wasted.
A nominal 1-watt generator, e.g., is actually one whose external circuit can "catch" only one watt of its output.  The generator's actual total output—in the great flow which fills all space around the external circuit and is not intercepted and used—is something on the order of 10 trillion watts!
Our Scientists and Engineers Design Dipole-Destroying Systems
Here is the most inane thing of all.  Precisely half of the small amount of energy that is actually caught by the circuit is used to destroy the dipole!  That half of the intercepted energy does not power the load, nor does it power losses in the external circuit.  Instead, it is used to directly scatter the dipole charges and destroy the dipole.
Our scientists and engineers have given us the ubiquitous closed current loop circuit {}, which destroys the dipole faster than it powers the load.  In short, the scientists and engineers design and build only those electrical power systems that "continuously commit suicide" by continuously destroying the source dipole that is extracting the vacuum energy and emitting it out along the circuit to power everything in the first place.
So now, we have the real picture.  
Every electrical load ever powered, and every load powered today, has been and is powered by electromagnetic energy extracted directly from the seething vacuum by the source dipole in the generator or battery.
However, our scientists and engineers design and build electrical power systems that only intercept and use a tiny fraction of the vast EM energy flow available.  They also only design and build systems that destroy their source dipole faster than they power their loads.
If one does not destroy the dipole once it is made, it will continue to freely extract copious EM energy flow from the vacuum, indefinitely, pouring out a stupendous flow of EM energy.
As an example, dipoles in the original matter formed in the Big Bang at the beginning of the universe have been steadily extracting EM energy from the vacuum and pouring it out for about 15 billion years.
The energy problem is not due to the inability to produce copious EM energy flows at will—as much as one wishes, anywhere, anytime.  Every dipole already does this, including in every EM power system ever built.
The energy problem is due to the complete failure to (i) intercept and utilize more of the vast energy flows made available by the common dipole, and (ii) doing so without using the present inanely designed circuits.  These circuits use half their collected energy to destroy the dipole that is extracting the energy flow from the vacuum in the first place!
This is part of the "conspiracy of scientific ignorance" earlier mentioned.
Ignoring the Vacuum as the Source of Electrical Energy in All Circuits
In their conventional theoretical models, our present electrical power system scientists and engineers do not even include the vacuum interaction or the dipole's extraction of EM energy from the vacuum.  They simply ignore—and do not model—what is really powering every electrical system they build.
Consequently, we reiterate that our electrical scientists have never even discovered how an EM circuit is powered—although it has been discovered and known for nearly 50 years in particle physics.
All the hydrocarbons ever burned, all the water over all the dams ever built, all the nuclear fuel rods ever expended in all the nuclear power plants, added not a single watt to the power line.
Instead, all that expense, effort, and pollution and destruction of the biosphere was and is necessary in order to keep adding internal energy to the generator—so that it can keep continually rebuilding its source dipole that is continually destroyed by the inane circuits that the power system scientists and engineers keep designing and building for us.
It takes as much energy input to the generator to restore the dipole, as it took the circuit to destroy the dipole.  Thus all the systems our scientists and engineers design and build, require that we continually input more energy to restore the dipole, than the circuit dissipates in the load.
Our technical folks thus happily design and give us systems which can and will only exhibit COP<1.0—thus continuing to require that we ourselves steadily provide more energy to the system to continually rebuild its dipole, than the inane masochistic system uses to power its load.
In short, we pay the power companies (and their scientists and engineers) to deliberately engage in a giant wrestling match inside their generators and lose.
That is not the way to run the railroad!  One is reminded of one of the classic comments by Churchill:
“Most men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and continue on as if nothing had happened.”
It seems that not very many energy system scientists and engineers have "stumbled over the truth" as to what really powers their systems, and how inanely they are really designing them.
Electrical Energy Required from Hydrocarbon Burning Drives the Problem
	The heart of the present environmental pollution problem is the ever-increasing need for electrical energy obtained from burning of hydrocarbon fuels and/or nuclear power stations.
	The increasing production of electrical power to fill the rising needs, increasingly pollutes the environment including the populace itself (lungs, bodies, etc.).  Almost every species on earth is affected, and as a result every year some species become extinct.
