Quote:
Originally Posted by Casull
I mean, why make the auto manufacturers spend all of this money to conform to making gasoline engines more efficient when they are already more efficient than they have ever been, instead of letting them use that money to further develop ethanol or biodiesel programs, or electric cars, or even hydrogen powered cars....
I have also often wondered.... would it be more beneficial to regulate and force the trucking industry to develop more fuel efficient semi-trucks? Or how about having an aggressive plan that states that by 2017 all semis have to be running on a mixture of 50% biodiesel and 50% conventional diesel. I would have to think that semis are more polluting than 20 cars combined!
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Just a quick reality check here...
1) The trucking industry probably has the GREATEST focus on fuel economy of any transportation segment because fuel is their major cost driver. If they can get 1% better mileage, it means they can pocket another 1% in profit! If you forced truckers to use B50 they would consume EVEN MORE fuel, and produce EVEN MORE CO2 then they do now, due to the fact that B50 has LESS energy in it. If you REALLY want to improve our emmissions as a country, you have to start using railroads again... they can move WAY more cargo with WAY fewer pollutants.
2) Ethanol cannot be efficiently produced on a large scale, and it generally takes more energy to produce it than what you get from it (using current technology). There isn't enough land to produce enough to offset more than 40% of gasoline usage. It doesn't have the same energy density of gasoline, so you will end up burning MORE, which requires EVEN MORE land.
3) Biodiesel programs - See ethanol comments, all of them apply to biodiesel.
4) Electric cars - where does the electricity come from? Coal fired power plants, that's where. Even lived near one? Would you want to? Me neither. This is only a solution if you run your electric car off of a solar panel array... THEN you have a solution.
5) Hydrogen IS NOT A FORM OF ENERGY! IT IS A FORM OF BATTERY! You CANNOT drill for hydrogen, you cannot harvest it, you have to CREATE it using power. In fact, you need MORE power to create it than you could EVER get from using it! It's a decent form of battery, but again, where does the energy come from???
In the end, Solar Panels, Wind Farms, and Oceanic Hydroelectric Systems are the only systems that can get us away from polution...
~LSx