Post from fred murray's Blog:
What we can do now
| By Unknown user - Feb 10, 2009 4:32:23 AM ET |
| Also listed in: fred murray | we Twin Cities |
It's dismaying to see the lack of communication, let alone action or even simple suggestions in these blogs. The fact is that, while limited, there are things most of us can do, sometimes without even thinking. Perhaps the first single thing we could do is fill our tanks from the halfway mark with e-85 every other time. Any common car can handle that. It doesn't have to be retrofitted. Nobody needs a flex-fuel vehicle to do this. Do it now when gas prices are "low" and you might be in for a little more pleasant surprise when they begin to skyrocket! The lower demand for gas, even fractional, will tend to create lower prices later. Maybe instead of $4.00 a gallon prices will top out at $3.50 or $3.75 a gallon. This will also tend to relieve diesel shipping costs leading to slightly lower prices of everything, food included. It could also even slow the upward spiral of lp or propane costs as well as motor oil. Essentially gasoline is a pure demand-driven market so the lower the demand the lower the price. Those with SUV's should take note.
I know the arguments. You lose up to 30% of your mpg with e-85. That's true but I think the problem could be fixed to a large degree. E-85 is not cost effective. That's probably true too, but primarily because it's normally made from corn. If we have any bigger addiction in this country than petroleum it is corn. Other non-cellulosic crops need to be planted to make ethanol cost- and anti-pollution effective. The best is jerusalem artichokes. These subjects can and will be addressed later. For now, consider the use of e-85 as an insurance policy. Pay more money now to pay less later when it will really matter.
There are many more projects that can at least be begun certainly not just in the transportation field, but in the production of electricity as well. What I would like to see is the formation of a cross-section that would include farmers, auto mechanics, hvac technicians, computer programmers, tinkerers, engineers and plain old ordinary people like me who might be interested in spending a few hours a week investigating true energy alternatives. Hint: I'm not particularly interested in solar or wind anymore. They are still too costly and high-tech after 35 years of advocacy by me. To coin a phrase, this is not your father's cause anymore. Stupid questions are welcome with open arms!
By the way, whatever happened to Al Gore? Funny he didn't try to be Secretary of Energy or at least the Interior or Agriculture. At least a top advisor to President Obama. We sure could use him to provide direction but we'll do it ourselves
I know the arguments. You lose up to 30% of your mpg with e-85. That's true but I think the problem could be fixed to a large degree. E-85 is not cost effective. That's probably true too, but primarily because it's normally made from corn. If we have any bigger addiction in this country than petroleum it is corn. Other non-cellulosic crops need to be planted to make ethanol cost- and anti-pollution effective. The best is jerusalem artichokes. These subjects can and will be addressed later. For now, consider the use of e-85 as an insurance policy. Pay more money now to pay less later when it will really matter.
There are many more projects that can at least be begun certainly not just in the transportation field, but in the production of electricity as well. What I would like to see is the formation of a cross-section that would include farmers, auto mechanics, hvac technicians, computer programmers, tinkerers, engineers and plain old ordinary people like me who might be interested in spending a few hours a week investigating true energy alternatives. Hint: I'm not particularly interested in solar or wind anymore. They are still too costly and high-tech after 35 years of advocacy by me. To coin a phrase, this is not your father's cause anymore. Stupid questions are welcome with open arms!
By the way, whatever happened to Al Gore? Funny he didn't try to be Secretary of Energy or at least the Interior or Agriculture. At least a top advisor to President Obama. We sure could use him to provide direction but we'll do it ourselves
Comments are closed for this post.
This is the problem, you're asking people to take action without thinking. Perhaps you didn't step back to think about the problem inherent with trading food supplies, the land and water needed for those food supplies, for transportation fuel. The ethanol debacle was exposed as we saw the price of corn skyrocket. Many of our politicians were made into fools for listening to this stupid idea. They even went so far as to consider shipping it from Brazil, failing to realize that Ethanol can't be shipped those distances.
Do you REALLY want to help solve this problem? Or do you want to perpetuate fantasies which lead us to even more pain and suffering for ourselves and our environment. Ultimately using corn and other plant life to fuel our vehicles means we trash our food supplies and tens of thousands of square miles of rain forrest which have already been wiped out just to make such fuels.
I beg you to consider two solutions much more seriously:
1) Shifting the nation's fleet of vehicles over to using Natural Gas. It's abundant. It's very clean. It's available in our country. It works on city buses and it will work for our trucking industry. It can be done in a manner which will have a dramatic impact in just a few short years. Combining CNG with hybrid technology makes it even better.
2) In order to make plug-in cars work, in the future, we must have MORE base load electricity. Not electricity which isn't there when the sun sets, or when the wind stops blowing -- these sources can only be augmented by the wasting of NG in power plants which can start up on short notice. The cleanest, greenest, safest and most cost-effective source available is nuclear power. Over 50 years of usage in this country and who has been hurt? Where are the victims? Where is any damage to the environment? If you live near a nuclear power plant you receive far less radiation than a normal person received as background radiation every year. More importantly, if you live down wind of a coal fired power plant you get far more RADIATION from the fly ash. The standards are so high for nuclear safety that life near a nuclear power plant is far healthier than nearly anywhere else. Of the 100+ nuclear plants constructed in this country about 1/4 of them were built in less than six years. Where nuclear power is prominent (places like SC and AZ) electricity is relatively cheap and abundant. Yes, it's expensive up front, but as 5-10 pass, it becomes highly competitive with other sources. As it turns out, the life expectancy of our over plants is now decades longer than anticipated, making that electricity cheaper and cheaper as time goes on.
The longer web sites like this one, and people who claim to be "green" deny these two available solutions, the longer we'll all pollute the environment with dirty coal. The longer we'll waste natural gas on producing electricity. Both of these sources are now being used to provide electricity to California, while the state government claims to be going greener. It's really sick what is happening. We are being lied to by our state government officials and by the media. Nuclear power was outlawed in California yet southern California relies on the largest nuclear plant found in a neighboring state (AZ) to turn on their lights and run their microwaves ovens. California wastes billions of dollars on windmills which require more concrete and steel than nuclear plants, as the wind only blows 20-30% of the time. All the while nuclear power plants provide electricity 90% of the time. So what does California do to make up for this near criminal policy? They import electricity from neighboring states that produce it through burning coal and natural gas.
So, with all due respect to you and those who believe they are doing good. The true smoking gun is not that you are ignorant, it's that you know so much that isn't so. Ethanol with a massive fraud, just as wind and solar are.