Gender: male Date of Birth: April 17, 1948 Member Since: March 10, 2008 Last Signed In: October 14, 2008 Profile Views: 152 Blog Views: 1944 Not that Victoria needs defending, but... The Cowboys Tell the Vatican to shut up What does race have to do with being American? Hero homeowners in Fort Worth This stereotyping is getting old The times, they are a'changin' Foreign policy advice for Obama Russia vs. Georgia TV commercials March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 
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Alternative fuel
The price of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel is rising at record paces with no end in sight. We must begin now, and hope we aren't too late already, to develope and deploy alternatives to petroleum based fuel if the economy of the country, indeed our very way of life, are to be saved. We will not save enough by increasing the mileage of cars -- we must wean ourselves from gasoline. Corn based fuel is a joke. It uses more petroleum to prepare the fields, plant, harvest, transport and convert corn into ethonol than we benefit from it. Wind and solar power are somewhat reasonable sourses of electric power in some parts of the country, but they do little for our transportation needs. Nuclear power is a wonderful source of electricity, but there are too many roadblocks from the NIMBY's to build many plants. We need to have the vast majority of our electric needs powered by nuclear plants, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon. There is much research being done to extract hydrogen from sea water to power fuel cells that can run cars and even provide our homes with abundant electric power. We need a president who understands that to fix our energy problems in the future, we must start NOW. We need programs to develope all the above energy sources and others that are on a scale of the 1960's programs to put men on the Moon. The spinoffs from such research and development will rival if not eclipse the spinoffs from the space research when products from Velcro to personal computers entered our lives. I'm getting old and don't have kids. By the time America turns into a third world country because we don't have affordable fuel sources for transportation and electrical generation, I'll be dead and gone. I do feel sorry for the generations to come, howver. Without adequet power, they will never know the America I have known and loved all my life. 2 comments from 2 users
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posted by
batman
on May 21, 2008 at 08:10 PM
Maybe the city could consider lowering some of the speed limits to 35 so that NEV's (neighborhood electric vehicles) and UEV's (urban electric vehicles) could be driven on city streets. These vehicles usually can go 25 to 30 miles per hour and have a range of 30 to 40 miles (depending on weight) between charges. They usually run on golf cart batteries. They must be street legal and you have to be licensed to drive them. These vehicles could help the average person get to work and run short errands without filling up at the pump. There is alot of info on the internet about them and how popular they are in California and other areas. I am not suggesting that these would replace the automobile but perhaps people could have a UEV and an automobile and use them as necessary. Bicycle lanes could also be a great idea........just a thought on saving gas. posted by
Mike
on May 21, 2008 at 05:42 PM
All good ideas, but I never thought we would be a country without a vision. Why didn't we see this coming? So much for the past I think the larger cities will solve their problem by using mass transit. I agree we need another Apollo Project, with a $50 billion grant. In the meantime, local state and federal government can lead the way by purchasing hybrids as replacement vehicles. Using the monkey see; monkey do theory, people will accept hybrids as a viable option. In the meantime, we need to raise the CAFE standards. New York is replacing all it's taxi's with hybrids.Pennsylvania is starting by replacing 50% of their vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles. We could end the trade embargo with Cuba, using their sugar for ethanol. These days, we cannot pressure OPEC, because if we cut back on our use, they still have willing customers like China, Japan, and India. Personally, I think the higher prices of gasoline keeps this issue on the forefront, a constant reminder that status quo is not working.
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