Energy and carbon.

[Hobbitling]

a funny ad from germany, about wind power.
sometimes, even the wind gets lonely. poor wind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjUkNmUcHc

[DRIFTER]

I believe I said that Many are wrong and will not accept any technology that will alleviate the situation because they are unwilling to admit they are wrong (paraphased myself there).

Hawk

The exact wording was a little different than that! I won't beat it to death here since its posted and others can read it, if they choose, and draw their own conclusions on the wording. In the realm of things its not that important, I just do not believe any of those topics have, or will, be proven in the near future one way or another! I also do not believe we are privy to all facts and figures or that the 6 o'clock news is telling us anything more than what they want us to hear and think, that's my only point......nothing is black and white!

[DRIFTER]

But LILCO built it anyway, not to supply LI or NY with power, but to supply Connecticut. It way overran costs, never opened, and LILCO made the utility users pay for it.

.........Something alot of people don't know, unless you lived nearby, is that there was an active NPP on Long Island at Brookhaven National Labs on William Floyd Highway. It was not used for, or the area open to, the public!

[Little Rickie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_dyes

A friend of mine is a plant manager of a manufacturing facility, and they get dyed fuel for their yard equipment. If it's ever caught in their trucks on the road, they're in big trouble.

The reason being, fuel taxes go towards road construction and maintenance. If you're just driving around your yard, you're not causing wear and tear on the roads, nor are you even really benefiting from their existence, so you don't need to pay those taxes. Once you go out on the road, the logic goes, you should have to pay something for it.

It's kind of the same idea with denatured alcohol, that can be used as a fuel or solvent. It's basically just regular old drinking alcohol but with something added to make it taste bad (or even poisonous). That way it costs less because there aren't liquor taxes assessed on it.

That all make sense now. I'm glad my fuel tax dollars go directly towards road construction and maintenance. I feel so much better now.

[chairrock]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_dyes

A friend of mine is a plant manager of a manufacturing facility, and they get dyed fuel for their yard equipment. If it's ever caught in their trucks on the road, they're in big trouble.

The reason being, fuel taxes go towards road construction and maintenance. If you're just driving around your yard, you're not causing wear and tear on the roads, nor are you even really benefiting from their existence, so you don't need to pay those taxes. Once you go out on the road, the logic goes, you should have to pay something for it..

Thats one of the first things they do at a "Truck Safety Check" that you see on the highways. They dip your tank to see if there is any red dye in it.
Also at marinas that sell gasoline, they dont pay road taxes either. Thats why you are not allowed to have your car within a certain disatnce of the gas pumps at marinas.But they still charge alot for seasonal markup.

[Little Rickie]

I think this is it, I only read a little so let me know?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-vegoil6-2008may06,0,6562739.story

I just went over this article and although it is not the same one, [ so there would be more than one ], it seems a little scarier.....worth the read!

So why are we growing corn to make a lower energy fuel like alcohol when we can grow plants like soybeans for high energy vegetable oil?

It makes sense...doesn't it?

[chairrock]

So why are we growing corn to make a lower energy fuel like alcohol when we can grow plants like soybeans for high energy vegetable oil?

It makes sense...doesn't it?

Corn lobby! which also need nore nitrogen fertilizers....

[colden46]

So why are we growing corn to make a lower energy fuel like alcohol when we can grow plants like soybeans for high energy vegetable oil?

It makes sense...doesn't it?

Aside from the corn lobby, from doing a google search you get more ethanol out of a bushel of corn that you get vegetable oil out of a bushel of soybeans. Whether you get more bushels of soybeans per acre than you do corn, I have no idea.

The other big thing is that ethanol can be mixed with gas and burned in regular cars without engine modification. Straight-up vegetable oil not only requires a diesel engine, something that obviously most passenger cars don't have, but it also requires a modification to that engine in order to work properly -- the oil needs to be heated to lower its viscosity before burning. Oh and burning vegetable oil is currently illegal, as the EPA has not approved any engine conversions to use it (whether there's a reason for it I don't know, so draw your own conclusions). Veggie oil can also be converted to biodiesel which as far as I know doesn't require the modification and is legal, but it still requires a diesel engine.

IMHO corn-based ethanol is still stupid, and I think the big reason we're using corn instead of other crops is just the corn lobby. Just ask Brazil how much better sugarcane works than corn (I bet you could also ask them how much of their rainforest they had to cut down to grow it all, though). I don't know how much of this country has a climate suitable for sugarcane, though I know parts of the south used to grow it 150 years ago.

But if qam thinks the efficiency of solar electricity generation is bad, he shouldn't look at even sugarcane ethanol. According to wikipedia "the solar energy-to-ethanol conversion efficiency is 0.13%".

[Little Rickie]

Corn lobby! which also need nore nitrogen fertilizers....

Soybeans make their own nitrogen and leave behind more than they use.

"Corn lobby" of course, how could I be so stupid.

Just because I thought it made sense doesn't mean squat when: special interests groups, politics & politicans, government subsidies, power whores and selfinterest at the expense of others always get their ways. It doesn't matter what is best, it's what I want and can get that is best.

Sure wish I was wealthy so I too could get my way or powerbroker my way to do so. Ignorance isn't bliss, it just means you don't know you getting screwed or by whom but you sure know it doesn't feel good. I guess that's the problem with most of us we are not big enough puckers to do the nasty to the inocent and or uninformed public. (just because we can, we can't) They are too busy paying their bills with money that goes directly into the pockets of those SOBs that only care about themselves and those that give them what they want and only when they get what they want, everyone else is uninportant or in the way. They make a quagmire of laws and regulations, redundant overseaers are appointed making a complex webb harnessing & restaining those with any initiative or guts to do anything different that may make things better. Burden them, that will show them who is in charge.

God bless bureaucrats and law makers for they are the tools of the privileged.

So pay your taxes and fees, get your permits, follow the rules so the man can stay the man.

Glad I got that off my chest but it's still stuck in my craw!

[Neil]

Let's take arable land and if we aren't paving it for box stores and McMansions then lets grow fuel for motor vehicles.

Too bad we can't feed ourselves with old tires and rusted mufflers.

[backwoodsman]

Let's take arable land and if we aren't paving it for box stores and McMansions then lets grow fuel for motor vehicles.

Too bad we can't feed ourselves with old tires and rusted mufflers.

Neil,how would this earth ever get along without us?

[redhawk]

Too bad we can't feed ourselves with old tires and rusted mufflers.

Haven't had a Big mac and fries lately, eh?

[DRIFTER]

QUOTE 1;Too bad we can't feed ourselves with old tires and rusted mufflers.
QUOTE 2;Haven't had a Big mac and fries lately, eh?

MIGHT THERE BE A RELATIONSHIP?

[spiralsands]

That Ronald McDonald clown statue is one of the most frightening things I ever saw. Where did they get the inspiration for the praying pose? It looks like it's mocking one of those saint statues that you'd see in a church. It gives me the heebie jeebies!

[Neil]

And here I always thought Big Macs came from cheap beef fed from deforested Amazonian Basin lands. Having learned they are made from old tires makes me feel much better about my environmental footprint.