New Fuel Guages for 06 cars
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My truck does take a lot of gas, but I love having the 6 seats and the open truck bed.....it is so useful
I'm gonna start taking the bus to work again (it was too cold in the winter.) And, I'll ride my bike when I visit my parents on the weekend.
We all need to change how we use this limited resource.
We all need to change how we use this limited resource.
Joined Oct 2005
2K Posts | 1+
Lost in translation
First we can outlaw Oil companies buying patents that help the consumer use their product more efficiently. Pure B.S. in my book. If we can't match the competition, we'll just buy out their product and never let it come to the market.
what actually needs to happen is Uncle sam needs to stop taxing gas so damn much. In ohio the tax is about $0.50 a gallon. The oil comany only gats about 7 cents.
damn you supply and demand!!!!!! we need more refineries too. and drill IN the us and off shore too... that may help.
a new fule source would be nice. maybe hydrogen combustion. that could be fun.
see...
http://www.worldcarfans.com/news.cfm?Ne ... ountry/gcf
damn you supply and demand!!!!!! we need more refineries too. and drill IN the us and off shore too... that may help.
a new fule source would be nice. maybe hydrogen combustion. that could be fun.
see...
http://www.worldcarfans.com/news.cfm?Ne ... ountry/gcf
Hydrogen is not the cure all people think it is. Its in its infancy and will stay a child for a long time. Its not readily available and the method to produce it is more trouble than its worth. They say it actually causes more pollution in the process than oil refining does.
Hybrids are a step in the right direction but I'd like to know how their longevity plays out before I buy one. Plus they obviously still need to work on the technology if they're getting only 2 mpg more like on the Chevy Silverado.
In the meantime, the beaurocratic crap with fuel grade standards from state to state needs to be cut out. If we had just three types of gas, regular, premium and super premium, the price would lower then. Though even then you're still dealing with companies that keep mysteriously making higher and high profits somehow in a time of oil shortages.
All I know is, putting on over a 100-150 miles a day at 10mpg isn't fun and I wish they'd do something. Myself, I'm more interested in BioDiesel. If I bought a new car it'd probably be diesel just to be ready when BioDiesel starts to appear.
Hybrids are a step in the right direction but I'd like to know how their longevity plays out before I buy one. Plus they obviously still need to work on the technology if they're getting only 2 mpg more like on the Chevy Silverado.
In the meantime, the beaurocratic crap with fuel grade standards from state to state needs to be cut out. If we had just three types of gas, regular, premium and super premium, the price would lower then. Though even then you're still dealing with companies that keep mysteriously making higher and high profits somehow in a time of oil shortages.
All I know is, putting on over a 100-150 miles a day at 10mpg isn't fun and I wish they'd do something. Myself, I'm more interested in BioDiesel. If I bought a new car it'd probably be diesel just to be ready when BioDiesel starts to appear.
Warning: Soapbox follows!!
:soap:
None of the "alternative" energy sources are nearly mature for production. The problem with hydrogen is that it's not an energy source. You can't go out and find hydrogen to burn. You have to pry the H's out of water, or out of a hydrocarbon. This takes as much (actually more than as much) energy as you will get out when you burn it. Hydrogen is just a (sorta) convenient way to store energy.
I was somewhat interested in Biodiesel as well, until I learned how much organic material is required to manufacture it. We just don't have the acreage and farm resources to make this stuff a viable mass source. That and production is ridiculously unwieldy.
The only viable alternative energy source we have ready to go right now is nuclear fission. Modern reactor technology is orders of magnitude safer than any of the currently operating commercial plants in the US, none of which was designed within the last thirty years. Even with the older plants operating, how many casualties have we had in the US nuclear industry?
That's certainly more than you can say for the conventional power industry, even if you neglect the (literally) tons of ash, CO2, CO, Sulfur, NOx, and other nasties they emit every day. I think it's absolutely laughable that environmentalists campaign against zero emission nuclear power when the alternative is what it is.
We as a country need to get over our doomsday hollywood fears of catastrophic nuclear meltdown, and take advantage of the best thing 20th century science gave us. BTW, nuclear fuel costs are practically nil when compared to fossil fuels. Plant operations and startup capital are a little higher, but if we were primarily dependent on nuclear power, we would see a STEEP decline in energy costs.
