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Our government lacks alt. energy intiative
robsguns
Member Posts: 4,581 ✭✭
This is something that really ticks me off. The 70's was a mess concerning energy issues. Anyone remember that? Oil was high, and everyone was in an uproar about finding alternative sources of energy. Then after the 70's, all that research went where? When was the last time you heard it mentioned in the news. When was the last time you heard it a topic of real importance? Josey1 had a post about lead sinkers being made illegal, and it got me to thinking, what about us? Well... what about us? We continue to burn oil, a nonreplenishable resource, that will eventually run out, or become so expensive it will no longer be an alternative for normal consumption. It pollutes our environment and affects global warming. What have you heard recently about anyone doing anything about it? I remember everyone talking about hydroelectric power, solar power, and wind power, now I hear nothing about that. It seems we developed the technology then left it at that. The only thing that has made progress is power cells for vehicles, which is making a slow painful gain into useful service in everyday automobiles. I personally dont care how expensive solar power, or wind power is, I think that if the inital startup cost can be recouped, and then some, that its a viable alternative to just burning oil. I just dont understand why our lazy government sits on their collective lazy butts doing nothing about this until something comes along to make them all say,'oh yeah, we really need to rethink this alternative energy idea'. If we spent half the money we give to other nations on research and building of permanent government owned alternative energy producing facilities, I bet we could make a serious dent in the amount of power required from oil burning electrical stations, power for factories with the highest emissions, etc. I am not educated in these matters, but it doesnt take a genius to know that nothing is being done about our oil consumption, and things are only going to get worse if something isnt done about it. So....not that I dont believe in conservation, but... screw the fish and the waterfowl, how about the humans?
SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC
SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC
Comments
Here in NM nearly two decades ago, the govenor appointed a blue ribbon panel to determine if solar energy was a viable resource for the state of NM. I never heard the out come, but give me a break, NM has the second highest incidence of melanoma in the world. That is plenty of solar energy for what ever. At that time there were several cutting edge solar energy companies. All are now gone. Builders went with the same boxes they had always built, though custom builders continue to build a lot of passive solar homes.
Edited by - washington hunter on 05/11/2002 17:25:29
Do a little research...wind farms are being developed in many states. There is one near where I live on the Washington-Oregon border that's been up and running since December 2001, and there are 8 others proposed or already under construction in Washington. I believe Oregon has 3 others that are completed, and more are currently being planned or developed. If you're interested, here's a web site you may want to check out: www.awea.org/ It's the American Wind Energy Association and there's a lot of interesting information on there. The government does give some sort of a tax credit to help in making these things economically feasible.
Edited by - washington hunter on 05/11/2002 17:25:29
i live in cent SD which is prime area for wind power(wind here avg's 18mph day and nite which is perfect to generate elc.
in fact between dad and me we have 15 1/4'S(ie 1/4 = 160acres) that have wind power easesment with a company that expire the end of june. but our states tax laws will probably keep them from building. we have an excise tax on construction... why i dont know why, but on a project that large would mean a lot of $$ for them to pay in taxes so they will not build because of that reason.
There is no reason that we cant be using more ethanol and making a lot more bio diesel from the crops i raise. sunflowers which have an oil content of 40-50% oil. soybeans dont have that much oil content but the oil is a byproduct of crushing them for livestock feed ,also the sunflower meal after crush is very good livestock feed. a very good deal if you ask me, i can produce fuel and still feed livestock. same applies to corn (which produces about 2.5gal of ethanol per bushel) we can make ethanol for fuel then feed the the grain that is left over as livestock feed which is very hi protein after the corn is distilled.
i run 10% ethanol always and have never had fuel system problem. the milage may suffer about 1mpg less in some automobiles but that is because gas engines in autos need to have ignition timing advanced a couple degrees to burn the higher octane better.
As we all know alcohol burns very very clean if you had 100% alcohol to run in your gas engine the engine would out last several auto bodies..the oil would look as clean as the day you put it in on straight alcohol even after many thousand of miles.
I have also made my own bio diesel it was 20% blend the pickup run perfect on it.
Someday when i build a new house i am going to heat and cool it with my artesian water well(that flows water on its own) the water comes out of the ground at about 80psi and 75 degrees all i have to do is circulate it through a heat pump and i end up with near free heat and cooling,
anyways my point is that if we want to there are many many way of taping into many sources of energy that we make very little use of today. my post is not directed at anybody just some of my comments
also pardon my grammer and spelling as i am not the best at.
doc
I dont give my guns without somebody getting hurt!
I know where my beef comes from.do you know where yours comes from???....mexico,austraila,the UK,south america...???? dont know do you, demand country of origin labling for your food!!!!
Edited by - cowdoc on 05/11/2002 18:31:25
which is extremely clean burning in engines. I really think big brother is afraid of the taxing of it and loosing contributions by the
oil companies. Any damn fool can make alky out of any fruit, grain,
sugar beets, cane ETC. All renewable resources. It aint a bad drink
either.
You sound extremely fluent in the alternative energy matters. Its hard to believe that with what you know, and have done, that the government isnt more interested in these types of things, you have convinced me what I've been thinking all along, the government doesnt care to develop alternative energy. That sucks!!
SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC