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2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

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Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

IMHO I think the US should pick off some other lower hanging fruit before going after auto fuels.

Simply put, there should be no oil burning energy plants left in the US. This country needs to get its energy from renewables, nuclear, natural gas, and then a small bit from coal as a backup power source just in case. This is unscientific but think 30% renewables (up from about half that today IIRC), 20% nuclear (same as today), 40% nat gas and 10% coal.

Then convert all trucks and buses to compressed natural gas. That should leave the country energy independent with some help from our Canadian friends. Keep driving up car fuel efficiency standards to reduce petroleum consumption. The goal is to become an energy exporter (oil, natural gas) and then stick it to unfriendly countries who's been bugging us all these years. :eek: :D
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Rover said:
IMHO I think the US should pick off some other lower hanging fruit before going after auto fuels.

Simply put, there should be no oil burning energy plants left in the US. This country needs to get its energy from renewables, nuclear, natural gas, and then a small bit from coal as a backup power source just in case. This is unscientific but think 30% renewables (up from about half that today IIRC), 20% nuclear (same as today), 40% nat gas and 10% coal.

Then convert all trucks and buses to compressed natural gas. That should leave the country energy independent with some help from our Canadian friends. Keep driving up car fuel efficiency standards to reduce petroleum consumption. The goal is to become an energy exporter (oil, natural gas) and then stick it to unfriendly countries who's been bugging us all these years. :eek: :D
Click to expand...

I like the idea of moving trucks and buses to CNG first. I think that makes a lot of sense.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

dxmnkd316 said:
I like the idea of moving trucks and buses to CNG first. I think that makes a lot of sense.
Click to expand...


Especially since the technology is already there and widely adopted in certain places. I'd like all cars to run on water or air but that's technology that's not currently in our grasp. Electric cars do have the battery issue as well although I understand that's improving. However switching over the country's trucking fleet is gonna save a ton of fuel.

PS - I looked it up and as of May the US+Canada supply about 75% of the US's oil needs.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Rover said:
Especially since the technology is already there and widely adopted in certain places. I'd like all cars to run on water or air but that's technology that's not currently in our grasp. Electric cars do have the battery issue as well although I understand that's improving. However switching over the country's trucking fleet is gonna save a ton of fuel.

PS - I looked it up and as of May the US+Canada supply about 75% of the US's oil needs.
Click to expand...
As far as I know Batteries are going nowhere at the moment or at least not in any way thats going to become widespread. You have to look at the energy contained in a gallon of gas, it weighs 7 lbs and change, it packs a punch that batteries aren't going to replace anytime soon. Natural gas can do that but you have to places that people can buy it.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Today in Republicanism:

As most of us know Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is on trial for corruption.
Prosecutors are accusing former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, of accepting more than $165,000 in gifts and loans from wealthy businessman Jonnie Williams.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/08/03/bob-mcdonnell-corruption-trial/13484543/
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/0...n-trial-enters-third-week-goverment-witn.html

What's interesting today is Pat Robertson's take on the prosecution of this staunch Republican.



Is Bob McDonnell the latest Religious Right “victim” of President Obama’s purported persecution of conservatives? Today on “The 700 Club,” Pat Robertson and Jay Sekulow did their best to paint the former Republican governor of Virginia as the victim of a “political prosecution,” decrying his corruption trial as a “political witch hunt” spearheaded by Attorney General Eric Holder.

Robertson alleged, without any evidence, that Holder wanted to stop Mitt Romney from tapping McDonnell as his running mate in 2012 and is “behind all of this stuff.”
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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/no-one-spins-conspiracy-theory-tv-preacher-pat-robertson
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Old news down here. The wife appears to be a piece of work. Conviction to the Gov. is going to hinge on whether or not the jury believes that Eve coerced Adam into doing favors for Satan.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

walrus said:
You have to solve the battery issues before that happens, its the same with solar, storage is the issue or I would be off grid.
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Tesla is determined to solve the battery issue. Alternatives will be here not too long after the battery to use it.