Environmental pollution includes pollution of the soil, fresh and salt water, and the atmosphere by a variety of waste products.  Given global warming, it also includes excess heat pollution in addition to chemical and nuclear residues.
	Under present procedures, the electrical energy problem is exacerbated by decreasing available oil supplies, which are believed to have peaked this year, with a projected decline from now on.
	But really, the electrical energy problem is due to the scientific community's adamant defense and use of electrical power system models and theories that are 136 years old {} in their very foundations.  These models and theories are riddled with errors and non sequiturs, and seriously flawed.
The scientific community has not even recognized the problem, much less the solution.  In fact, it does not even intend to recognize the problem, even though the basis for it has been known in particle physics for nearly 50 years.  As Bunge {} put it some decades ago:
"...it is not usually acknowledged that electrodynamics, both classical and quantal, are in a sad state."
	The scientific community has done little to correct that fundamental problem since Bunge made his wry statement.
	Let us put it very simply: The most modern theory today is modern gauge field theory.  In that theory, freedom of gauge is assumed from the getgo.  Applied to electrodynamics, this means—as all electrodynamicists have assumed for the last century or longer—that the potential energy of an EM system can be freely changed at will.  In other words, in theory it costs nothing at all to increase the EM energy collected in a system; this is merely "changing the voltage", which does not require power.  In other words, we can "excite" the system with excess energy (actually taken from the vacuum), at will.  For free.  And the best science of the day agrees with that statement.
	It also follows that we can freely change the excitation energy again, at will.  In short, we can dissipate that excess energy freely and at will.  Without cost.
	Well, this means that we are free—by the laws of nature, physics, thermodynamics, and gauge field theory—to dissipate that free excess potential energy in an external load, thus doing "free work".
	Since none of the systems our energy scientists and engineers build for us are doing that, it follows a priori that the fault lies entirely in their own system design and building.  It does not lie in any prohibition by nature or the laws of physics.
	A priori, then, the present COP<1.0 performance of our electrical power systems is a monstrosity and the direct fault of our scientists and engineers.  We cannot blame the laws of nature or the laws of physics.
	The present energy crisis then is due totally to that "conspiracy of ignorance" we referred to.  It is maintained by the scientific community today, and it has been maintained by it for more than 100 years.
	This is the real situation that the environmentalists must become aware of, if they are to see the correct path into which their energies and efforts should be directed—to solve both the energy crisis and the problem of gigantic pollution of the biosphere.
Outside Intervention Must Forcibly Move Energy Science Forward
Unless outside intervention occurs forcibly, the scientific community's lock-up of research funds for "in the box" energy research may result in the economic collapse of the Western World in perhaps as little as eight years.
Let us examine the gist of the problem facing us.
Suppose we launch a crash program to develop, manufacture, deploy, and employ the new "vacuum powered" systems.  Once the new self-powering systems are developed and ready to roll off the production lines en masse, it will require a minimum of five years worldwide to sufficiently alter the "electrical energy from oil" demand curve, so that economic collapse can be averted.  In turn, this means that the new systems must be ready to roll off the manufacturing lines by the end of 2003.  While this is a very tight schedule, it can be done if we move rapidly.
	The necessary scientific corrections along the lines indicated in this paper can be quickly applied to solve the electrical energy problem permanently and economically, given a Manhattan type project under a Presidential Decision Directive together with a Presidential declaration of a National Energy Emergency.
	In a paper {} to be published in Russia in July 2000, this researcher has proposed some 15 viable methods for developing new "self-powering" systems powering themselves and their loads with energy extracted from the vacuum.  Several of these systems can be developed very rapidly, and can be easily mass-produced.  
A second paper {} will be published in the same proceedings, revealing the Bedini method for invoking a negative resistor inside a storage battery.  The negative resistor freely extracts vacuum energy and adds it to both the battery-recharging function and the load powering function.  
In Bedini's negative resistor method, the ion current inside the battery is decoupled (dephased) from the electron current between the outer circuit and the external surfaces of the battery plates.  This allows the battery to be charged (with increased charging energy) simultaneously as the load is powered with increased current and voltage.
At my specific request, both papers were thoroughly reviewed by qualified Russian scientists, and the premises passed successfully.