Once we're there, then technology like Hydrogen will help us to unplug ourselves from oil: Hydrogen will allow us to package up the energy we get from our nuclear reactors and pour it into a tank so that we can take it on the road. If we were to convert to a Hydrogen infrastructure tomorrow, we would still need the fossil fuels (actually more so, since energy is lost in Hydrogen manufacture), so we would get no reduced dependence, and no reduced emissions.
Sorry, but we have hit upon an area about which I am a little passionate. Actually, I would like to go into nuclear management and/or policy, to help get the US commercial nuclear industry back onto its feet.
:soap:
None of the "alternative" energy sources are nearly mature for production. The problem with hydrogen is that it's not an energy source. You can't go out and find hydrogen to burn. You have to pry the H's out of water, or out of a hydrocarbon. This takes as much (actually more than as much) energy as you will get out when you burn it. Hydrogen is just a (sorta) convenient way to store energy.
I was somewhat interested in Biodiesel as well, until I learned how much organic material is required to manufacture it. We just don't have the acreage and farm resources to make this stuff a viable mass source. That and production is ridiculously unwieldy.
The only viable alternative energy source we have ready to go right now is nuclear fission. Modern reactor technology is orders of magnitude safer than any of the currently operating commercial plants in the US, none of which was designed within the last thirty years. Even with the older plants operating, how many casualties have we had in the US nuclear industry?
That's certainly more than you can say for the conventional power industry, even if you neglect the (literally) tons of ash, CO2, CO, Sulfur, NOx, and other nasties they emit every day. I think it's absolutely laughable that environmentalists campaign against zero emission nuclear power when the alternative is what it is.
We as a country need to get over our doomsday hollywood fears of catastrophic nuclear meltdown, and take advantage of the best thing 20th century science gave us. BTW, nuclear fuel costs are practically nil when compared to fossil fuels. Plant operations and startup capital are a little higher, but if we were primarily dependent on nuclear power, we would see a STEEP decline in energy costs.
Once we're there, then technology like Hydrogen will help us to unplug ourselves from oil: Hydrogen will allow us to package up the energy we get from our nuclear reactors and pour it into a tank so that we can take it on the road. If we were to convert to a Hydrogen infrastructure tomorrow, we would still need the fossil fuels (actually more so, since energy is lost in Hydrogen manufacture), so we would get no reduced dependence, and no reduced emissions.
Sorry, but we have hit upon an area about which I am a little passionate. Actually, I would like to go into nuclear management and/or policy, to help get the US commercial nuclear industry back onto its feet.
Theory with hydrogen is that it will be a fixed price. It IS easy to "produce" we just dont have all the "gas stations" set up. Every filling station will (in theory) have a solar power hydrogen plant. It will actually cause less polution because the by-product of consumed hydrogen is H2O. However, you guys are right... it is in its infancy. I dont see it being a readally available fule source in the next 20 years.
In the mean time... we need to build more oil refineries and we need to drill for oil in colorado (shale oil), ANWAR, and off the coast of CA, FL, AK, and TX. We actually have more oil than any other country in the world but due to "Enviro Weenie" polocy we cant drill for it. The US has the most strict standards for the enviroment in the world. If we drill here we have less of a chance of screwing things up than anywhere else. (Chances are) Its better for the US to drill in the US than for any one else to drill anywhere else. Plus If we drill here we will elimanate the Oil monopoly that the mid east has, we will no longer be dependent on forgin oil, and the price will go down.
... sorry my republican side showing its head again.
In the mean time... we need to build more oil refineries and we need to drill for oil in colorado (shale oil), ANWAR, and off the coast of CA, FL, AK, and TX. We actually have more oil than any other country in the world but due to "Enviro Weenie" polocy we cant drill for it. The US has the most strict standards for the enviroment in the world. If we drill here we have less of a chance of screwing things up than anywhere else. (Chances are) Its better for the US to drill in the US than for any one else to drill anywhere else. Plus If we drill here we will elimanate the Oil monopoly that the mid east has, we will no longer be dependent on forgin oil, and the price will go down.
... sorry my republican side showing its head again.
