So what's everyone think

[millyowner]

Communication is beginning to shift away from copper, but the national power grid probably won't be going anywhere for at least 50 years or so. Eventually, the grid will be phased out as individual homes and businesses move toward private energy (probably in the form of hydrogen fuel cell generators for every home) but that's years away considering fuel cell generators currently cost as much as a house themselves and hydrogen *still* isn't quite as easy to come by as it should be.

The government has sunk billions into securing oil interests that are at best fleeting. You've got to wonder where we would be now had they instead focused all that money and attention to hydrogen generation technologies. Sadly, we'd probably be driving around in hydrogen powered cars paying the equivalent of 50 cents a gallon, fuel cells in every home, not in a war, fewer people pissed off at us; all because we have all the energy we need.

Recent US foreign policy made the global climate right for other countries to try nuclear testing. We did it to ourselves because of our addiction for huge, modern amounts of energy while we couldn't be bothered modernizing our energy infrastructure.

[Tha Arsonist]

**** right, and private energy generation sounds like Mozart to my ears as of now.

However, consider the fact that the same people who run the national power grid and the huge power corporations (like Enron) are people with ties to the government, if not the government themselves. For them to spend time and money on research that's eventually gonna run them out of business is suicidal.

Unless they start companies that will come and install solar panels and hydrogen cell generators in your home for you.

[millyowner]

Unfortunately there are areas in technology that would make lots of money and benefit everyone eventually, but the financial return in research is initially too low to have the private sector be interested in it. The private sector likes quick returns on investments. Technology that needs 20 years of research before making significant advances needs the aid of government funding and research.

Fiscal Republicanism usually tends to cut such government research projects in the belief that the private sector would tackle a particular project if it were of any real importance. This is why you see most alternative energy technologies languishing despite years of (little) research.

[Tha Arsonist]

I think most technology of ecological forms of generation of power just needs to be polished, not remade. That doesn't take much money to get done. For example, Holland has been using windmills to produce green energy for many years, and Japan has been using those underwater turbines that generate power from sea currents. That said, the government has been wanting to use this methods for many years, but under some reason, it just doesn't happen or happens faintly. My best guess is because if they did that, some nuclear power plant CEO who's brother is a senator would be pretty much angry.

[Skiusa2005]

I'm going to move this thread to the "political science" section...continue posting please!

[millyowner]

You know, we hear about alternative forms of energy that other parts of the world use and assume that it will work for us. For example, Brazil may have made themselves energy independant by converting sugar cane to fuel, and it sounds like a great idea for us too, but it's something that only works for Brazil. Such a small area of that country is populated which means they can fill the rest of the empty space with sugar plantations.

Here in the US, the answer would appear to be E85 ethanol made using corn stock. So many polititans have clung on to the E85 bandwagon not realizing the terrible downsides. But, it's popular with the farming states (i.e. midwest and south), so that's why so many politicians have recently jumped on the E85 bandwagon even though it seems to be against their business interests. E85 is not about the environment or energy independance, it about votes. Also, the demand for E85 far outstrips the supply, growing corn isn't as ecologically sound as many would have you to believe, special interests and politics involving US farms and the auto industry further taint the E85 landscape. E85 is at best a stop-gap measure and at worst a fad. E85 even has the potential to worsen world hunger by increasing the cost of agriculture across the board.

E85 helps us a little bit and screws everyone else...sounds just like your average American foreign policy to me.

Where is North Korea in all this? Weapons of mass destruction used to be about defending territory. The landscape has changed. Now it's about defending energy.

[ltd-landau@hotmail.com]

Hi to everybody, Alcool in Brazil was a great idea to includ the poor side of the brasilians in economy, after that they see that was very good to all sides, very low polution, oil from engine have 2 more time of live, and mostly a engine how have 100hp with gasoline, just changing the fuel can make instantaneos 15 hp more, ofcourse this engine have 30% more consumption os fuel, but, to produce 1 litre of gasoline you can make 3 of alcool.

99% of artisan turbo engines make the alcool the new fuel of car, its a fisical conseption, the Alcool have more resistance to explosion, and works much more cold.

[millyowner]

E85 and other fuels like it have less energy than gasoline, so fuel efficiency (or power output) drops considerably when using it. However, unlike gasoline, its anti-knock or octane rating is in the 100s instead of in the high 80s to low 90s, which is very good for high-compression engines or forced induction allowing for greater ignition timing advance.

E85 is bad and evil (when made from corn). Now, E85 made from switchgrass is much less harmful on the environment. It can be grown in topsoil that's unsuitable for corn growing, it requires no tilling or pesticides, which destroys the organic balance of the soil, increases topsoil erosion, and contaminates ground water. The stuff even grows in climate extremes that would kill off a corn crop in no time. Corn requires too much as far as resources and time to use it as a fuel. We might as well build cars that burn Fabergè eggs and Louis Vuitton handbags because once America has finished plundering our greatest natural resource (our rich growing soil in the midwest), we'll be relying on food imports from China to keep us from going hungry.