A third paper {} gives the exact giant negentropy mechanism by which the dipole extracts such enormous energy from the vacuum.  We will further explain that mechanism below.
Conventional Approaches: Too Little, Too Late
	It appears that the Environmental Community itself has finally realized that the present scientific approaches and research are simply too little and too late.  Further, the conventional approaches are largely "in the box thinking" applied to an "out of the box problem."  We leave it to others such as Loder {} to succinctly summarize the shortfalls of these present solutions.  Loder, e.g., particularly and incisively explains how the problem with automobiles breaks down.
	In fact, no single COP>1.0 approach will be all sufficing.  Several solutions, each for a different application, must be developed and deployed simultaneously.
As an example, it is possible to create certain dipolar phenomena in plasmas produced in special burners, such that the dipoles extract substantial excess EM energy from the vacuum.  Output of the excess energy produces ordinary excess heat well beyond what the combustion process alone will yield.  Given a Manhattan type project, the inventor of that process (with already working models and rigorous measurements) could rapidly be augmented to develop a series of replacement burners (heaters).  They could be used in existing electrical power plants to heat the water to make the steam for the steam turbines turning the shafts of the generators.  The entire remainder of the power system, grid, etc. could be left intact.  Some fuel would still be burned, but far less would be consumed in order to furnish the same required heat output.  
In short, a rather dramatic reduction in power plant hydrocarbon combustion could be achieved—in the present electrical power plants with minimum modification, and in the necessary time frame—while maintaining or even increasing the electrical energy output of the power systems.  We believe the inventor would fully participate in a government-backed Manhattan type energy program where a National Emergency has been declared, given a U.S. government guarantee that his process, equipment, and inventions will not be confiscated {}.
Another process capable of quick development and enormous application is the development of point contact transistors as true negative resistors {39}.
Two other processes that can be developed for massive production in less than two years are (i) the Kawai process {27}, and (ii) the magnetic Wankel process {28}.  In addition, the Johnson {29} process can be developed and readied for manufacture in the same time frame, given a full-bore sophisticated laboratory team.
There are other processes {} {62} {63} which can also be developed rapidly, to provide major contributions in solving their parts of the present "electrical energy from hydrocarbon combustion" problem.
Giant Negentropy and a Great New Symmetry Principle
	We now summarize some recent technical discoveries by the present author that bear directly upon the problem of extracting and using copious EM energy flows from the vacuum.
	Any dipole has a scalar potential between its ends, as is well known.  Extending earlier work by Stoney {}, in 1903 Whittaker  {} showed that the scalar potential decomposes into—and identically is—a harmonic set of bidirectional longitudinal EM wavepairs.  Each wavepair is comprised of a longitudinal EM wave (LEMW) and its phase conjugate LEMW replica.  Hence, the formation of the dipole actually initiates the ongoing production of a harmonic set of such biwaves in 4-space {}.
We separate the Whittaker waves into two sets: (i) the convergent phase conjugate set, in the imaginary plane, and (ii) the divergent real wave set, in 3-space.  In 4-space, the 4th dimension may be taken as -ict.  The only variable in -ict is t.  Hence the phase conjugate waveset in the scalar potential's decomposition is a set of harmonic EM waves converging upon the dipole in the time dimension, as a time-reversed EM energy flow structure inside the structure of time {}.  Or, one can just think of the waveset as converging upon the dipole in the imaginary plane {}—a concept similar to the notion of "reactive power" in electrical engineering.
The divergent real EM waveset in the scalar potential's decomposition is then a harmonic set of EM waves radiating out from the dipole in all directions at the speed of light.  As can be seen, there is perfect 4-symmetry in the resulting EM energy flows, but there is broken 3-symmetry since there is no observable 3-flow EM energy input to the dipole.
Our professors have taught us that output energy flow in 3-space from a source or transducer, must be accompanied by an input energy flow in 3-space.  That is not true.  It must be accompanied by an input energy flow, period.  That input can be an energy flow in the 4th dimension, time—or we can consider it as an inflow in the imaginary plane.  The flow of energy must be conserved, not the dimensions in which the flow exists.  There is no requirement by nature that the inflow of EM energy must be in the same dimension as the outflow of EM energy.
