Oil and Alternative Energy Sources

With recent events in the United States, such as the proposed oil drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge and the war on Iraq, it seems to me that the US is spending far to much money on oil when we really need to focus on alternative energy sources. After all, oil will run out eventually, and we will need another way to power our cars. All this makes me believe Bush really doesnt care about our country, since he is only trying to obtain goals that can be reached right now, while he ignores problems of the future, like the need for alternative energy. Agree with me? Discuss

All I can say is....

No shit sherlock, Bush remains a moronic leader. 😛

If someone was smart enough to find a cheaper and more abundant energy source that can replace oil then the world be a MUCH better place.

Go into chemical engineering, people!

Originally posted by MC Mike
All I can say is....

No shit sherlock, Bush remains a moronic leader. 😛

Nuclear energy.

It's clean, (Just watchout for a meltdown..) and it won't break the bank. (Unlike say, solar power technology..)

Hey, Russia did it.

Didn't they have Cherobynl though...?

Im mainly talking about energy for automobiles, since that is where we are having rising gas prices. Not to mention gas isnt a renewable resource.

Originally posted by RedAlertv2
Im mainly talking about energy for automobiles, since that is where we are having rising gas prices. Not to mention gas isnt a renewable resource.

I have a bike. As a matter of fact, Im not even old enough to have a drivers liscence, and therefore have never driven a car in my life and I ride my bike everwhere. That doesnt mean I shouldnt be concerned about someting that might affect me in the future. Stop being an ignorant moron and making stupid thoughtless posts on my thread. First you tell me to use nuclear energy in my car, then you tell that we should ditch cars alltogether and start riding bikes everywhere. Very intelligent

....

Take the bus.

There are a growing of hybrid cars on the market, and it is possible to convert a car yourself to electricity and or electricity+gas. Of course at the moment the higher end ones can be more expensive the a new fuel based vehicle. However one must remember that a great deal of money would then be saved by not having to buy any gas, or at least not as much.

But then it's hard to imagine a future where oil wont be dominant, considering then other then weapons it is the most lucrative industry in the world, and that the most powerful people are often supplied with a large amount of oil money. It's not an attack on any particular group (ahh...) but it is fact. Dirty industries are going to continue as long as they are the strongholds of the wealthy and powerful.

where to start

electric cars and current technology

a current fossil fuel power station (coal,oil or gas burining) are only 30% efficient where as a car is about 80% efficient

this means that to generate enough electricity to charge up the same number of electric cars as there are currently internal combustion engine cars would mean that we would have to burn far more fossil fuels than cars currently do...making us need more...not less fossil fuels

i guess we have to exclude nuclear power on the basis that the people generally dont like and dont want nuclear energy

so what does it leave us with

wind power?

gigantic wind turbines all across america...can you picture the grand canyon with a few thousand of these all over it?

solar power?

expensive, inefficient and you would probably have to cover every buiilding in your country as well as most of the desert in order to generate enough electricity

the best viable option is tidal power

build gates across the largest estuaries in the country....when the tide is at its highest...close the gates and let the water out through holes where water powered turbines are situated...the water turn the turbines and generates electricity

the only problem with this is that the tide only comes in and out twice a day...so for long spells there is no electricity being generated

Originally posted by Big Evil
Nuclear energy.

It's clean, (Just watchout for a meltdown..) and it won't break the bank. (Unlike say, solar power technology..)

Hey, Russia did it.

nuclear=awful

to quote dennis miller
"i dont want to be in a mall parking lot with a thousand mini hindenburgs"

I personally love the idea of hybrid cars, but they are so ugly. The government needs to work on the mass production of attractive, affordable, alternative energy powered cars. I would much rather drive a hybrid, but theyre so damn expensive. But I guess I would be saving money in the long run, so we'll see.

they should work on making cars powered by like water, or shit or something....

you know stuff we'd never run out of.

I understand that at the moment we do not have the technology to efficiently run cars on alternative energies. What I'm saying is that the governemtn needs to spend more money on research, and lesson getting oil

Ethynol sounds cool. Gives the corn farmers work. cowboy
Also if people would stop buying gas guggling vehicles...
*cough*$U\/*cough*

Originally posted by RedAlertv2
With recent events in the United States, such as the proposed oil drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge and the war on Iraq, it seems to me that the US is spending far to much money on oil when we really need to focus on alternative energy sources. After all, oil will run out eventually, and we will need another way to power our cars. All this makes me believe Bush really doesnt care about our country, since he is only trying to obtain goals that can be reached right now, while he ignores problems of the future, like the need for alternative energy. Agree with me? Discuss

Uhh..yeaah...please tell me you just did not just start to realize this. The fact of the matter is that Bush has made it clear that his agenda is to assist 'his' people..who are represented by "Big Business" and the wealthy.

The American Energy Industry falls into this category. When you think about it, why in the world would they want to make a car/house/appliance etc that could run exclusively off of water or solar power? The technology to do this obviously exists, however, a vehicle/house/appliance that was able to run off of these FREE natural non-polluting energy sources would put the the Energy Industries out of business.

To be quite blunt about it...no alternative forms of energy will be seriously looked into at this time until the American "Big Business" Energy Industry is able to make the American people dependent on THEM..to provide these alternative sources.

There are cars (in brazil among other countries) which use a form of alcohol made from "suikerriet" -Dunno the english translation- And quite a few other engines exist too, When oil runs out (or becomes to expensive to fule cars) tons of other engins will pop up.

The real problem is all the other materials which we get from crude oil.

Originally posted by Curl_Up&Dye
"i dont want to be in a mall parking lot with a thousand mini hindenburgs"

i guess denis miller feels that gasoline tanks are in no way explosive?
😕

all fuel sources have a deadly potential. even hybrid cars have a high risk of electrocution (not a shock and an "ouch", the voltage is high enough to zap your ass dead in seconds). so i guess a hybrid would be your own personal electric chair if hit bad enough.

there are always risks.

😊 im doing an essay on solar power at the moment.

nuclear power = 😱

As for cars...I guess Hydrogen would be nice...but actually nuclear power could become reasonable so metime too