My energy proposal

[Spider-Bite]

edit. I have to make a correction for the first post. It woud temporarily cost 1 and half times as much as the Iraq war annually.

 

[Victor Creed]

This only makes me want to get that subscription to Popular Science again. Despite the heated moments of my argument with you, I for the most part agree that this is something that should be addressed, whether it is on a larger scale or smaller. If not just for reducing our dependence on oil, but for the advancement of more efficient, environmentally sound methods of energy.

I just don't think that the government has shown much initiative in the past over things of this nature, so please do excuse my lack of faith in their actions. To me it's a matter of will they do it, rather than should they. Personally I would have rather put all the money blown on the Iraq war to go towards fixing our own situation, so I am right there with you as far as looking at the growing deficit with disgust. With that deficit, I doubt the government would show any more initiative in going green, or at least partially green than they have already.

 

[Darthphere]

Spider-bite, poor fool. Poor fool indeed.

 

[ShadowBoxing]

There are electric engines currently being tested and designed that ARE as powerful as combustion. The problem: they are expensive as Hell

 

[Spider-Bite]

There are electric engines currently being tested and designed that ARE as powerful as combustion. The problem: they are expensive as Hell

everything new is expensive, but the cost of technology is always going down, especially when it's put on mass production. under my plan engines running purely off of electricity wouldn't even hit the market for 20 years anyways.

 

[huskerwebhead]

When you say x=the production costs, factories come into that don't they? Yes this will be less profitable for them, but I don't care. I really don't care about the wallets of oil capitalists. They have already made their profit off their current factories, and if they are charging too much, then the government should subsidize their profits too punish them. You know how much freaking money they make?

This is the biggest problem you have right here. Just because YOU don't care about the increased cost to the factories or how fat the oil companies wallets are, doesn't mean that THEY don't. Just because you think it's the right thing to do, and I'm not saying it isn't, doesn't mean that the governement, oil companies, or even the general populace believe it's the right thing to do. Or that they WANT to do it. People fear change...even when it's for the better.

 

[Spider-Bite]

This is the biggest problem you have right here. Just because YOU don't care about the increased cost to the factories or how fat the oil companies wallets are, doesn't mean that THEY don't. Just because you think it's the right thing to do, and I'm not saying it isn't, doesn't mean that the governement, oil companies, or even the general populace believe it's the right thing to do. Or that they WANT to do it. People fear change...even when it's for the better.

Actually the problem is just the opposite. The current energy and enivornmental problem facing America is that politicains care too much about the wallets of oil companies because oil companies have our politicians in their back pockets.

the vast majority of Americans want an alternative energy on the market. Yes they too often fear change when it's for the better, but this is an issue where they do not fear change.

We do not need to sit back and let these people make obscene profits at the expense of the human race. Fair profit is one thing, but obscene profit where you hold the country as slaves to your oil is wrong, and it needs to be stopped.

 

[huskerwebhead]

Actually the problem is just the opposite. The current energy and enivornmental problem facing America is that politicains care too much about the wallets of oil companies because oil companies have our politicians in their back pockets.

the vast majority of Americans want an alternative energy on the market. Yes they too often fear change when it's for the better, but this is an issue where they do not fear change.

We do not need to sit back and let these people make obscene profits at the expense of the human race. Fair profit is one thing, but obscene profit where you hold the country as slaves to your oil is wrong, and it needs to be stopped.

Nobody is arguing the fact that we are too dependent on oil or that politicians are in the "back pockets" of the oil companies. You just seem to have this, forgive me, naive faith that everyone else is going to jump right up and join you...basic populace, car industries, lawmakers, etc. It's just not going to happen like that. Not only will the government drag their feet in a severe way (because of their ties to the oil industry) but let's face it...people are lazy and cheap. If they have to spend a couple thousand more for a hybrid or fully electric...most won't do it. Sure, they'll talk about how great it would be...but talk is cheap.

Not to mention you have to get people out there to lobby for the change and vote for the change. Ha...good luck with that. You have a 5,000 signature petition you're trying to get signed...I'm willing to bet you won't even get that many. And as someone already said, 5,000 is way less then what you are going to need to make any kind of impact. Sure you may get on the news...but news stories about the environment and new technologies for the environment have been done plenty of times...to no avail.

I don't mean to rain on your parade...just trying to be a little realistic.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I really like your idea of an X-prize for comming up with cheaper energy efficient ways and models.

However, I think that before we can go solar and hybrid for our houses and cars, the technology has to become cheaper and more efficient. And less ugly for the solar panel roofs too.

 

[Spider-Bite]

I really like your idea of an X-prize for comming up with cheaper energy efficient ways and models.