Indeed, nature prefers to do it the other way!  Simply untie nature's foot from the usually enforced extra condition of 3-space energy flow conservation.  Then nature joyfully and immediately sets up a giant 4-flow conservation, ongoing.  Enormous EM energy is inflowing from the imaginary plane into the source charge or dipole, and is flowing out of the source charge or dipole in 3-space, at the speed of light, and in all directions.
In other words, nature then gladly gives us as much EM energy flow as we need, indefinitely—just for paying a tiny little bit initially to "make the little dipole."  After that, we never have to pay anything again, and nature will happily keep on pouring out that 3-flow of EM energy for us.  This is the giant negentropy mechanism I uncovered, performed in the simplest way imaginable: just make an ordinary little dipole.
	We may interpret the giant negentropy mechanism in electrical engineering terms {}. The EM energy flow in the imaginary plane is just incoming "pure reactive power" in the language of electrical engineering.  The outgoing EM energy flow in the real plane (3-space) is "real power" in the same language.  So the dipole is continuously receiving a steady stream of reactive power, transducing it into real power, and outputting it as a continuous outflow of real EM power.
Further, there is perfect 1:1 correlation between the convergent waveset in the imaginary plane and the divergent waveset in 3-space.  This perfect correlation between the two sets of waves and their dynamics represents a deterministic re-ordering of a fraction of the 4-vacuum energy.  This re-ordering initiated by the formation of the dipole spreads radially outward at the speed of light, continuously.
	This clearly shows that (i) we can initiate reordering of a usable fraction of the vacuum's energy at any place, anytime, easily and cheaply (we need only to form a simple dipole), and (ii) the process continues indefinitely, so long as the dipole exists, without the operator inputting a single additional watt of power.
	This is a very great benefit.  So long as the dipole exists, this re-ordering continues and  a copious flow of observable, usable EM energy pours from the dipole in all directions at the speed of light.
	This is the full solution to the first half of the energy crisis, once and for all.
Ansatz of the Major Players
	To appreciate the difficulty in implementing the solution to the energy crisis, one must be aware of the characteristics of the major communities whose dynamics and interactions determine the outcome.  Accordingly, we summarize our personal assessment of the present "status" and "awareness" of the various communities involved.  We do that by attempting to express the overall "ansatz" of the specific community.
Scientific Community
	For the most part, the organized scientific community varies from highly resistant to openly hostile toward any mention of extracting copious EM energy from the active vacuum.  The "Big Nuclear" part of the community is particularly adamant in this respect, as witness its ferocious onslaught on the fledgling and struggling cold fusion researchers—a ferocity of scientific attack seldom seen in the annals of science {} {}.  
The scientific community also largely suppresses {} or severely badgers scientists attempting to advance electrodynamics to a more modern model, suitable to the needs of the 21st century and the desperate need for cheap, clean, nonpolluting electrical power worldwide {21}.  The community still applies classical equilibrium thermodynamics to the electrical part of all its electrical power systems, even though every EM system is inherently a system far from equilibrium with the active vacuum environment, and a different thermodynamics applies.  Only if the system is specifically so designed—e.g., so that during the dissipation of its excitation energy it enforces the Lorentz symmetrical regauging condition—will the system behave as a classical equilibrium system.
The thermodynamics of open dissipative systems is well known {}.  Such a system is permitted to (1) self-order, (2) self-oscillate or self-rotate, (3) output more energy than the operator inputs (the excess energy is freely received from the active environment), (4) power itself and its load simultaneously (all the energy is taken from the active environment, similar to a windmill's operation), and (5) exhibit negentropy.
	Our present electrical power systems do not do these five things, even though each is an open system in violent energy exchange with the vacuum.  A priori,  that reveals it is the scientific model and the engineering design that are at fault.
It is not any law of nature or principle of physics that prevents self-powering open electrical power systems.  Instead, it is the scientific community and its prevailing mindset against extracting and using EM energy from the vacuum.

Environmental Community
In the past, the environmental community has been overly naïve with respect to physics, and particularly with respect to electrical physics.  Its science advisors have come mostly from the conservative "in the box" scientific community.  Hence, the community has failed to realize that COP>1.0 electrical power systems are normal and permitted by the laws of nature and the laws of physics.  They have no inkling that Heaviside discovered—in the 1880s!—the enormous unaccounted EM energy pouring from the terminals of any battery or generator.  They are unaware that Poynting considered only the tiny component of the energy flow that enters the circuit.  They are also unaware that, completely unable to explain the astounding enormity of the EM energy flow if the nondiverged (nonintercepted) Heaviside component is accounted, Lorentz {18} just arbitrarily used a little procedure to discard that troublesome Heaviside "dark" (unaccounted) component.  
