At some point we are going to have to tell the EnviroNuts to sit down and STFU. Drill NOW!
Posted on 05/16/2008 9:14:46 AM PDT by Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh
Battery technology is the real key. Electric motors are already amazingly efficient and give instant torque. Regenerative breaking recharges the batteries and makes the breaks last incredibly long. Advance materials allow the cars to be lighter without sacrificing safety. Everything about extremely efficient, long-lasting electric cars has already been invented and manufactured, except for batteries that give the cars an acceptable range. I hope that Silicon Nanotube batteries take off. The government could give tax breaks and fast-track regulatory hurdles to get the factories started to building them.
Current Li-ion batteries are 600 joules per gram, while gasoline is 47,000 joules per gram. The new silicon nanowire anodes give this a 10x boost to 6,000 joules per gram, but they feed into different technologies. Internal combustion engines are about 20% efficient, while electric motors are 90% efficient. So battery technology only needs to reach 9,400 joules per gram to get the same overall power density. The new tech brings us only 36% from the capability of gasoline, with far less maintenance and much better flexibility.
For years, I marveled that pretty much every light on every floor of my office building stayed on until 11:00 p.m. or midnight, when the security guy usually came around and turned off most of the lights. Most people are gone by 7 or 8 p.m. if not sooner. About two years ago, I noticed that most of the lights started being turned off by the cleaning people between 6 and 7 p.m. I don’t know how much money or energy is actually saved, but it is better than wasting either to fully light empty floors.
Not much, but then what you pay at the pump has a lot less to do with the price the Saudis receive per barrel either. The speculators on the gasoline and oil markets drive the price even more. There is actually more oil being sold than can be refined, even with China bringing up new refineries at an incredible rate. Short supplies of refined products and the speculators drive much of the price.
“What a Great Post” BUMP!
Obviously the people of China and India don’t think that prices are too high.
At some point we are going to have to tell the EnviroNuts to sit down and STFU. Drill NOW!
Well, we might start by asking the Congresscritters why they just voted down drilling in ANWR and the coasts off the shores! Call and write the CONGRESS who just dumped the opportunity to drill in the USA AGAIN!!!! Oh, and many Repubs joined them...........
I would add one thing: When the enviro whackos take things to court, deny their filings/motions/crap based on national security.
The Saudis don’t need to raise production, we need to freakin’ DRILL IN ANWR and ease the foreign oil addiction.
But of course the Dems won’t let us....
LOL! Why should they? We buy their gas. Blackbird.
US President George W. Bush said on Saturday that a hike in oil output by Saudi Arabia would not solve American energy problems. "It's not enough, it's something but it doesn't solve our problem," Bush told reporters in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Bush said he was "pleased" with a Saudi decision taken on May 10 to increase its oil production by 300,000 barrels per day in response to customers, but said that he was "also realistic" about what the Americans should do. "Our problem in America gets solved when we aggressively go for domestic exploration. Our problem in America gets solved if we expand our refining capacity, promote nuclear energy and continue our strategy for the advancing of alternative energies as well as conservation," he said. "One interesting thing about American politics these days is those who are screaming the loudest for increased production from Saudi Arabia are the very same people who are fighting the fiercest against domestic exploration, against the development of nuclear power and against expanding refining capacity."
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