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Duty Honor Country

Duty Honor Country

Active member
There is nothing like a region wide conflict to drive up the price of oil. In the United States, the prices of gasoline are reaching historic highs. Once again we have to ask where do we go from here.

Of course some people had some foresight on this issue. John Kerry and Ross Perot supported a 50 cent gas tax after the 1st Gulf War with all proceeds going to development of alternative fuel technologies. Of course gas was $1 a gallon and 50 cents would cost the society too much. Man we are dumb.

Where do we go from here. Our government has done little to start solving the oil issue and trust me it will be a major issue. At least the government raised the fuel efficiency.

Any thoughts?
 
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Conspiracy .. not conspiracy??? That is the question.

Not one single President and not one legislative body, has been willing to meet the issue of alternative fuels head on. Matter of fact, if anything, they have made the problem even worse by removing controls from the petroleum industry (amongst other bad decisions). We are NOW faced with a situation, where even the rumor of a war anywhere in the world, taken with the increasing fuel demands being placed on the petroleum industry by China ... and we see wide fluctuating petroleum prices almost daily.

How much is real and how much is artificial??? This is the major question that our representatives are unwilling to address. Having worked for an oil jobbership myself, my answer is ... much of the swing we see on a daily basis, are absolutely 100% artificial. The day-to-day costs for the production of gasolene, don't swing so widely that the high increases we see at the pumps on a daily basis are justified. The increase or the decrease of prices, should be an almost flatline increase or decrease, spread out over a number of days. The high spikes we see daily, are unreasonable and unjustified.

I am NOT a conspiracy enthusiast .. however, reports persist that many fuel-efficient engines and add-ons, have been placed in the vaults, never to be seen on ANY car. I have a tendency to believe this rumor based upon my personal history with the auto industry. My wife and I manufacture hydrogen generation add-ons, and have seen just how far the auto industry will go to make it difficult for entrepeneurs like us to dabble in this facet of the auto industry. Addition of our add-ons can mean that some warranties get cancelled. With other dealerships, if the add-on is present, the dealers won't work on your car. When pressed for answers, it seems the auto industry has made it very plain that they are NOT interested in any system add-ons (even when you can increase your MPG by 50%-75%). Stumbling blocks (generated by the auto industry), litter the roadway for anyone who tries to increase the gas mileage of todays vehicles.

Congress (and the President), need to address these issues before the situation rises to the level of an emergency. Cheap alternative fuels, (along with high MPG and fuel-efficient engines), along with add-ons which increase fuel efficiency, have been talked about for many many years. It is NOW time to put words into action and FINALLY take action to wean America from the petroleum standard. It is the ONLY thing that will save us from a market crash caused by high energy costs. Don't believe me ... look at the energy cost increases for just the last couple of years. The train is on the track, and the train wreck is just round the bend.
 
Duty Honor Country said:
There is nothing like a region wide conflict to drive up the price of oil. In the United States, the prices of gasoline are reaching historic highs. Once again we have to ask where do we go from here.

Of course some people had some foresight on this issue. John Kerry and Ross Perot supported a 50 cent gas tax after the 1st Gulf War with all proceeds going to development of alternative fuel technologies. Of course gas was $1 a gallon and 50 cents would cost the society too much. Man we are dumb.

Where do we go from here. Our government has done little to start solving the oil issue and trust me it will be a major issue. At least the government raised the fuel efficiency.

Any thoughts?
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The Gov also supports Ethanol production, which is an abortion unto itself.
 
Electric is the way of the future. There is a huge amount of research going into battery technology. I have seen estimates saying that electric will be able to go as far as a combustion vehicles within the next 10 years. Thats not hybrid either, thats strictly electric. In turn that battery technology will trinkle down into all of our battery powered devices such as labtops and cell phones.
 
Yeah but it will take them another 15 years to get battery powered cars to sound manly enough to sell.

Personally I am not convinced electric is the way to go either but it may be a worth while stop gap measure until a better alternative is found.
 
I don't think manly is going to factor into it. A performance built electric will demolish a Ferrari in a 0-60. They will never purr like a Ferrari but people will adapt. I think our long term future is Nuclear power powering electric. Hydrogen and ethenol is a joke, ehtenol for sure, maybe they will pull a hat trick with hydrogen.
 