Lorentz reasoned that, since the huge dark energy flow component missed the circuit entirely, it "had no physical significance."  This is like arguing that none of the wind on the ocean has any physical significance, except for that small portion of the wind that strikes the sail of one's own sailboat.  It ignores the obvious fact that whole fleets of additional sailboats can also be powered by that "physically insignificant" wind component that misses one's own sailboat entirely.
Nonetheless, electrodynamicists continue to use Lorentz's little discard trick, and try to call the feeble Poynting energy flow component caught by the circuit the entire EM energy flow connected with it.  This is like arguing that the component of wind hitting the sails of one's own sailboat, is the entire great wind on the ocean.
	As a result, the environmental community has failed to grasp the technical reason for the energy crisis and the increasing pollution of the biosphere.  They have been deceived and manipulated into thinking that conventional organized science is giving them the very best technical advice possible on electrical power systems.  The environmentalists have been and are further deceived into believing that the conventional scientific community is advocating and performing the best possible scientific studies and developments for trying to solve the energy crisis.
	Of major importance, the environmental community itself has been deceived as to the exact nature of the energy flow in and around a circuit, the vastness of the unaccounted energy flow (or even that any of the energy flow is deliberately unaccounted), and the fact that this present but unaccounted EM energy flow can be intercepted and captured for use in powering loads and developing self-powering systems.
	Worst of all, the environmental community has been deceived as to what powers every electrical load and EM circuit.  They have been deceived into believing that burning all those hydrocarbons, using those nuclear fuel rods, building those dams and windmills, and putting out solar cell arrays are necessary and the best that can be done.  In short, they have been smoothly diverted from solving the very problem—the problem of the increasing pollution and destruction of the biosphere—they are striving to rectify.
	However, their continued demonstrations in the street demonstrate that many environmentalists now suspect that much of the world's continued policy of "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" in international trade agreements are deliberately planned and implemented {}.  They perceive the implementation to the advantage of a favored financial class and the exploitation of the poorer laboring classes in disadvantaged nations.
Electrical Power Community
The electrical power community:
(1)	ubiquitously uses equilibrium thermodynamics, believing that COP>1.0 is perpetual motion nonsense and against the laws of physics, 
(2)	has no notion that the energy flowing down their power lines and filling all space around them, is extracted directly from the active vacuum by the source dipole in the generator,
(3)	erroneously believes that the hydrocarbons they burn, or the water through the hydroturbines at the dam, or the nuclear fuel rods they consume, actually add the power to the transmission lines,
(4)	uses half of the tiny component of energy caught by the power lines, to destroy the source dipoles in their generators, thus requiring ever more shaft input energy via powering a steam turbine, hydroturbine, etc.,
(5)	believes that energy can be "used" only once, when in fact it can be used and re-used repeatedly since it cannot be created or destroyed, 
(6)	allows only a single pass of the EM energy flow down the power lines, so that only one tiny interception of energy occurs from the energy flow and the rest (most) of the energy flow is wasted,
(7)	believes that the electrical energy problem translates into more hydrocarbon combustion or nuclear fuel rod consumption rather than a totally different way of doing business, and
(8)	believes that the theory they apply is correct, when in fact it is so seriously flawed as to be inane, and has been inane for a century.

Industries also acquire their own hidden agendas, when serious threats to the industries arise. As an example, a potentially serious problem arose some decades ago when it became apparent that EM radiation from power lines might detrimentally affect people or at least some people.  To put it gently, a great deal of fuss and fury resulted, and a great deal of money was and is spent by the power companies (or through organizations and foundations funded by them) in EM bioeffects research.  Not too surprisingly, just about the entire output of this industry-funded research "finds" that there is no problem with powerline radiation {}.  Those scientists such as Robert Becker {} {} who advocate or show otherwise, usually wind up having all their funds cut off, hounded from their jobs, and—in the case of Becker—forced to retire early.
