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Gentlemen, Start Your Plug-Ins: How does 500 miles a gallon sound to you?
WSJ ^ | 1/1/2007 | R. JAMES WOOLSEY

Posted on 01/01/2007 10:44:24 AM PST by Uncledave

An oil and security task force of the Council on Foreign Relations recently opined that "the voices that espouse 'energy independence' are doing the nation a disservice by focusing on a goal that is unachievable over the foreseeable future." Others have also said, essentially, that other nations will control our transportation fuel--get used to it. Yet House Democrats have announced a push for "energy independence in 10 years," and in November General Motors joined Toyota and perhaps other auto makers in a race to produce plug-in hybrid vehicles, hugely reducing the demand for oil. Who's right--those who drive toward independence or those who shrug?

Bet on major progress toward independence, spurred by market forces and a portfolio of rapidly developing oil-replacing technologies.

snip

All this is likely to change decisively, because electricity is about to become a major partner with alternative liquid fuels in replacing oil.

snip

Utilities are rapidly becoming quite interested in plug-ins because of the substantial benefit to them of being able to sell off-peak power at night. Because off-peak nighttime charging uses unutilized capacity, DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory estimates that adopting plug-ins will not create a need for new base load electricity generation plants until plug-ins constitute over 84% of the country's 220 million passenger vehicles.

snip

Once plug-ins start appearing in showrooms it is not only consumers and utility shareholders who will be smiling. If cheap off-peak electricity supplies a portion of our transportation needs, this will help insulate alternative liquid fuels from OPEC market manipulation designed to cripple oil's competitors.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: energy; transportation
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To: UNGN

The cost of overnight electricity from wind energy isn't hype -- it's easy for a producer to calculate. We know what a wind turbine costs and how much power it can generate at a given hour.

As far as making a cost-competitive electric vehicle, well sure, that's another story. But I welcome the developments.


21 posted on 01/01/2007 11:13:12 AM PST by Uncledave
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To: NormsRevenge

How's this going to work during rolling black outs?


22 posted on 01/01/2007 11:13:31 AM PST by onyx (Phillip Rivers, LT and the San Diego Chargers! WOO-HOO!)
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To: Uncledave

Uhm, what will be the source for the electric power?


23 posted on 01/01/2007 11:15:06 AM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: Uncledave

But DAVE.....

Where does Electricity come from?


24 posted on 01/01/2007 11:16:06 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP (Maynerd Blazejewsi for President '08! (The third party choice))
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To: Uncledave
Because wind energy isn't reliable, they use it for peaking during the day.

At night, there is no need for peaking, so there is excess wind electricity.

The wind isn't stronger at night in Texas.

25 posted on 01/01/2007 11:19:32 AM PST by UNGN (I've been here since '98 but had nothing to say until now)
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To: Uncledave
as there would be a larger market for overnight power

Sounds like the electricity company needs to figure out how to STORE electricity.

26 posted on 01/01/2007 11:19:53 AM PST by Centurion2000 (Not one of those seasonal Festivians. I practice the Airing of Grievances daily. Often on this site.)
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To: onyx

How's this going to work during rolling black outs?

--

Ya seen or heard about those hand cranked emergency radios? Maybe they can cook something up like that, ya can have granny or passengers crank while gramps drives:-)


27 posted on 01/01/2007 11:21:07 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ......)
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To: NormsRevenge


LOL-LOL-LOL

Happy New Year Norm.


28 posted on 01/01/2007 11:22:20 AM PST by onyx (Phillip Rivers, LT and the San Diego Chargers! WOO-HOO!)
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To: Uncledave
So many of the counter-arguments on this thread - "Do I have to buy two electric cars when I run out of juice in the first" etc. - are answered by the simple formula: the car will still run on gasoline if the batteries are exhausted. You'll just have to fill up more often - much more often. Is that so tough to understand?

Ok, next question.

29 posted on 01/01/2007 11:22:24 AM PST by KellyAdmirer
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To: Uncledave

My car stays parked on the street. How would I plug it in? First time someone trips over the extension cord I'd get sued. This will never be very practical for me.


30 posted on 01/01/2007 11:23:02 AM PST by shorty_harris
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

Not sure what you're getting at.


31 posted on 01/01/2007 11:27:02 AM PST by Uncledave
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To: NormsRevenge

32 posted on 01/01/2007 11:28:01 AM PST by BIGLOOK (Keelhauling is a sensible solution to mutiny.)
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To: UNGN

Nationwide, on-average, the wind is steadier at night. But the point is, that this potential energy would have a market with plug-ins. And it would most certainly improve the economics for wind energy.


33 posted on 01/01/2007 11:28:44 AM PST by Uncledave
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To: ErnBatavia

good call...most don't know that when a bettery dies in the winter, it's usually because it took a beating during the summer


34 posted on 01/01/2007 11:30:54 AM PST by stylin19a ("Klaatu Barada Nikto")
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To: Uncledave

True. But the bigger problem with a plug-in vehicle is that the cost of the electricity required to recharge the battery may exceed the cost of buying enough gasoline to propel the vehicle a comparable distance.


35 posted on 01/01/2007 11:31:10 AM PST by Alberta's Child (Can money pay for all the days I lived awake but half asleep?)
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To: Uncledave
If these new/alternative sources of energy come to fruition it may lower our dependence on oil, but it will not lower our dependence on foreign oil.

The oil producers hurt first will be the domestic producers whose costs are much higher than foreign producers.

36 posted on 01/01/2007 11:31:20 AM PST by Ben Ficklin
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To: Uncledave
It takes baby steps to get where we'd like to be. I'm sitting here typing on a small Macbook with more computing power than acres of mainframes from 50 years ago.

Unlike the technology of computers, the physics of propelling a vehicle haven't changed in last 50 years.

The power needed to propel one MD-80 with 110 passengers on board is 60 Megawatts, enough to completely power a town of 50,000 people.

A electric car has similar eye popping electricity requirement, when compared to your Lights, TV and even your A/C in the summer.

37 posted on 01/01/2007 11:31:32 AM PST by UNGN (I've been here since '98 but had nothing to say until now)
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To: UNGN
That's is the kind of hype marketeers spew and not the engineers that actually have to make it work.

Right. Ten bucks says this Woolsey guy is a paid shill for a company that manufactures these batteries.

38 posted on 01/01/2007 11:33:06 AM PST by Alberta's Child (Can money pay for all the days I lived awake but half asleep?)
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To: Gunny Gene
One word; Horses.

Two words: Horse Sh#t

Do a little reading on turn of the century New York or London and the joys of Horse crap eveywhere....
39 posted on 01/01/2007 11:33:14 AM PST by Kozak (Anti Shahada: " There is no God named Allah, and Muhammed is his False Prophet")
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To: Uncledave

Plug-ins = coal powered.


40 posted on 01/01/2007 11:34:39 AM PST by theBuckwheat
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