I'm with you on drilling here to remove our dependence on foreign oil in the short run. I'm not sure I follow you with the statement about US having the most oil. I think Saudi has the largest documented reserves in the world. Hence we have to maintain a close relationship even though we rarely actually agree with them.
My brother was telling me that Canada has HUGE reserves of "tar sand" that we are just learning how to refine efficiently. He was saying that they had been ignored as useless until recently, but we are beginning to suspect that the tar sand reserves put the mideast oil reserves to shame. Now, it's still foreign fossil fuel dependence, but I think I would much rather be beholden to Canadians (who have never tried to blow us up) than the current situation. If that situation does play out, look out for world politics to take an intersting (and massive) swing. Bikeman, you could be living in the world's next superpower. :shock:
As for the solar Hydrogen production, even if you could get 100% efficiency on energy conversion, the solar cell surface area required to keep up with customer demand would be larger than a current gas station. Added to that, the theoretical limit on solar cells is ~30% efficiency, and current production cells run at ~15%. The Hydrogen production process is "easy," but it's not very efficient either. Solar energy will only ever be good for small spot applications. Someone someday may try to build a huge array of the things, but I don't think the production efficiency and cost of the array will work out to good economics.
My brother was telling me that Canada has HUGE reserves of "tar sand" that we are just learning how to refine efficiently. He was saying that they had been ignored as useless until recently, but we are beginning to suspect that the tar sand reserves put the mideast oil reserves to shame. Now, it's still foreign fossil fuel dependence, but I think I would much rather be beholden to Canadians (who have never tried to blow us up) than the current situation. If that situation does play out, look out for world politics to take an intersting (and massive) swing. Bikeman, you could be living in the world's next superpower. :shock:
As for the solar Hydrogen production, even if you could get 100% efficiency on energy conversion, the solar cell surface area required to keep up with customer demand would be larger than a current gas station. Added to that, the theoretical limit on solar cells is ~30% efficiency, and current production cells run at ~15%. The Hydrogen production process is "easy," but it's not very efficient either. Solar energy will only ever be good for small spot applications. Someone someday may try to build a huge array of the things, but I don't think the production efficiency and cost of the array will work out to good economics.
Joined Oct 2005
2K Posts | 1+
Lost in translation
All of the alternative fuel source chatter is very interesting, but it makes you wonder why we as a society has not researched or started the infrastucture yet, considering the pains we had during the oil shortage in the 70's. We are still not quite feeling the true pain at the pump right now but another 50 -75 cents for over a year and it will start to take its toll on the economy. Then we might start to put in place alternatives. I am starting to feel the pain ion my electric bill. It seams to have jumped 30-40% in the last year and the summer is upon us when it gets the worst.
The same reason we aren't doing anything about global warming. Most people just don't care.phisherman said:
Are you trying to say that we need to farm to produce Biodiesel? Think about all of the french fries and burgers and crap we Americans eat. You can extract Biodiesel out of the grease byproduct of that. Right now it just gets sent to the landfill.
iminaquagmire said:
True, true. We are wasting a lot of energy there (though a significant portion is recycled for other things). We should take full advantage of what we have available, but that grease still has to come from the farms to begin with. There isn't nearly enough used fry oil around to keep up with our energy demands, and we aren't capable of producing enough either. These factors make biodiesel into an interesting footnote instead of a potential national solution.
I just sold my Ford Explorer, '93. She was great, guzzled gas, hit small animals/children and just thinkin' about her makes me smell that sweet scent of pollution mmmmmm oh yeah
we do have a infrsatructure started. Cali has Hydrogen pumps.
i do believe there is global warming. I dont believe we can do anything aboyut it and i dont think its out fault. the earth is on a cycle. right now its on the up cycle. in the 40s it was on a down cycle.
im still ok with a cleaner car.
... this will be my last post in this thread. Polatics gets me all worked up... im here for relaxation and fun.
i do believe there is global warming. I dont believe we can do anything aboyut it and i dont think its out fault. the earth is on a cycle. right now its on the up cycle. in the 40s it was on a down cycle.
im still ok with a cleaner car.
... this will be my last post in this thread. Polatics gets me all worked up... im here for relaxation and fun.