It is no different in the electrical energy science field {21}.
Storage Battery Companies.
Battery companies are primarily of much the same outlook and ansatz as are the power companies.  They have gone to pulse charging of batteries and improved battery chemistry and materials {}.  They have no notion that batteries do not power circuits, but only make source dipoles—and it is the source dipole that then extracts EM energy from the vacuum and pours it out into the external circuit.  
Consequently, they erroneously believe that chemical energy in the battery is expended in order to provide power to the external circuit.  Instead, it is expended only to continuously remake the source dipole, which the closed current loop circuit fiendishly keeps destroying faster than the load is powered.
They also have not investigated deliberately dephasing and decoupling the major ion current within the battery and between the plates, from the electron current between the outside of the plates and the external circuit.  Consequently they have no concept of permissible Maxwellian COP>1.0 battery-powered systems. Instead, battery companies, scientists, and engineers still believe—along with the power companies and most electrodynamicists, and the environmental community—that applying the Lorentz symmetrical regauging to the Heaviside-Maxwell equations retains all the Maxwellian systems.  It does not.  Instead, it arbitrarily discards all Maxwellian systems which are permitted by the laws of nature and the laws of physics to produce COP>1.0!
University Community
The University community mostly supports the prevailing EM view.  It also suffers from the rise of common "greed" in the universities themselves.  The professor now must attract external funding (for his research, and for his graduate students—and especially for the lucrative "overhead" part of the funding which goes to the University itself).  The research funds available for "bidding" via submitting proposals, are already cut into "packages" where the type of research to be accomplished in each package is rigorously specified and controlled.  Research on COP>1.0 systems is strictly excluded.  Dramatic revision of electrodynamics is excluded.
Unless the professor successfully bids and obtains packages and their accompanying funding, he is essentially ostracized and soon discharged or just "parked" by the wayside.  Also, if he tries to "go out of the box" in his papers submitted for publication, his peer reviewers will annihilate him and his papers will not be published.  Shortly he will effectively be blacklisted and it will be very difficult for him to have his submitted papers honestly reviewed, much less published.  Again, that means no tenure, no security, and eventual release or "dead-end parking" by the university.  
When one looks at the "innovative" packages so highly touted, they either (1) are research focused upon some approved thing such as hot fusion—which has spent billions and has yet to produce a single watt on the power line, and cannot do so in any reasonable time before the collapse of the Western economy—or (2) use clever buzzwords for things which are actually "more of the same" and "in the box thinking" with just some new words or twists thrown in for spin control.
Meanwhile, all this makes for a self-policing system, which rewards conservatism—conservative publications, conservative research, conservative thinking, conservative teaching, etc.  In short, it selects and approves electrical power system research that is "too little, too late" to solve the world energy crisis in time, and ruthlessly rejects all the rest.  It also makes for a self-policing system which roots out and destroys (or parks on the sidelines) those professors, graduate students, and post-docs who—given a chance to be highly innovative and "out of the box" researchers—might upset the status quo.
In short, the scientific community is itself the greatest arch foe of high innovation, just as Planck indicated.  The university generally typifies and reflects that overall attitude because its outside research funds are controlled and managed by the upper echelons of the organized Big Science community and the governmental community.
Government Community—Technical
The technical part of the U.S. government research community is drawn from the universities, private industry, etc.  It mostly reflects an even more conservative group than the universities.  Again, papers published and funding are the major requirements, within given and largely accepted scientific constraints.  Further, the managerial government scientists must compete for funding, annual budgets, etc. and have their own "channel" constraints from on high.  At the top levels (such as NSF and NAS), cross-fertilization by the aims and perceptions of the conservative scientific community leaders is achieved.  
Hence the government technical community is largely constrained in two fashions: (1) by its own forced competition for funds, facilities, positions, programs, etc., and (2) by its strong cross-fertilization from the top scientific personnel in NSF, NAC, etc.  Individual scientists also face the need to publish or perish, and so are further constrained by the reviewers etc. of the journals.
Most managers within the government scientific community are striving to scamper up the managerial ladder, much as managers elsewhere.  One's power and prestige rises as one's position level rises—and particularly as the part of the government's research budget rises that one controls.  There is a fine tight rope to walk.   As one gains control of more government budget for research, one becomes a powerful influence on the large research corporations which will submit very complex and extensive proposals for the funds.
