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Mike · 08-31-2005, 10:43 PM

As gas begins to get more expensive, alternative fuels will drop as more people will invest in them... and then the price of gas will drop. Despite it being unpopular amongst a lot of people, I'd like see the North West corner of Alaska be piped... It's not going to harm the wildlife, as evidenced by the Great Alaskan Pipeline ... which is a marvel of ingenuity and design; on top of that they've cut down spills to 6.5 barrels lost over the last 7 years ... it was in the hundreds before that. WHile there isn't enough to sustain us for more than ~10 or so years, it'd force OPEC to lower their fixed pricing that they've had since 1998, which would help sustain us until other forms of fuel (Hydrogen, Ethanol, etc) are more efficient and affordable.

As it is now, Hydrogen is at a 5:1 loss:gain ration, in that it takes 5 "units" of energy to make 1 unit of useable hydrogen energy. It is also ridiculously expensive to outfit a hydrogen fuel cell car... upwards of $200,000, and the cell has to be replaced every five years, at roughly $5000 - $8000 for a replacement. With the replacements alone, this is roughly the same price that gas would cost you over the same period of time (assuming $20/week... figuring gas prices go back down after this recent spike to about $2.50/gallon).

Ethanol and Gasanol (the combination of ethanol and gasoline) seem like the smartest alternatives for today, but it would never be able to support the entirety of American drivers... There isn't enough real estate in the US to make that much corn. Additionally, big business and industry drive the oil empire ... and airplanes, and other means of mass transportation, could never run on Ethanol or hydrogen (hydrogen freezes and becomes useless at -10 degrees celsius... and at 35,000 feet, it can be several times that).

Yup...

08-31-2005, 10:43 PM	#6
Mike Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 489	As gas begins to get more expensive, alternative fuels will drop as more people will invest in them... and then the price of gas will drop. Despite it being unpopular amongst a lot of people, I'd like see the North West corner of Alaska be piped... It's not going to harm the wildlife, as evidenced by the Great Alaskan Pipeline ... which is a marvel of ingenuity and design; on top of that they've cut down spills to 6.5 barrels lost over the last 7 years ... it was in the hundreds before that. WHile there isn't enough to sustain us for more than ~10 or so years, it'd force OPEC to lower their fixed pricing that they've had since 1998, which would help sustain us until other forms of fuel (Hydrogen, Ethanol, etc) are more efficient and affordable. As it is now, Hydrogen is at a 5:1 loss:gain ration, in that it takes 5 "units" of energy to make 1 unit of useable hydrogen energy. It is also ridiculously expensive to outfit a hydrogen fuel cell car... upwards of $200,000, and the cell has to be replaced every five years, at roughly $5000 - $8000 for a replacement. With the replacements alone, this is roughly the same price that gas would cost you over the same period of time (assuming $20/week... figuring gas prices go back down after this recent spike to about $2.50/gallon). Ethanol and Gasanol (the combination of ethanol and gasoline) seem like the smartest alternatives for today, but it would never be able to support the entirety of American drivers... There isn't enough real estate in the US to make that much corn. Additionally, big business and industry drive the oil empire ... and airplanes, and other means of mass transportation, could never run on Ethanol or hydrogen (hydrogen freezes and becomes useless at -10 degrees celsius... and at 35,000 feet, it can be several times that). Yup...