National Electric Rail Grid: A Silver Bullet?
So how do you get goods to market with zero oil? Right now, you don't. In the future though, it could be done even in the US, if we use this plan for electrifying our national railroad system.
The system is elegant in its construction plan. In the great plains there isn't a lot of electricity to support electrified rail, but there are huge rights of way already ceded to the railroad companies, and they can ship out giant cranes along the rail, and use it to erect massive windmills to power the freight. With the savings in truck traffic on our highway, and thus road wear, we may find that this project pays for itself.
The Oil Drum: Multiple Birds – One Silver BB: A synergistic set of solutions to multiple issues focused on Electrified Railroads