Posted on 12/18/2006 9:10:18 AM PST by Red Badger
Are their coal deposits left that the greens and Democrats haven't made off limits?
Yes, there are many. And they want those shut down.....
Let me direct you to the "Prime Farmlands" provisions of the Federal surface mining law (signed by Jimmah Cahtah.) Also see "Alluvial Valley Floors" provisions. The answer is yes.
I'm all in favor a the "full-bore fission economy", but let's be real, here. Nuclear power was MASSIVELY "sustained by taxpayer subsidies" for a LONG time.
I think that doing the equivalent for a cheap, efficient, thin-film solar cell is a "good thing".
Physically, not too hard. But the government red tape and environmentalist rules make it almost impossible especially in undisturbed areas. They would rather blame the oil companies for high prices than solve the problem (except yelling "conservation").
whew..thanx dor the xplanation...
Now what do I do with these three truck loads of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer ?
Everything is cheaper when produced with slave labor, and without environmental regs!
Turn them into diesel fuel...........you wouldn't have much trouble...........
I've got a few in my fridge. Think I'll crack one open.
Careful you don't spill any of the Polonium 210 on you........
Watch for the envirowhackos to sue, sue, sue, because it uses icky, dirty coal...
yeah, why did some idiot invent the internal combustion engine when we had steam engines? And don't get me started on those atuomobiles! What was wrong with plain old horse power....! [sarc]
you are definitely too cynical: Shell is one of the largest alternative energy providers and has plenty of proprietory technology in this area.
With rhat line of thought, we shouldn't use cotten because it was picked by slaves..........
Or, as Eli Whitney said, "Keep your cotton picking hands off my gin!".
Actually, the labour costs are only really involved in the construction of the plant, which is relatively low in labour costs because most of it is automated, so CTL costs about the same anywhere, unless your coal is particularly high in sulphur content (and therefore more expensive to process).
The other factors that will effect the production cost is having to ship the coal to a plant somewhere else for processing, whereas the Chinese are building their CTL plants virtually on top of the feedstock (ie, the mines), and it is cheaper to ship the liquified fuel than the huge amounts of coal needed for processing.
Since most coal in the US is mined in areas far from existing refining capacity, you will need to persuade any investor in a CTL refinery that you can deliver the fuel products to market without added huge infrastructure costs (line additional rail lines, roads, etc) when the existing pipeline network isn't counted as a cost against mineral oil sources.
The other factor is the price of coal - which is being used more and more for power generation (see ExtremeExtremist's arguement in favour of nuclear technology as a power source), it hikes the price, which impacts the cost of CTL fuels.
I'm not believing this until Volvo makes a car that runs on this stuff....
/sarc
Damn straight. I'll have my Congresscritter Dan Lungren introduce a bill to outlaw phase conversion and energy conversion and leave things the way they are.
Rubber - ought be liquid like it comes right out of the tree ... hey - no more tires or at least a much smoother ride!
Bourbon - leave it like a gas the way it come (not comes, mind you!!) out of the still ... hey no more Saturday nites!
Let's get a new engine that burns fuel like a man would - liquid! None of them sissy intermediate stages like gasification an' mixing with air an' stuff.
Do it the ol' way so we can say: "that blowed up real good!!"
Sorry coloradan to go on this way but I'm assumin' you're on this parody trail - as we know - a trail with no end ...
Mobil Oil is the largest owner of solar panel technologies. If you want to build a solar panel, you will have to buy components from companies owned by Mobil or from companies who pay Mobil licensing fees to sell it...since Mobil bought up all the patents and such many years ago. They now sit on this and other technologies until such time as it economically benefits them to do otherwise.
This is more the type of thing I was alluding to.
The market for oil being what it is, it makes good business sense for companies to do this but given the current state of energy supplies and consuption it still seems a bit crass for them to do so.
Even if this were true, remember that a patent is valid for only 17 years.
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