Rob: I think you are right on target with your comments. I have not followed all of the previous discussion but on cars I would like to add my two cents.
I replaced my Chevy Trailblazer and VW Passat last year with a Ford Escape Hybrid(current Mpg avg is 31.2mpg after 7000miles) and a Prius(45.2mpg). When gas was up I was tickled now it is down I am still tickled because performance is great and of course there is the global warming thing. I bought the Escape on Ebay from a dealer and the Prius on Craigslist from a dealer I got good prices that I do not regret. Battery technology is moving very fast as is ultracapacitor technology which has the advantage of rapid recharging over batteries. And much of that technology is the product of good old USA innovation and creativity. The problem is that for most of the last 10 years all new battery plants have been built overseas with the great majority going to China. China gave good incentives to get those plants because they have a problem and they know it. both environment and access to petroleum. China has mandated that all vehicle manufactured after 2012 must be electric and that battery manufacturers must supply domestic demand before they can export product. If we do not get on the stick and start building our own manufacturing base we will find ourselves in the predicament of choosing our poison, Chinese batteries or foreign oil, who do we want to send our money to? The price of petroleum among many other things has been manipulated to milk as much money out of our pockets as possible. At $150/barrel even offshore drilling began to look feasible so we saw a rush to get the leases out even though there were many millions of acres already under lease and not explored. Do you think it was because the present administration's Dept. of Commerce wanted to control who got the leases? Who knows but there were many of us watching this on the internet and as we all saw the Commerce lease office was brought to heal. Oil prices started down very quickly though it seemed to be in conjunction with the economic melt down of Wall Street one has to wonder. We have got to stop thinking in terms of present day costs and start thinking longer term. Corporations have been so under the microscope on quarterly earnings that they tend to let the long term planning slide. The laissez faire attitude of government towards the economy trusted that corporations would do the long term planning. We are now reaping the results. I do not necessarily think that is was just greed. I think it was a combination of our own short term focus on quarterly profits and the rock star like status we assigned to people who could generate cash without looking at or understanding how those profits were obtained and what the long term effects would be. We have to build a sustainable economy that is environmentally friendly, that is self reliant and allows us to retain capital in this country. May we all have a good year! Chris Frandsen On Jan 7, 2009, at 6:29 PM, xponentrob wrote: > For exactly the same reasons people bought hybrids before gas prices > started > rising so much last year. > (BTW the Tesla gets 244 miles between charges with the new > transmission) All > car dealers are experiencing a slump ATM, in large part due to a > lack of > available credit, so I think some fudging of expectation is allowed. > So, after the economy starts moving towards something like a new > normalcy, > I'm thinking we will see some increases on gas taxes as a means to > limit > fuel usage (a small shunt on CO2 emissions?) and decrease national > indebtedness. In the meantime competition should improve the > abilities of > BEVs (batteries too) and the more golfcart-like models will become > unremembered history. > > > >> >> >> As soon as a 100-mile- >>> range battery powered car is available, there are plenty of people >>> who >>> would much rather charge their cars overnight (on off-peak >>> electrical >>> power, at home) and get the energy equivalent of 150 mpg (even >>> counting the overall 70% charge efficiency of the battery system) >>> for >>> the daily commute. Enough that even one production generation will >>> bring the concept close enough to maturity for them to displace >>> gasoline-powered vehicles. >> >> They are available, they are much more expensive than ICE based >> cars, and >> they are selling only in small numbers to those with _a lot_ of >> discretionary income. >> > http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/active-wheel-affordable-electric-car.php?daylife=1 > > This is the kind of vehicle I expect to become common as an example > of a > BEV. No drive train, a waste of mass and energy, and a lot of > electronic > control. The car of the future should be much more like the Eliica > than the > Tesla. (Except pleasing to look at like the Tesla as opposed to the > Eliica.) > > > xponent > Written In Haste, Apologies Maru > rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