Bob Gray said:
Germany has pulled back from alternative energy policies, big time. Their electric rates shot up (not the mention having growing grid reliability problems), the industrials had a fit, and the costs were shifted to residential customers, who pay something like $0.30 per kWh, compared to maybe an average in the U.S. of $0.13 per kWh. If you're touting alternatives, Germany (or Spain, a previous hyped country) isn't a country you want to focus on.
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Hmm not so sure about that. Germany has record alternative output in the first six months...and have gotten in to some serious fights with the EU for supporting green enough. Frankly who would have thought that the EU was not green enough.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Tesla will come close to solving the battery issue but they won't solve it. At least not without some major competition or help. I think they will start the path but the next generation of companies will make the leap.

The technology is just too far off and Gen 1 tech startups are hard to keep alive as long as they will need to solve the battery issue.

My $0.02
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

5mn_Major said:
Tesla is determined to solve the battery issue. Alternatives will be here not too long after the battery to use it.
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I'm not so sure about that - from my understanding (just as outsider as the rest of us), Tesla doesn't really do a ton of fundamental battery research. Musk's initial assumption was that the rest of the tech industry was already solving the "battery issue" quickly enough - he just latches onto the current state of the art laptop battery technology and wraps some decent charge/discharge controllers around them. He's building his own plant to manufacture batteries more cheaply, but the batteries are not really anything special from a technology point of view.

I definitely agree that if someone ever does solve the "battery issue" (which, to my way of thinking means the power density and specific energy storage rival gasoline and there's an economical means for recharging in about the length of time it currently takes to refuel a car), then the applications are virtually endless and will appear virtually overnight.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

5mn_Major said:
Tesla is determined to solve the battery issue. Alternatives will be here not too long after the battery to use it.



Hmm not so sure about that. Germany has record alternative output in the first six months...and have gotten in to some serious fights with the EU for supporting green enough. Frankly who would have thought that the EU was not green enough.
Click to expand...
I doubt Tesla solves the issues. Lithium won't be the answer.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

walrus said:
As far as I know Batteries are going nowhere at the moment or at least not in any way thats going to become widespread. You have to look at the energy contained in a gallon of gas, it weighs 7 lbs and change, it packs a punch that batteries aren't going to replace anytime soon. Natural gas can do that but you have to places that people can buy it.
Click to expand...

Just need to start building CNG refueling stations. Bump up that infrastructure, and CNG powered trucks are a go. The engine technology is advanced enough, easily, with plenty of margin.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Bob Gray said:
Germany has pulled back from alternative energy policies, big time. Their electric rates shot up (not the mention having growing grid reliability problems), the industrials had a fit, and the costs were shifted to residential customers, who pay something like $0.30 per kWh, compared to maybe an average in the U.S. of $0.13 per kWh. If you're touting alternatives, Germany (or Spain, a previous hyped country) isn't a country you want to focus on.
Click to expand...

Much the same in Ontario, except that the Liberal government (that was unbelievably just re-elected to a majority) is going full-speed ahead on wind energy. Electricity prices for residential customers are going through the roof.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

walrus said:
I doubt Tesla solves the issues. Lithium won't be the answer.
Click to expand...

Maybe, maybe not. But they've now got competition. Big time competition. And usually in a situation where its a race...its just a matter of time.

If you can look past the source to the author: Charlie Paglee is the CEO of Brannan Auto, an American automotive component engineering and manufacturing company focused on China, specifically on the electric vehicle industry.

Why Elon Musk is right about batteries being the future of automobiles
A Visit To The China International Battery Fair 2014

China's central government is investing huge resources into the battery industry to make China the world leader of battery technology. China has fostered an ideal environment to nurture start-up battery companies.

http://green.autoblog.com/2014/07/1...ht-about-batteries-being-the-future-of-autom/
 
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