What's really going to hurt the industry is fusion. What's ultimately going to save civilization is fusion. The really frustrating thing about fusion is the science is all done, it's there, we're not waiting on this or that breakthrough to make it work, it's funding and will. We really need an Apollo Program level of national support to build a large scale reactor. The problem is it will be hugely disruptive, right now a large portion of any countries economy is energy, be it oil or coal or even hydroelectric or nuclear, but once up and running electricity from fusion will be so cheap the entire energy industry will die. Even with the fees and such and current markups on electricity your electric bill with a large central fusion plant would be about $50 a YEAR. Now at those prices there's not a power or energy or fuel company in the world that would be able to stay in business. The plus side being world energy problems solved FOREVER, unlimited, insanely cheap, completely clean, safe energy. We could do this today, right now if there were the national or international will to do this, but I don't think we will for quite some time because there's not enough money to be made, too many industries disrupted, despite the fact that the entirety of humanity would benefit in a substantial way, that's not how the world works.
Ok, mini-rant over, lol.
