wow, this is one of the most profound discussions on this board at least someone is offering something in the absence of nothing.... its good to say alternative fuel but its better to make what you have work better until you can do better..... where do I sign up?
"where do you sign up?" Sadly: Beijing. Read the last article in the "China price" thread, about China's massive boost in organized science and engineering for the good of the nation.
china's probably not gonna stop growing fast for quite a while (neither is the US for that matter...), therefore demand can be expected to remain fairly consistently strong, no chance of a return to $40 oil anytime soon... why attempt to fight high oil prices directly, and not simply finance leading R&D via the acquisition of a hybrid vehicle, some solar gear etc... ? mewonders... vote with your wallet...
Most people pay more in insurance premiums for health care than they do for gasoline for automobiles. My cable bill yearly is equal to my gasoline needs.
agreed!]/b] however: Triage is needed, as so many plastics, fabrics, bedding, furniture, lawn and gardening equipment and consumables, packaging, containers, storage and disposables which comprise more than 35% of the usage of petroleum products falls completely outside the overly simplistic often quoted scenario of just go green or just buy a hubrid. Incidently, those hybrid cars that use blended electric/gasoline fuel sources are more of a disappointment for non-urban environments where long or frequent stop/go or idle periods do not exist as much or as frequently as they do in a city environment, miss the mark on fuel conservation. If you live in a mountainous area, where you're constantly dealing with steep or regular inclines; If you live in a rural or sparce area, where you're constantly using the gasoline side of the hybrid engine, then you also don't reap those advertised high fuel MPG levels, and this has been supported by so many articles written by much more scientific guys than me. Restoring competition in the bottleneck areas will cause more price depreciation at the pump and at the price per barrel of oil than you would give credit to. Really, it would.
the thesis of this thread is to do something from the state level on down. step 1: search on your state senator official webpage and alert them to this thread.... step 2: follow up with personal interest letter to see whether they received it and are aware of this discussion, or similar.... step 3: if you have State Senators or State Representatives, then do same.... step 4: whatever you do, don't just continue to roll over and take this treasonous conduct that's been forced down our gas station pumps.....
in those rural and moutainous areas, ordinary cars and trucks also will not achieve the fuel economy ratings. Hybrid cars work only if you can smooth out the consumption of fuel to a situation where the engine is more efficient---this works in city stop and go driving with electrical storage. Nevertheless the underlying engine has to be more efficient too, and for the long distances and mountain grades in rural areas, diesel direct injection is thermodynamically superior and offers great torque for mountain climbing. And diesel is not incompatible with hybrid energy storage either.
who's making one of these diesel hybrids? or these diesel direct injection engines? sounds like a german car
who's making a Diesel hybrid? The French. http://www.autoblog.com/2006/01/31/psa-peugeot-citroen-unveils-diesel-hybrid-technology/ There is a (needless) conflict between air pollution rules and fuel efficiency with hybrids. Two problems: 1) US diesel has had significant sulfur (contributes to smog) for a long time because refineries didn't want to clean up to the standards that Europe has. That is now over and finally low-sulfur Diesel is coming to the US, years too late. 2) regulatory. The newest Diesels in Europe have a urea bottle which sprays a chemical to reduce pollution. The "problem" is that the current US smog regulations require that cars typically maintain their smog-lowering capabilities for 100k miles without maintenance, and having to put in more urea (maybe 30k miles?) automatically violates this. This is just plain dumb, of course. In Europe, the top of the lines, including BMW and Mercedes, are turbo-diesels. Europeans don't value "neck-snapping acceleration" as much as apparently is so in US (though modern cars are all plenty quick enough), where Diesels are at a disadvantage versus spark ignition. But they do deliver great "real-world" sensation of pickup because of the great torque. Also people's notions of a proper size vehicle for ordinary use is totally skewed here. Trucks are for hauling cargo, not babies.