How will we survive $15 gas??

[dolfan]

The key is OIL and lots of it.

Yup. That's why I'm skeptical about these alternative hopes. If there were a viable alternative, we'd already be using it. I'm all for developing them, researching them, putting them out on the market. But, they are not the answer because they are not yet viable. Meanwhile, oil and gas prices are out of control. Hard reality is that we're not going to conserve our way to prosperity, and we can't afford what we've created without more oil from our own soil. So, EITHER we declare a national emergency and drill here and keep it here and we forge another way of life to cope with the consequences, OR we keep doing what we're doing and we are forced into another way of life that is dictated by the consequences. I see absolutely zero evidence that we'll do anything different until we're forced to do it, and that is almost always the wrong thing and the worse thing.

[paul]

I really think this has caused America as a nation to force the Automotive industry into real viable electric automobiles. You can already buy a completely electric vehicle that looks like a real car and go 30-40 miles on a charge. It is modified to limit speed to 25 but you can fix that and it would go 30 -35 mph. ZENN

Right now, you can go buy a Prius hybrid and pay someone about $12,000 dollars and they will turn it into a plug-in hybrid to fully charge the batteries (and they add more batteries). For city driving, you run on electric option completely and then on the road when the batteries run out you switch to hybrid. At $10/gallon. It would be worth $37,000 to reduce your dependance on gas to very minumum. Shoot, according to FQ, He would make that up in about 1 year verses buying gas.

If Gas prices stay up and continue to rise, If Ford,GM,Toyota,Nissan,Honda doesn't Mom and Pop will and we will be running more on electricity. ZENN is supposed to have a new electric car coming out late next year that will go about 250 miles on a charge and get up to about 75 mph. And be rechargable in minutes not hours. we'll see.... I know, but it is coming. If I had a completely city commute, I would have a ZENN today.

Daryl

Recently on a flight returning from London, I read a very interesting article concerning eletrical cars, and bio-fuel. In the article it was comparing usage of oil for present cars, and the fossil fuel needed ( especially in America) to produce added eletrical demands to charge the cars and create material for the batteries. It was not a win situation for the electric car.

Also on bio-fuel, the loss of each acre of food producing land converted for fuel. The loss of that food, which is exported to poorer countries cause additional destruction of amazon forest to create alternative foods.

It was a complicated article with no clear answers. One of the few alternatives that became clear was that of Necular energy. We have not had ( I think if memory serves me right) any additional N/P plants come on line for more than 30 years. While other european countries are turning to them as their source.

But bottom line is that "He has not given us a Spirit of Fear."

[dolfan]

I was watching C-SPAN a couple of nights ago, and saw a congressman with a pie chart showing that 8.something percent of American energy is nuclear. That's not much in comparison with, say, France, at about 75-80%.

We need more nuclear plants, which if we started today would take years to complete, to generate electricity that coal now generates (most of our electricity is coal-generated). Hydro electric power, I think the chart showed, is about 25% of our electrical energy source. Maybe we need TVA's all over the nation? I don't know. More big government programs. I don't want that, either.

[EagerBeaver]

I think we should all buy stock in some big oil companies.

When Big Oil's profit goes up, so does yours!

[pastorables]

http://stop.s465.sureserver.com/

This is a thought provoking video. Any subliminal messages?