An Inconvenient Truth & Who Killed the Electric Car - Beyond Tiki

RG Rev. Griz Member Distant Shores of the Great Salt Lake Joined: Jun 22, 2006 Posts: 75	RG Rev. Griz Posted posted on Thu, Jul 20, 2006 8:37 AM On 2006-07-19 19:13, lucas vigor wrote: That is absolutely, 100% correct. If they wanted these things to work well, they would make it so. We have the technology. The fact is, there is one major group of people who don't want it to happen, and that is the oil companies and everyone connected with them. I doubt the oil industry is wasting too much worry on electric cars. They are a marketing tool for Detroit really, nothing more. They cost more to buy, they cost more to own, they cost more to fix, and they are an illusion anyway. Sure they run on nice clean electricity, but where do we all think that electricity comes from? Something like 80% of it comes from power plants that burn fossil fuels (that figure's from memory, could be wrong). Given the lesser efficiency of generating electricity by burning fossil fuels, if everyone started driving electric cars tomorrow, the oil companies sales would probably skyrocket. Hydrogen is even worse, that comes from gas made using electricity generated by burning fossil fuels. Biofuels and ethanol are worse yet. Go to the store and look at the price of vegetable oil per gallon. More than gas. Go to the liquor store and look at the price of ethanol per gallon. WAY more than gas. Both of those fuels are less efficient than gasoline to burn (although ethanol pollutes less). What's a gallon of hydrogen cost? Got me. I don't really think there's any great conspiracy to suppress alternative energy sources, it's simply a matter of economics. No matter how dedicated the individual consumer thinks they are to the environment they are a slave to the cheapest and most efficient energy source. Petroleum products have the greatest energy yield per dollar spent on production, and as long as that's true no business is going to invest money in a losing proposition and no consumer is going to spend very much more money in a way that really makes a difference. What's better than petroleum for cheap energy? Nuclear. Yeah, that'll go over. We could get more cheap electricity by damming more rivers. I don't think so. The laws of thermodynamics govern this issue: you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game.

On 2006-07-19 19:13, lucas vigor wrote:
That is absolutely, 100% correct. If they wanted these things to work well, they would make it so. We have the technology. The fact is, there is one major group of people who don't want it to happen, and that is the oil companies and everyone connected with them.

I doubt the oil industry is wasting too much worry on electric cars. They are a marketing tool for Detroit really, nothing more. They cost more to buy, they cost more to own, they cost more to fix, and they are an illusion anyway. Sure they run on nice clean electricity, but where do we all think that electricity comes from? Something like 80% of it comes from power plants that burn fossil fuels (that figure's from memory, could be wrong). Given the lesser efficiency of generating electricity by burning fossil fuels, if everyone started driving electric cars tomorrow, the oil companies sales would probably skyrocket. Hydrogen is even worse, that comes from gas made using electricity generated by burning fossil fuels. Biofuels and ethanol are worse yet. Go to the store and look at the price of vegetable oil per gallon. More than gas. Go to the liquor store and look at the price of ethanol per gallon. WAY more than gas. Both of those fuels are less efficient than gasoline to burn (although ethanol pollutes less). What's a gallon of hydrogen cost? Got me.

I don't really think there's any great conspiracy to suppress alternative energy sources, it's simply a matter of economics. No matter how dedicated the individual consumer thinks they are to the environment they are a slave to the cheapest and most efficient energy source. Petroleum products have the greatest energy yield per dollar spent on production, and as long as that's true no business is going to invest money in a losing proposition and no consumer is going to spend very much more money in a way that really makes a difference.

What's better than petroleum for cheap energy? Nuclear. Yeah, that'll go over. We could get more cheap electricity by damming more rivers. I don't think so. The laws of thermodynamics govern this issue: you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game.

Post #244080 by Rev. Griz on Thu, Jul 20, 2006 8:37 AM