"Help" for what exactly?

[poopgiggle]

For driving around in a company electric car and other small applications, no problem. To replace a car the average Joe uses to go any place any time he needs to, not anytime soon. Joe can't afford to have a spare car parked to make up for the shortcomings of the electric car.
Battery technology is nowhere to that point and burning dirty coal to power a clean car doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Now, lets dream for a moment. We have nuclear and hydroelectric plants pumping out all the juice we need, we electrify the highways with a third rail or something more appropriate so that I can drive all the way to Dallas and back and you got yourself a winner.

Electric cars make sense RIGHT NOW if you're commuting (or delivering stuff, or whatever) in an urban environment, because you can charge overnight/while-at-work/whatever. I know people who live in Chicago who rely on public transportation day-to-day and rent a car if they need to leave the city. I can see a similar system working with electric cars instead of public transport; I wouldn't force anyone to do that, but people may choose to do it themselves just to save on fuel and maintenance.

I don't think that electrifying the interstate system would really be practical, but then I'm not an electrical engineer (though I often have to pretend to know what they're talking about at conferences).

 

[Nraman]

Just another idea for the government to kill.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/ar...reactors-could-wean-world-oil-just-five-years

Thorium 232 will be the fuel of the future in my opinion. The web site says that it can replace oil, which I find a bit misleading as they are two different classes of fuel. It can replace coal, but coal is not currently replacing oil for the most part.
Right now there is a bit of a problem with nuclear, which is that natural gas is very available at a good price. As long as the never ending law suits make nuclear expensive, we are stuck with coal and gas.
In the future, unless we learn to use fusion, fission will be the only way that I see as of now. There are a lot of nuclear or fertile metals out there including depleted uranium that nobody talks about and is just a short step away from becoming plutonium. In other words, lots and lots of material. We can delay it but we can't stop it.

 

[-Pjackso]

In the future, unless we learn to use fusion, ...

The future will be fusion. Once fusion is available in full scale production across the world... it WILL change the world overnight.

Dirty energy will be yesterdays problem and the world will no longer be dependent on oil or coal.
I look forward to fusion. Unfortunately, the oil rich countries will NOT welcome this technology.

FYI
Fission = nuclear bomb and nuclear power plants.
Fision is 'nuclear' also, but completely different.

 

[dennishoddy]

And you thought that we'll never agree with each other.

That is nothing but steam from a hyperbolic cooling tower used by coal, nuke, and gassers.

 

[dennishoddy]

The truth as I see it is that nuclear power in this country is by design expensive. A plant that should take two years or less to be built can take from ten to never.
Another "green" form is hydroelectric, which is also impossible to implement today thanks to the activists.
Coal, that is our main source is dirty in many respects including radioactive material that end up in the air. The dirty little secret is that the coal fired plants produce radioactivity, not the nuclear plants.

I'd sure like to see a credibile link on this one.

 

[CBCollier]

I have no problem with nuclear power. I am all for it. If it is actually cost effective to utilize some "green" forms of energy, I am for that too., but it is crazy to spend a dollar to save a dime.

this is very well said.

 

[Nraman]

I'd sure like to see a credibile link on this one.

http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste

http://www.epa.gov/radtown/coal-plant.html

The last one is from the EPA not a credible source, but I can get more.

 

[Hobbes]

I don't have a problem with expanding nuclear power production in the US as long as it's not built or operated by these guys.

[Broken External Image]

Not to worry tho. BP isn't in the nuclear power bidness.
They are branching out into solar.

 

[Nraman]

I don't have a problem with expanding nuclear power production in the US as long as it's not built or operated by these guys.

[Broken External Image]

Not to worry tho. BP isn't in the nuclear power bidness.
They are branching out into solar.

Kuwait, a major oil exporter has lots of wells. None of them pump the amount of oil the BP well was pumping out. That was a good well that Obama, the one that borrows billions from the Chinese to loan to the Brazilians to produce offshore oil to sell to the Chinese, shut down. During the worst recession of our times, he also came up with regulations that will prevent more offshore oil. When the regulations were published a few days ago, the price of oil jumped higher on the news. Jobs were lost also.
BP and others get in to the "green" ventures to get your tax dollars, just like they do with ethanol. Spain that tried playing the "green" card found out that the propellers and solar panels messed up their economy at a very critical time and they are in trouble.
Stupidity has a price.

 

[Hobbes]

Kuwait, a major oil exporter has lots of wells. None of them pump the amount of oil the BP well was pumping out. That was a good well that Obama, the one that borrows billions from the Chinese to loan to the Brazilians to produce offshore oil to sell to the Chinese, shut down. During the worst recession of our times, he also came up with regulations that will prevent more offshore oil. When the regulations were published a few days ago, the price of oil jumped higher on the news. Jobs were lost also.
BP and others get in to the "green" ventures to get your tax dollars, just like they do with ethanol. Spain that tried playing the "green" card found out that the propellers and solar panels messed up their economy at a very critical time and they are in trouble.
Stupidity has a price.

Sounds like you have your story and you're sticking to it. No matter what the facts are.

Spain is proceeding with solar power. Their economy is messed up for lots of Other reasons, which I won't go into.
Saudi Arabia is building solar capacity quickly and THAT is the bidness BP wants in on. (Turns out, SA is one of the best places in the world to produce solar power. It's a kick in the head aint it?)

You are doing the exact same thing you accuse the greenies of:
Bending the facts in order to make them fit your political agenda.