However, I think that before we can go solar and hybrid for our houses and cars, the technology has to become cheaper and more efficient. And less ugly for the solar panel roofs too.

well much of the logic behind my plan was to make solar panels cheaper, although it doesn't adress them being ugly. I think they look coolt: in a futuristic kind of way.

but I think that for most people the benefit would outweigh the ugliness. As far as hybrids go, my plan doesn't really include anything to make hybrids cheaper, but remember by the time all vehicles are required to come with them, the other productin costs would already be down more than enough to make up for the 5,000 dollar cost.

I personally believe that many of those things would fall into place.

 

[hippie_hunter]

well much of the logic behind my plan was to make solar panels cheaper, although it doesn't adress them being ugly. I think they look coolt: in a futuristic kind of way.

No they are ugly and I'm thinking like my mother at the moment. She would find them ugly too and she would never buy them simply because they look ugly.

but I think that for most people the benefit would outweigh the ugliness.

You haven't met Mother then have you

As far as hybrids go, my plan doesn't really include anything to make hybrids cheaper, but remember by the time all vehicles are required to come with them, the other productin costs would already be down more than enough to make up for the 5,000 dollar cost.

People will go for them, they just need to be $5,000 or more, cheaper. I know someone who is working to make cars more efficient that way and he recommended not to get one for the time being. In time they will be much cheaper and much more efficient. We just have to be patient.

 

[Spider-Bite]

After spreading my energy plan all over my space i've been contacted by the Wall Street Journal. I can't freaking believe it! Maybe my plan will finally be heard! I just can't freaking believe this.

 

[Darthphere]

After spreading my energy plan all over my space i've been contacted by the Wall Street Journal. I can't freaking believe it! Maybe my plan will finally be heard! I just can't freaking believe this.

LAWL! Omg dude, seriously.

 

[Lackey]

instead of trying to limit people's use of energy, why not find ways to make more energy?



Politics Is No Solution to the Blackout

by Rep. Ron Paul, MD

Last week’s blackout that paralyzed much of the northeast has politicians scrambling to assign blame and pledge action to fix the problem. The universal consensus is that government, specifically Congress, must immediately “do something.” As with most crises, the problem is instantly assumed to stem from a lack of government regulation.

Yet few industries are more regulated than the electricity industry. Power companies have become quasi-public entities; many are municipally owned. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and a slew of state and local agencies regulate every action they take. When a problem happens, however, nobody cries out for greater freedom in the electricity industry or condemns government for too much regulation.

It’s true that the nation’s power grids are inadequate for today’s needs, and that a relatively small overload in a vulnerable spot can create a huge problem. This is hardly an indictment of the free market, however, but rather an indictment of the stifling maze of government regulations that burden electricity producers. Energy bureaucrats, despite their attempts at centralized planning through production and price controls, can never hope to determine how much electricity should be produced, where it should be channeled, and at what prices it should be sold. The very complexity of the power grid, which resembles a spider web dotted by population centers, cries out for the economic cooperation that only the invisible hand of an unregulated market system can provide.

As economist Thomas DiLorenzo points out, the fundamental problem is government interference with supply in the electricity market. The nation’s population has risen dramatically in the last 30 years, causing a huge increase in demand for electricity. But supply has increased little if at all, thanks to environmentalists and land-use bureaucrats at both the state and federal levels. The Neo-Luddites, as DiLorenzo terms them, are adamantly against building new nuclear power plants, hydroelectric dams, and especially coal or natural gas-fired electric power plants. When demand grows without a corresponding increase in capacity, the entire electric grid becomes overloaded. Last week demonstrates that it doesn’t take much to tip the balance and crash the system over a large area.

Electricity, from coal-burning sources or not, is likely to remain our primary form of power for decades. We simply need to accept this and build more electric power plants. In a free market, profit-seeking companies would be happy to build new plants and sell power to an ever-growing population. Unless and until government stops restricting supply and controlling prices, however, we can only expect the electric power system to remain vulnerable. It is precisely because electricity is so vitally important in our modern world that it should be delivered by the efficient free market, rather than the dismal bureaucratic sector. In this day and age, it is preposterous that we have problems delivering simple electric power where and when it is needed. The recent blackout cannot be blamed on technology or a lack of capital, and certainly not on a supposed market failure. The real problem – too much government regulation – is likely to be ignored as Congress rushes to engineer a wholesale federal takeover of the electricity industry.

August 20, 2003

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

 

[Lackey]

After spreading my energy plan all over my space i've been contacted by the Wall Street Journal. I can't freaking believe it! Maybe my plan will finally be heard! I just can't freaking believe this.

let us know when you get published heave

 

[Spider-Bite]

LAWL! Omg dude, seriously.

she contacted me via email, asking if I'd be willing to talk with her. she said to respond to her email, if i was willing, so I did. She left her desk and cell phone number too, but it said to contact her via email. I did, and now I can't stop checking my email seeing if she's sent anything back. I want to call her, but I'm like really freaking nervous, and I don't know if I should.

this could totally be awesome.

 

[Addendum]

this could totally be awesome.

 

[Spider-Bite]

Red-X