Whether you aree with AGW, or think is bougus....? Doesn%26#039;t it make perfect sense to boost fuel economy%26#039;s and efficiency of every other conceivable energy using device?

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7 months ago

woops, meant %26quot;think its bogus%26quot;

7 months ago

whats i mean is, current technology allows for much higher fuel economies than current levels, at almost the same cost. It would help reduce dependence on foreign oil and reduce green house gas emissions

I think we can do it even faster than this article talks about. Because we have already begun building solar thermal plants in a fairly substantial way. Factories are being built to mass produce the parts for these power plants. Pilot plants that were built in the mid 80s are already putting out 355 megawatts of affordable clean power.
There are already 2.6 gigawatts of plants in California either okayed or in the planning stages. They are to be built in the next few years.
These plants range in size from 175 to 900 megawatts. 1000 megawatts is a gigawatt.

One gigabyte would power San Francisco, to put it in perspective. These are just the beginning.
A medium size nuclear plant puts out about 2 gigawatts, so does the Hoover Dam.

Solar is hot in Southern Europe. no pun intended

Distributed energy solar installations like on rooftops can add substantialy to the energy grid. Large businesses like Walmart are putting these on their buildings.
Clever financing deals are being set up so that the companies don%26#039;t have to pay for the installation costs.
The City of Berkeley California just passed a bill that will provide the installation costs for any homeowner. Bonds will be floated to finance this. The homeowner pays off the solar system each year along with his property tax. If he sells the house the next owner takes over any remaining debt. It%26#039;s a win win proposal. There%26#039;s no reason why this can%26#039;t be repeated all over the country.

We now have fuel cells that can run power plants on natural gas, methane, methanol. These are already commercially available. Many natural gas power plants could be converted to these fuel cells or run in conjunction with them. This has already begun in Connecticut on a small scale. It%26#039;s also being adopted in South Korea.

I believe that half the problem with many of the issues we face is the nature of the conversation about them. We can do anything we put our minds to. There is too much talk about what we can%26#039;t do. This applies whether we are talking about conserving our environment, world hunger, the problems in the mideast, the disparity of wealth in our country and the world. You name it.
%26quot;There will always be war, there will always be world hunger,%26quot; that kind of habitual thinking. It%26#039;s like regurgitating tired old adages that may not necessarily be true. They hide the truth that anything is possible.
Try to think of possibilities instead of limitations.

When it is economic to do so yes, and the economics of efficiency can be improved by penalties, incentives or regulations.

Edit in response to further information: I don%26#039;t know whether their are large improvements in efficiency which can be obtained at small cost. I do know that there are always people selling things for which the phrase %26#039;buyer beware%26#039; to greater and lesser extent comes to mind. Depending on the system one is talking about one has to take into account the degree of confidence one has in its performance, operating complexity, maintenance and risk of breakdown, operating life and any hazards. As an additional comment people are prepared to go the extra mile and support new technology which may not be strictly economic (yet at least) are of course doing us all a service.

It%26#039;s always good to find ways to increase fuel efficiency and to also find alternative fuels to power our vehicles and power plants. (But Corn based Ethanol is not the answer.)

Being energy efficient is a nice thing but mandating cars to get 35mpg is a pipe dream. The only way to increase gas milege in cars is to make them lighter and smaller. The problem with that is all the safery equipment in cars now a days make them heavier so more people will get killed in accidents. Seat belts help but are not 100% effective.
You want efficiency for oil consumption? Here is what needs to be done. Switch all oil and coal burning powerplants to NUCLEAR. This would save millions and billions of barrels of oil a year alone. People will always drive cars they want and public trans is not the cure all. People like living in the suburbs and do not like the high costs of living in cities and that is un american anyways. Our country was built on the back of cars because it means FREEDOM. We can chose where to live (good) shop (good) travel/vacation(good). People also want to feel safe in their cars/suvs/vans/trucks so they want bigger cars in the event of a crash and bigger cars give a better chance of survival.
It sounds good in theory but can not be put to practical use so sorry I do not agree.
Ethonol is half as efficiecent as oil so more needs to be produced just to achieve what oil gives us now.
hydrogen is also not the answer because the tank would add an average of 1500 lbs to the overall mass of a vehicle and not to mention the odds of explosion when hit so if you want to drive a car that can explode when bumped more power to you.
Battery powered cars are the best option but not until they can increase the distance they can drive and the solution of what to do with all the %26#039;dead%26#039; batteries. Imagine our landfills with millions of these batteries in them? YUCK

Yes. I agree. We ave nothing to lose as long as we make good cost-effective decisions based on good engineering and economics.

We should be building Nuclear plants all over the U S now.