The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Dearest America, ETHANOL THREAD
Jimmy
__BANNED USERS regular
__BANNED USERS regular
Why haven't we bought into Ethanol yet? Do we not see all the perks, with the very limited downsides? Please understand, we have everything we need to make this work. An america ran via ethanol becomes free of the hands of OPEC and the $100 a barrel oil. Gas prices go down, with the exporting of the ethanol our economy will go up, its better for the environment. I just....dont...understand. Please, explain to me my dearest america, why havent we told the oil barons to fuck off?
Yours Truely,
A perplexed American
Yours Truely,
A perplexed American
Jimmy on
0
Posts
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Hydrogen. The only company to even be ready or close is the only independent automobile maker in the world. Honda is a close second. American car companies? What a joke. Ford is at least a decade away. I hope they all go bankrupt.
Shogun Streams Vidya
It is stored as a liquid. Sort of like the gas we use now. Also do you realize the cost of re-doing our entire highway infrastructure for electric highways? And don't even get me started about the money and resources wasted on highways and interstates to begin with. We could all be traveling on super-efficient trains that go 200MPH but then truckers would be out of jobs.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
They got corrupted from the very start. Built with slaves and then ultimately abandoned. The trucking industry got ahold of congress half a century ago and we've payed for it ever since. Trains in this country are a joke, a lot like everything else.
Man I'm making myself depressed.
edit: I was just stating that in the case of hydrogen powering cars the hydrogen is stored as liquid hydrogen. No it is not similar to ethanol or octane at all. However hydrogen is the most abundant molecule in the universe. The problem is that it usually has all this other shit stuck to it.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Hahahaha, yeah right. Ain't gonna be worth shit in places where there's snowfall.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Or clouds for that matter. That isn't to say I don't support solar power because I do. Hopefully within the next 5 years the government will get off their asses and start subsidizing solar panels. Advancements within the last 7 years have made leaps and bounds in this industry and I'm hoping (really really hoping) that within that same 5 year time period it will become economical for Americans to start putting them all over their homes and businesses.
Shogun Streams Vidya
That electricity is still generated predominantly with fossil fuels. Unfortunately so is hydrogen. For now. But the point of this whole thread is that ethanol is the biggest waste of time and resources in terms of getting us off our 'addiction to oil.' It is a very shitty bandaid for a gargantuan problem.
Shogun Streams Vidya
That does not mean it is not viable. If every home in America had solar panels electric bills would plummet. In fact we'd all be getting checks from your respective electric company for putting energy back in the grid. The sun was there yesterday and it will be there tomorrow. If it isn't we have much larger problems on our hands anyway. Ignoring that power is stupid frankly.
Shogun Streams Vidya
But it is not a solution for large-scale usage. Solar and wind are both too inefficient to be used as total replacements, despite what those "green energy" hippies want you to think. Really, we should be building more nuclear power plants, but the fucking green propaganda about them is so ingrained into our culture now that no one will do it.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Nuclear power generates a metric fuck ton of waste. We already have more than we know what to do with and we can only store it. You can't dump it or recycle it. All it can do is sit somewhere safe. A facility is being constructed right now in a giant mountain to store it. It will not be finished until 2017 and we already have more than enough to fill it up. We're close to being able to extract more energy out of the waste though so it won't be quite as bad. It still is not the answer.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Man, we just need a way of storing solar power more effeciently, so we can get past those cloudy days.
Solar panels also take up a lot of space in comparison to how much energy they collect, same as wind generators. But that goes along with what I said before about them being inefficient.
I'm not saying "oh no we shouldn't use solar or wind power at all". It's fine to use them as part of generating power for us, but it is not the solution to our dependency on fossil fuels.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
All I am saying is an increase in solar panel technology as well as a more effecient battery could make it viable.
Computers started out as gigantic monsters that couldn't hold near as much data as a newage small laptop today.
Currently the solar power industry is growing at something like 17% per year. I'm really shooting for that 5 year mass-market penetration. Every home in America with solar panels would do us a lot of good.
Shogun Streams Vidya
I kid, but Americans has always resisted any sort of step towards efficiency in energy if it is going to cost a lot of money or result in a loss of profits. Hell, Detroit was throwing a hissy fit about the fuel economy regulations that were passed recently, and that's to give them like ten years to get to the point that the rest of the world's standards are already at.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I just like to compare solar energy advancement like computer advancement.
Think about how fast computers have evolved. Solar energy is moving just as fast.
I don't see why in 30 years we don't have a solarpanel only a fraction of the size of the ones now, and can hold much more energy.
Well, we could, but that doesn't mean anyone would be using them. That's kind of what my quoted post is saying.
If a presidential candidate had the balls when asked about the "energy crisis" to respond that they would start construction of nuclear power plants, they would get my vote. Assuming they weren't an asshat about the other issues, obviously.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
- Popular Mechanics, 1949
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
"I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processings is a fad that won't last out the year."
- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice-Hall, 1957
"But what...is it good for?"
- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of DEC
I got nothin.
I just think it is the best idea available. Maybe the way we store solar energy needs to be re-evaluated. I believe that there is a better way, if not making an improved source of containment.
Nuclear's not economically feasible here. Also, that sentiment in no way necessitates supporting it.
OP, next time try naming your thread something remotely relevant so I don't have to mess with it, mk?
Seconded. It's a better alternative than ethanol and electric combined. But I thought GM was pushing the tech pretty hard too and thats why they gave up on the electric car?
Australia is probably one of the most viable places for large-scale solar power, what with the huge open deserts and all. :P
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I was speaking theoretically about the solar power.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
electricitylikesme: I think nuclear power doesn't solve the scarcity problem. Currently, nuclear power is very expensive to generate... perhaps that cost will go down with improvements in technology, but for the present, the fact of being more expensive to generate than coal means that... effectively we're still talking about scarcity.