Why do we need Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion?

We are committing suicide by oil. Since the discovery of coal and the industrial use of fossil fuels, our culture has been poisoning our atmosphere with particulate matter by-products and CO2, initiating a process that has resulted in the catastrophic disruption of worldwide climates. We have destroyed an alarming amount of the protective ozone layer of the earth and are only just beginning to see the results in the dangerous levels of unfiltered UV rays in places like Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Glaciers in all parts of the world (Glacier National Park, Greenland, Iceland) are melting at a rate much faster than computer models ever anticipated. Hurricanes and cyclones have not only become more numerous, they are starting earlier in the season and warmer ocean temperatures are resulting in much more violent storms. Every objective scientist worth his degree and not in the pay of a giant corporation or the White House will verify these facts. If you disagree, you are too stupid to understand the rest of my argument, so return your head to your butt and go do something to entertain yourself while the end approaches.
The rest of the industrialized world has recognized this problem and the seriousness of it and has come together to make a start at addressing the problem through accords expressed in the Kyoto Treaty of 1997 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol) The US has signed but not ratified this treaty, which is a way of saying: "Sounds good; you guys let me know how it turns out." George W. Bush, in particular, has made a point of stating that he would not permit the ratification of the treaty without binding agreement on developing nations because of the economic impact to US corporations. So, because the solution is not perfect, we will continue making the problem worse. That makes sense.
We are at the end of the era of Big Oil. Most oil experts agree that sometime in the '70s the US reached "Hubbert's Peak," the point at which the oil which is easy to recover has been recovered and the cost of recovery of the shrinking amount of oil remaining will rise significantly. In other words, American oil supplies in the National Gas Tank reached the half-way mark in the 1970s and since then we have been gunning our Hummers down the highway with no more gas stations ahead. Big Oil does not like to talk about this much because they don't want people to start looking seriously at alternative replacements for petroleum products. They, more than anyone else, have known for 50 years that the end was coming, but it is to their advantage to ignore alternative fuel sources for as long as possible in order to make exorbitant profits from the remaining oil supplies as they become more and more scarce. But despite what the Bush administration would like you to believe, what's good for Standard Oil is NOT what's good for the county. As we run out of oil, more and more desperate measures will be proposed by legislators whose campaigns and war chests depend on money from Big Oil. ANWR will be despoiled for the paltry amounts of oil beneath the surface and our importation of foreign oil from an increasingly hostile Middle East will continue to escalate, as it has since US oil reserves peaked, assuming that we can out-bid the Chinese and Indians who are only just beginning to start making their oil demands clear.
Alternative forms of energy are not just desirable, they are critical to the viability of American culture. Unfortunately, very few of the alternative energy sources have the potential to provide more than a fraction of the energy necessary to keep our economy and our energy-centric culture from collapsing. Photovoltaic and wind energy are both excellent sources of energy and we need to be developing them as quickly and aggressively as we can, but most of the other options have serious drawbacks aside from scalability. Ethanol, no matter where it comes from (corn or sugar) is energy-intensive to produce; coal is so dirty that the cost and energy required to produce "clean coal" plants is prohibitive. Nuclear energy can never be described as "clean" as long as it produces radioactive wastes that will pose serious human health risks (to say nothing of terrorist targets) for thousands of years. Fusion energy has a lot of potential, but after forty years of trying, it is beginning to look like it is going to be impossible to hold the sun in a bottle, even in a very big magnetic bottle.
Of all the alternative fuel options available to us only Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion has the potential to replace petroleum as an energy source through the production of clean hydrogen gas to be used in hydrogen fuel cells. We need to understand that and get to work. We may already be out of time.