Hey, energy news bullets: * I heard that in Iceland, they have an abundance of geo-thermal and hydro-electric power so their future is very different: They are going to use these fuel sources to power portable fuel cells (essentially a hydrogen/oxygen battery) to run "cars". Viola! No fossil fuels. The catch: There are very few people there to use the abundant natural energy sources. Iceland is blessed. * Honda is "selling" an electric car. I have never, ever seen one on the street but it's a glimmer of the future. (But then I remember in 1972 when we were all told that a conversion to "The Metric System" was imminent in the US. Funny thing was- there's was no financial incentive to design a 4 liter milk bottle to replace the gallon ones, buy new tooling to mold a metric design, redesign new milk crates to hold the 'better' metric design, etc.) * NASA recently put up a huge, huge solar array for the new International Space Station. The array consists of , "almost an acre of solar panels". (http://www.shuttlepresskit.com/ISS_OVR/index.htm ) This is good news because it means that someone just paid for a lot of research into solar cells. (Let's just hope that the Russians contributed manpower and not computers to the new venture.) * Three counties in Northern Kentucky are performing mandatory tailpipe testing now. My 12 year old Volvo passed on Wednesday. The Feds try to implement tailpipe testing in areas with "dirty" air. It turns out that the "bad guys" are uhm.... people who have access to bulk fuel bought for farming. (Those 30 year old tractors run on leaded fuel.) The incentive is that the farm fuel is cheap, cheap, cheap because farmers don't pay road-use taxes. So the un-scrupulous punch the filler neck restrictor into their gas tank and pump in leaded, tractor fuel. Since airborne lead causes cancer, the Feds would prefer that it's not used for cars. Tailpipe testing catches these modified filler necks and forces users to mend their ways. The future is uncertain though because typically, in the Midwest, the populace doesn't want tailpipe testing. <sarcasm> It costs $20 / year and who wants an "extra" cost? Let someone ELSE clean up the air, right? Amazingly though, we LOVE to tax ourselves to buy new football and baseball stadiums for the exclusive use of privately-held entertainment franchises. </sarcasm> Anyway, apologies if this is old news to everyone. Peace, Lama
