The audacity of thermionic hope?

A reader called to my attention the 'The Thermionic Revolution' website which includes what sounds like an endorsement from friend and esteemed authority Gerry Mahan as well as the following claims:

"A simple way has been found that promises to make cheap abundant electricity from the heat in air

• oil will become worthless
• the price of electricity will tumble
• cars will run on heat from the air
• ships will run on heat from sea water"

And that's just the front page.  Since I first looked at the website, some of the internal links have turned to "coming soon", but you get the idea.

I'm happy to report that Mahan, described on the website as a "visiting Professor at Penn State University", actually has a permanent position there and is not associated with the 'The Thermionic Revolution' folks.

You'd be surprised how often this sort of claim comes up: huge claims but no meat.  Well, perhaps you're not surprised either.  I suppose the idea is to attract attention.  Hmm.  What does that make me?