Posted on 06/22/2008 12:17:23 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Remember methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), the green gasoline additive that was supposed to save the planet but was an environmental, public-health and economic disaster?
Remember ethanol, the green gasoline additive that replaced MTBE and was supposed to save the planet but has been an environmental, public-health and economic disaster?
Well, now Gang Green is pushing the hybrid vehicle. The jury remains out on whether it will be an economic and environmental disaster — it has some of the earmarks — but hybrid drivers already are saying their green machines are dangerous to their health.
Writing for the Heartland Institute, John Dale Dunn of the American Council on Science and Health notes many people who have bought taxpayer-subsidized hybrids are trading them in — at huge losses in some cases — for cars with internal-combustion engines because of concerns over unavoidable, prolonged exposure to electromagnetic fields created by hybrids' batteries.
Even The New York Times says their fears are "not without merit." The National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute are two of many agencies that say long-term exposure to a strong electromagnetic field is hazardous. Drivers say their hybrids raised their blood pressure, caused drowsiness behind the wheel and worried them sick about increased leukemia risk. Tests have documented "dangerously high" EMFs in hybrids, leading owners "to conclude driving the vehicles is not worth risking blood for oil," Mr. Dunn wrote.
We think this is all a bunch of hooey, of course, because a National Research Council review of more than 500 studies on EMFs found the fields do not cause disease or cancer.
Our view is tempered, however, by the knowledge that the greens were wrong on MTBE, wrong on ethanol, wrong on global warming and wrong about lots of other things. So motorists would be wise to wade into the shallow end of the car pool before taking the hybrid plunge.
I can easily forecast in the future that hybrids with hydrogen tanks, high voltage batteries or even fuel cells will be the number one choice for carbombers, all the explosive elements are already there.
Just don't drive too far.
There is only savings if the hybrid is a plug in. That plug in needs to only have a 40 mile range (the average round trip to work) to be economical. My reason: If you never have to fire up the gas part of your propulsion system, you are driving on electricity which is only cents per equivalent gallon of gasoline.
The problem is, all of the plug ins are two or three years off and they are big cars that require lots of energy to run at freeway speeds. Where are the smaller, more energy efficient plug ins? I’ve searched around and the only ones I find are expensive kits that you put, at your own risk, into an existing frame.
Heavily subsidized ethanol is part of the drive up in food prices, that's the public health and economic part of it.
I have just converted our two old cars,- a 88/Lincoln Town-car and 91/Olds Custom Cruiser SW - to run partly on water HHO for around $200 installed by my mechanic increasing mileage about 25% to 35% or in real dollar$ paying under $3 a gallon. Go partly green at http://www.waterbeatsgasprice.com/
What about ozone emissions? Even small (1/2 Hp) Electric motors will deteriorate rubber rapidly because of high ozone emissions. Ozone is a Green House gas......
Not that I give a rip.......
If you would, let me know how well that works for you. I have a fleet of ‘oldies but goodies’ on the pavement.
Whats wrong with me? I feel sorry (sorta) for the dopes that are buying into this junk! I have a neighbor who has two Prius’s (Prii?) and a Lincoln Navigator! Go figure!
Last week I forwarded this link to my Hybrid owner friends.
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=16683
“Thought I heard where Honda is supplying hydrogen generators to go with the cars. You’d have your own fill up station at the house.
Just don’t drive too far.”
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And don’t look at your electric bill. That’s the whole problem with hydrogen. It takes heap big energy to either separate it from water or from methane.
Plus separating it from methane releases CO2. And you still have to drill for natural gas.
[... if this were true, then every utility worker at a power plant would be (a) sterile, (b) deformed, (c) a monster, .. or worse!]
I worked in the field of occupational health for years. My own personal observation is that the great majority of the electrical tradesmen (electricians and linemen) I encountered were, shall we say, “odd”. Not saying that this is due to exposure to EM fields but its certainly possible. Could just be an accumulation of sparks over the years too...
“Yeah, I do. Only I don’t remember it being an environmental, public-health, or economic disaster.
Heavily subsidized ethanol is part of the drive up in food prices, that’s the public health and economic part of it.”
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Even TIME magazine published a story about the clear-cutting of the amazon to grow soy to take advantage of the higher soy prices caused by displacement from corn-for-ethanol.
If the ethanol crowd has lost TIME, they’ve lost the war...
My Buddhist, vegetarian neighbors are nice people. With that said, they bought a Prius to save the Tibetan Whales or something. It can’t make it up inclines in the winter snows if the tires start spinning. Not too practical of a car for the mountains of SE Idaho...
If they tell me they are going to vote for John McCain I will KNOW that there is something to this idea of EM fields in hybrid “cars”.
“Doesn’t using gasoline for a Fuel Cell defeat the whole purpose of a Fuel cell vehicle?”
Diesels are about 40% and gasoline engines are about 30% efficient when compared to an ideal heat engine. An ideal heat engine using temperatures found in an engine and ambient is less than 50% efficient. Meaning that moderne internal combustion engines can only send about 15% and 10% respectively of the energy in the fuel to the wheels.
Fuel cells are not heat engines. Solid oxide fuel cells which can burn either gasoline or diesel are up to 60% efficient thermodynamically. Meaning that 50% of the energy in the fuel can be used to turn the wheels.
This means that if you take the same sized vehicle with the same performance, it would get between 4 and 6 times better effiency using the fuel cell as opposed to an internal combustion engine.
The solid oxide fuel cells are out of the lab and are now being produced for stationary applications. The improvements needed to put them in vehicles are being done now.
when the transition is complete, pickups should get about 60mpg, cars should get over 100 mpg and even semi trucks should get close to 20 mpg.
This is a very big deal.
Or live in a hi rise condo... like 45 stories high..
Kind of a dumb article.
Right and people go out and buy those things for a quick daily savings not realizing what’s down the road financially ... plus I understand those batteries are real dangerous - EMT’s and the FD don’t like to work around those wrecks.
You are comparing apples and oranges. The hybrid drives like a V6. If you don’t mind the performance of a 4 popper, then it is definately more cost effective to go that route.
BTW, the batteries are lasting 200k+ miles.
We drove an Escape 4 cyl, 6cyl and hybrid. The 4 cyl couln’t get out of it’s own way. Wife wanted either the 6 cyl or hybrid. The both cost about the same, the hybrid gets about 10 mpg better milliage. Dollars an cents, the hybrid was the most economical choice.
I researched the battery life before buying and they are doing better than the manufacturers estimated. Honda originally screwed up their software causing battery overcharge and early failures. When they discovered the problem, they fixed it and replaced the batteries in the affected vehicle.
Personally, I’m probably going to get a little 4 banger to commute to work, I’m not in that much of a hurry, but for people that want or need better performance, the hybrids move pretty well for their milliage.
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