Big_Z said:
I don't think manly is going to factor into it. A performance built electric will demolish a Ferrari in a 0-60. They will never purr like a Ferrari but people will adapt. I think our long term future is Nuclear power powering electric. Hydrogen and ethenol is a joke, ehtenol for sure, maybe they will pull a hat trick with hydrogen.
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Hydrogen isn't a joke, but the technology isn't viable...yet. The main problem is cost, its simply too expensive to extract hydrogen from seawater. Coal is possible but its still expensive and creates a lot of pollution.

They say they need another 20 years, to make it commercially viable. So its definitely a solution in the long term.

Incidently, I attended the Paris auto show last year and almost every auto maker had either a hybrid or an electric as part of their lineup. The best were the Japanese (of course) with the Europeaners not far behind.

The only ones who looked like they were lagging behind (meaning few hybrids on the show room) was the US auto industry (as per usual). Europeans are both very green and very fuel efficiency conscience, so the big US gas-guzzlers don't do well here.
 
1. Hydrogen power is not smart and is being defunded for just that reason, it's inneficient, takes way too much energy, and has little if any advantage over electricity.
2. Ethanol, not terribly useful, mostly a farm subsidy, if wecould make it out of non fuel crops it would help our dependence on oil moderately, but wouldn't do that much for the environment.
3. Why would I miss George W. Bush? The man was a crazy zealot who had no economic sense, no, I do not miss him.
4. Currently, the best policy to fix our energy issues is 4 fold
A. Gas tax, 50 cents, if not higher, would reduce consumption, which we need to do, and generate needed revenue.
B. Subsidies for alternative electricty sources, primarily nuclear and solar.
C. Subsidies for plug in electric, they are viable, and, while less convenient that normal cars, I think we can live with that versus say, the massive death and cost of current energy production AND the cost and death that will come from climate change.
D. In the hopefully short interim before electric cars are universal, mandatory higher fuel standards, almost no one needs a car that gets under 30 miles per gallon, and no one needs one under 20, yet we see this all the time.
 
4a-another 50 higher may just tank the economy. 4$ gas was a big part, along with the housing bubble, of the collapse.
 
A Can of Man said:
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Mmm... no.


We should end the oil subsidies. These companies have proven they can make profits, and their profits are growing even as the economy doesn't. If we're serious about fixing the budget deficit, we should stop giving the businesses that are doing great extra cash that could be better spent elsewhere.

I'm far from sold on hydrogen. Never saw much good in ethanol; the future is with electric power, but that doesn't solve how we get the electricity. We need to move to solar power and wind power, and away from oil and coal. Nuclear power... well, it's really efficient when it works, but the chances of it going awry are too costly.

As for cars (my personal forte lately), I insist that if they can make an electric car look like a Taurus it will become the best selling car in the world overnight. The problem is that they look like the Prius; balky and ugly and gay, and no "manly man" will buy one.
 
Just face it guys, untill somebody invents a better type of battery technology, the electric car would still be a dream for the optimistic environmentalists.

Except from top-speed and comfort, very little has happened with the technology of electric car since the 1915 Detroit Electric Brougham left the assembly plant.
Average electric cars today have about the same range as they had about 100 years ago, 50-90 miles on each charging of the batteries. :roll:

And as I'm from Norway, a land of ice and snow, I'm particulary interested in the performance of electric cars in the winter.
Cold weather quickly reduces the effect of even the most modern batteries, and the heating of the cabin sure isn't going to be supplied by the engine coolant... :confused:
 
84RFK said:
Just face it guys, untill somebody invents a better type of battery technology, the electric car would still be a dream for the optimistic environmentalists.

Except from top-speed and comfort, very little has happened with the technology of electric car since the 1915 Detroit Electric Brougham left the assembly plant.
Average electric cars today have about the same range as they had about 100 years ago, 50-90 miles on each charging of the batteries. :roll:

And as I'm from Norway, a land of ice and snow, I'm particulary interested in the performance of electric cars in the winter.
Cold weather quickly reduces the effect of even the most modern batteries, and the heating of the cabin sure isn't going to be supplied by the engine coolant... :confused:
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Not to mention replacement cost of them in 4 years.
 
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