A sort of "common understanding" thus arises between industry leaders, higher government research leaders and managers, etc.  This can be so profound that the practical result is almost a sort of "collusion by common understanding" between the government and industrial complexes and a fusion into one consortium—essentially the "military-industrial complex" which President Eisenhower warned Americans against.
The result is that the government managers in their Request for Quotations (RFQs) use words such as "out of the box" and "highly innovative".  However, they rarely will fund such proposals because they simply cannot obtain approval for such budgets and programs from "higher up the chain".  As witnessed by the ultrawideband (UWB) radar controversy, the government technical community is even more resistant to innovation and change than is the civilian technical community.  
As an example, the early UWB radar pioneers (Harmuth, Barrett, etc.) were attacked by entrenched government scientists and government scientific organizations with a viciousness rarely seen in the annals of government science.  The objection raised was that sinusoidal EM waves could not do such things—even though the UWB radar used nonsinusoidal EM waves.  Further, small UWB radar sets were commercially available and used to detect voids in concrete structures, the ground, etc.  The real reasons for the violent attacks were the prestige and power of the Stealth community at the time—and because UWB radar had the implication of tracking Stealth vehicles readily.
Interestingly, the arch foes of UWB at the time, today would have us believe they are "staunch experts" in the UWB field.  To understand their remarkable metamorphosis, one need only recall Arthur C. Clarke's words, quoted earlier.
In the COP>1.0 EM energy field, we are still rather much at the stage where the UWB researchers started.  We are still in the "violent attack, personal insults, character assassination, slander, libel, etc." stage.  Sadly, such ad hominem savagery is by scientists who themselves have no notion of how electromagnetic circuits are actually powered, and who—like ostriches—still have their heads buried in the sand back there in the 1880s when Lorentz discarded the enormous Heaviside energy flow component.
Government Community—Non Technical
Here we have a rather mixed situation.  The nontechnical person—e.g., a Senator or a Congressperson—is operating under a distinct disadvantage.   In taking the stance that much better electrical power systems can readily be achieved, he or she is in fact opposing almost the entire set of University, Government Technical, University, Power Company, Battery Company, and Organized Science communities.  Further, in most cases his technical advisors are themselves from one or the other of those communities, and likely to go back into that community or those communities when the Senator or Congressperson leaves office, or even before.  So the Congress and the non-technical government community at large operate at a great disadvantage.  
As an example, admittedly there are some very misguided unorthodox energy system inventors and scientists out there, who in the guise of furthering COP>1.0 systems actually contribute to the problem rather than to the solution.  A few do not even realize that they cannot properly measure a "spiky" output with an RMS meter!  Some are also more interested in selling "dealerships" and "stock" than in furthering the science of COP>1.0 systems.  Few have submitted their purported COP>1 devices to rigorous testing by an independent, Government-certified test laboratory {}.  
This "noise" seriously dilutes the unconventional scientific community's legitimate efforts in COP>1.0 systems.  By playing up such "dilution" and accenting "the crazies", the orthodox scientific community often convinces government nontechnical managers and personnel that the unorthodox scientific COP>1.0 community is comprised only of lunatics, charlatans, stock-scam artists and misguided crank inventors.
Such of course is not the case.  A goodly number of reputable, skilled scientists are seriously struggling with the problems of developing COP>1.0 EM power systems and devices.  A few are also struggling to develop an adequate theory of such systems.  Progress is slowly being made and has been made, in spite of the harassment {}.
The independent assessments that Congress once enjoyed with the OTA are no more because the OTA was abolished.  Now the committees, subcommittees, and individual Congresspersons and Senators are largely on their own, with their own staffs and their own technical advisors.
	That said, nonetheless it can be seen by savvy Senators and Congresspersons that the U.S. Ship of State is headed for a great economic bust, and probably the greatest one of all time.
The Government Non-Technical community (the Senate and the Congress, in particular) is in far better shape than the Government Technical community, to appreciate the world implications of the pending economic disaster.  I am hopeful that both the environmentalists and the Government Non-Technical community will rapidly unite in a common goal to get this vacuum energy program launched, under a National Emergency declaration.  If so, then they can solve the energy crisis and the pending economic crisis, in fairly short order, and permanently.
