We all believe what we want to believe. That much I know. I also know that the undeniable unavoidable reality is that fossil fuels have millions of years of stored energy. All the bio-mass in the entire world, if converted to fuel (we wont consider the cost, in energy, to convert all that mass into fuel), would not even make a blip on the radar of our needs - or should I say our current usage.

Fossil fuel energy is a once in a planetary lifetime gift and that gift, as a usable/extractable/burnable product is running into geologic / production limitations.

Wind power. Solar power. Electric cars, bio-mass algae infused wonder fuel. Rock on! I love the ideas personally. But please, please realize that none -rather all- alternatives added up can not and will not equal what we get, in EROEI, of fossil fuels.

I am not an advocate of the oil and gas lobby. I am a realist. You all believe what you want and denied the realities we face. Good luck filling your Prius’ gas tank with cabbage and sauerkraut juice.

OK then, if electric doesn’t do it for you, we need alternative energy to move these vehicles of the future. Something that will not leave us energy dependent from outside the U.S yet reduce pollution. Brussel sprouts, cabbage or sauerkraut, and peanut butter are things that give me “combustion”. Bio-diesel for our planes,trains, & automobiles has to be a consideration. It can be produced from garbage that we have abundantly in this country and help to clean the world by efficient elimination of garbage that will not have to be buried or dumped in our oceans. Sounds better than this electric car idea if we can also eliminate the smells, I mean from the vehicle exhaust.

oh this is to good to pass up on…

http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/

GM had a great electric car in the mid 90’s. Toyota too. California’s environmental regulations mandated that 10% of the cars on the road by 2010 be electric. GM, Toyota even Ford and some others developed prototypes and they tested them in California. With fabulous success! But the oil and gas lobby worked the government to change the mandate and the cars, all leased, had to be returned. What happened to them? Crushed. Forgotten. Buried.

dihey is correct. Thermodynamics are hard to beat. “Energy return on energy invested,” and “net energy” are two things everyone who thinks the electric car is going to save the world needs to Google. Like hydrogen fuel cells they actually are wasting energy in order to show a car that uses no gas and has no pollution. If fact the pollution is always there. The fossil fuel is just behind the curtain waiting for Toto to pull it back.

Look,  I’m not generally a pessimist, okay perhaps I am, but the electric car isn’t going to save us. Nothing is. Modern civilization is due for a major leap backward in the next decade and the quicker we all get on the same page the better life will be after.

After what? After the end of cheap oil. After our economy is toast and we have to learn to live with far far less. After the rich and greedy have sucked the last few pennies from our pocket. After whatever you can possibly imagine.

I say it’s time for to reboot America.

I say it is about a 50/50 bet that this thing works as promised. With GM stock in the tank it might be a good bet/it might be a disaster. A rack of solar panels and free transportation. A perfect World…..

Anyone who has studied thermodynamics knows that using fuel A to produce, transport electricity, and load a battery to drive a car instead of using fuel A directly to drive the car may be counterproductive. The efficiency of a two-step process is always the product of the efficiencies of each, hence may be lower than the efficiencies of each step. I have yet to see believable numbers for my one-step vs. two-step dilemma.

But have they fixed the problem of them catching fire, which they so nicely downplayed as not having happened “enough” to warrant halting production-hmm-m-m-m..