Shoot the horses!

[Allen]

The electric car is not the be all and end all and will not end pollution. A lot of people choose to forget that to power an electric car, you need electricity from the grid, In some places, the grid power is derived from water, nuclear or perhaps solar or wind and in those cases there will be a reduction in pollution. In other cases, the grid is powered from coal generators and the added demand will require the use of a lot more coal. In addition, however, unless every country in the world goes off coal, the world wide effects will be minimal. I read a few years ago that China has about 300 new coal driven plants under construction. There are of course, many other problems associated with electric cars including the disposal of the batteries, the long recharging time etc.

Having said all that, I would argue that the greatest argument for eliminating or minimizing the use of petroleum is that oil is the principal feedstock for many, many chemical procedures including the production of plastics and that oil is a finite product and is really much to valuable to burn. Future generations will curse our generation for having wasted this most valuable commodity

Agree about the petroleum. I feel we should never export oil and only import it as long as we can buy it cheap enough. We need to save our reserves, not sell it. Being self sufficient as we were is best though.

Electricity. I don't see us ever getting to the point where water, wind and solar can power the whole nation or the world unless some kind of drastic changes or inventions come about. As mentioned and what everyone knows is petroleum powered electric plants produce emissions. Nuclear power plants produce waste as well of course.

Electric cars. If we could produce more and more electricity and less gasoline what is going to happen to the loss tax and other revenue the government now gets? It will be passed on in the form of kilowatt hours instead of gallons of gasoline. The government is NOT going to give up any form of taxation.

If/when this day comes we will be paying more to power up our car batteries which will offset the saving of what a gallon of gas cost. In addition we will be paying more for all electricity that goes thru our meters including running our homes.

I don't see why all suv looking vehicles that have a flat top aren't made with a solar panel. Now where the panel could not produce any kind of self substained energy source it could partially recharge the batteries especially those left in an open parking lot all day. I guess this isn't pushed because there's no way to tax it?

[Vern Humphrey]

Electricity. I don't see us ever getting to the point where water, wind and solar can power the whole nation or the world unless some kind of drastic changes or inventions come about.

And betting on those "drastic changes" is like betting on an invention that allows time travel, or permits us to exceed the speed of light. Except that no one is willing to bet our entire civilization on THOSE things.

[togor]

Hillary destabilized Libya, which has led to other problems. She should swinging from a short rope.

Seriously?

Libya is scarcely in the news.

[togor]

Interesting points, Allen.

If we're going to electrify transportation then at this point we need nukes to provide reliable power. Sadly the nuclear industry is as rotten as the rebar in cracked concrete, for getting new projects built.

Petroleum as a finite scarce resource. Does that argue for saving ours and importing others?

The Japanese would rather import timber from non-renewable forests elsewhere than cut down their own trees, even though they have enough rainfall to regenerate their own forests at a very high rate.

Not saying we should emulate the Japanese but it is another approach to scarcity--use mine later.