Gulf Spill only 10% of daily US use?

Gmachine

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2005
Does this fact bother anyone else? I know it does me, but there really isn't any other option at the time unless you want to stay at home.

I know this hobby isn't exactly a green one, but I do think of my kids future and what impact we are having on our environment and the state of our dependance on others for this resource.

Where the heck are all the electric car options? We have the technology, but no one's using it!

Just wondering if anyone else struggles with the same?
 
Electric cars just move the problem (resources, pollution, etc) elsewhere. And then the disposal of the batteries (acids, heavy metals) when they are done in.

Plus A/C isn't very practical or efficient in an all-electric. Or heat.

IMO, he future (for now) is in very-high efficiency fossil fuels. Small and light vehicles, running Diesel, CNG, LP. That, and mass transportation (clean, fast, efficient, that people will want to use), concentrated in dense population areas. Nothing else, at this time, is practical.

There will be only token progress, until either all fossil fuels are consumed, or become so prohibitively priced that people will voluntarily go to other energy sources or transportation alternatives.
 
I know electric cars are moving from one problem to another, but there has to be something that can be done to reduce the amount we do use. Fuel economy has not gone up a whole lot considering the advances everywhere else.

I just believe manufacturing as a whole has been lazy and this goes with the car companies too!

Toyota has merged with Tesla motors and is going to reopen its Corolla plant in CA. At least a major company is making some strides.
 
I'm under the impression that a lot of the emissions requirements actually decrease fuel economy...
 
your exactly right.
I sat in a training session once where senior engineers bascially admtte that Cummins was duming raw fuel into burne gases t ecrease the PM...the EPA regs revolve around % of total exhaust not total PM amount...so if you increase the total exhaust...% goes down.

Also dont forget safety regs have mae vehicles greatly increase in weight.
Your late 70s corolla/tercel weighed well less than a ton....today we get the same mileage carry airbags, enough electronics to choke a flea, and side impact crumple zones...those who say mpg hasnt improved are so grossly mistaken it isnt funny.
 
Right, MPG has improved in an absolute sense, but not when factored against larger/heavier cars.

I saw an article a week or so ago listing the most fuel efficient production cars. Most of them were late-80s compacts.
 
i like the diesel suggestion in all motor vehicles. plus theres already hydrogen h20 conversion mods for diesel motors. if major motor companies all agreed on running hydrogen h20 diesel engines in their products then the pollution factor for motor vehicles would be solved considering hydrogen and h20 powered motors burn off oxygen and water vapor. i do believe offroad diesel should be allowed to run though :). the technology to progress in the automobile industry has always been there its just never been applied.

and speaking strictly on the pollution factor. mankind has little impact on the environment concerning road and air pollution (except for arsenic gases and hard chemicals) the volcano that has been erupting in iceland for the past few months is an excellent example. the initial eruption of that beast let out more air pollution into the atmosphere than global mankind has ever produced.
 
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