In Conclusion
There is an even more ominous specter looming behind the shadow of the coming great economic collapse.  When national economies get strained to the breaking point—with some of them failing, etc. worldwide as the price of oil escalates—the conflicts among nations will increase in number and grow in intensity.  About a year or so ahead of the "Great Collapse" of the world economies, the intensity and desperation of the resulting national conflicts will have increased to the breaking point.
Some 25 nations already have weapons of mass destruction (WMD)—including nuclear warheads; missile, aircraft, boat, and terrorist delivery systems; biological warfare weaponry; and other advanced weapons {9} {10}, etc. {} {}
Any knowledgeable person knows that hostile terrorist agents are already on site here in the U.S. {}, and some will have smuggled in their WMDs.  It is not too difficult to surmise that some of those missing Russian "suitcase nukes" probably wound up right here in the U.S., hidden in our population centers {}.  Or that some of Saddam Hussein's large stock of anthrax has been spirited into the U.S. as well.  As is well known, the threat from weapons of mass destruction is now officially recognized as the greatest strategic threat facing the U.S.  It is not a matter of if the WMD weapons will be unleashed, but when.
	If one transposes that recognized escalating WMD threat onto the escalating economic pressures worldwide, then another factor comes into play—the dark side of the Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) concept.   We have opted (at least to date) not to defend our populace.  The U.S. government has deliberately placed U.S. population centers in a defenseless situation so that their destruction is "assured" once the WMD balloon really goes up.
The insanity of the MAD concept is revealed when war preparations by many nations start to be perceived—as they will be, when the conflicts intensify sufficiently and the looming economic collapse tightens the cinch on the nations of the world.
Without any protection of its populace, a defending nation has to fire on perception of nuclear preparations by its adversaries, if that nation is to have even the slightest chance of surviving.  
At about that 2007 date when a nation sees its adversaries preparing WMD and nuclear assets for launch or use in ongoing intense conflicts, at some point that nation must pre-empt and fire massively, or accept its own "assured destruction".  
The only question in MAD is whether the assured destruction shall be mutual or solitary.
	So one or more nations will fire, immediately moving all the rest into the "fire on perception" mode.  Very rapidly, the situation then escalates to the all-out worldwide exchange so long dreaded.  This massive exchange means the destruction of civilization itself, and probably much of the entire biosphere for decades or centuries.  Such escalation from one or more initial nuclear firings has been shown for decades by all the old strategic nuclear studies.  It is common knowledge to strategic analysts unless one engages in wishful thinking.
	Eerily, this very threat now looms in our not too distant future, due in large part to the increasing and unbearable stresses that escalating oil prices will elicit.
	So about seven years or so from now, we will enter the period of the threat of the Final Armageddon, unless we do something very, very quickly now, to totally and permanently solve the present "electrical energy from oil" crisis.
	This is really why we must have a National Emergency proclamation, and a Manhattan Project. Mass manufacturing, deployment, and employment of replacement electrical power systems must begin in earnest in early 2004.
	In my estimate, the point of no return for developing the self-powering replacement systems is about the end of 2003.  If by early 2004 we do not have multiple types of vacuum-energy powered systems rolling off the assembly lines en masse, then we shall overshoot the point of no return.  In that case, it matters not whether the systems then become available or not.  They will then be too late to prevent the great Armageddon and the destruction of civilization.
	Personally, the present author regards the increasing energy crisis as the greatest strategic threat to the United States in its entire history.  I will do anything within my power to help prevent what I perceive to be the looming economic collapse of the Western world, preceded or accompanied by a sudden, explosive, all-out and continuing exchange of the WMD arsenals of most of the world.
	We can still meet this early 2004 production deadline.  It is difficult, but it is definitely a doable at this time.
	We must do it, and we must do it now.  Else the technology for electrical energy from the vacuum will also be "too little, too late."  In that case, not only the world economy but civilization itself will likely be destroyed—not 100 years from now, not 50 years from now, but in less than one decade from now.
In the name of all humanity, let us begin!  Else by the time this first decade of the new millennium ends, much of humanity may not remain to see the second decade.
References and Notes