Hi Erik > > ... Technologies that may be > > taking a back seat as a result include hydrogen fuel cell electric >> vehicles. Nearly 24,000 hybrid vehicles were sold in the U.S. in > > January 2008. > >Do you really agree with this one? Did I miss something somewhere? > >Seems to me that promoting hydrogen fuel cell over hybrids is NOT a >good thing. Trying for pie-in-the-sky over what's available today. Of >course modern diesels get better mileage than the currently available >hybrids, but seems if they threw a diesel into a hybrid drivetrain it >would only get better. Not that I'm promoting that people should go >out and buy those SUV hybrids and think they're doing better than the >guy down the street who's still driving his old 1985 diesel. I don't >like the big hybrids myself. > >But promoting fuel cells over hybrids, which you can get TODAY seems >the wrong way to go. Is there something that I'm not seeing? Usually >this list, and definitely you, Keith are on track with my opinions on >such things. > >Seems either things have changed, or this article managed to slip in somehow? > >Thanks, >Erik
Quite so, nothing changed. I reckoned we'd been there often enough already not to take pie-in-the-sky over fuel cells and hydrogen seriously, of course I don't agree with it. But I don't think much of the fashion for hybrids either, since that's what it is, mostly, IMHO, a fashion. No doubt they're better than most or all of the other choices hybrid buyers are offered, but it's the wrong comparison. Aren't hybrid owners mostly "lite greens", eco-consumers shopping their way to a sustainable future? Though of course there are interim benefits, it's a delusion that changing consumer choices can be a real solution. Consumerism is the problem, or one of them, adjusting it won't fix it. The only real consumer education boils down to a stark and simple message: stop it! Dawie said this recently: >Or they might have six cars, as another family might have a hot-air >balloon or a room full of pianos and no cars. The point is that they >oughtn't to be using those cars daily, as the obvious or only way to >get from A to B. That "micro" output should be ample for the >twenty-odd cars more than which one would not hope to find in a >fairly sizeable community, if they are used sanely - and of those >one might be a first-strike pump and another an ambulance. I think that's a better comparison. Best Keith >On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 9:26 AM, Keith Addison ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> >> <http://www.prwatch.org/node/7007> >> Are Hybrids Putting the Brakes on Greener Options? >> Source: Wired, February 11, 2008 >> French researchers are concerned that consumer demand for hybrid >> cars, fueled by advertising and PR, is slowing down the development >> of genuinely sustainable green auto technologies. Their report, >> Hybrid Vehicles: A Temporary Step, states that "There is a general >> convergence of strategies toward promoting hybrid vehicles as the >> mid-term solution to very low-emissions and high-mileage vehicles ... >> Such a convergence is based more on customer perception triggered by >> very clever marketing and communications campaigns than on pure >> rational scientific arguments and may result in the need for any >> manufacturer operating in the USA to have a hybrid electric vehicle > > in its model range in order to survive." Technologies that may be >> taking a back seat as a result include hydrogen fuel cell electric >> vehicles. Nearly 24,000 hybrid vehicles were sold in the U.S. in >> January 2008. >> > >Do you really agree with this one? Did I miss something somewhere? > >Seems to me that promoting hydrogen fuel cell over hybrids is NOT a >good thing. Trying for pie-in-the-sky over what's available today. Of >course modern diesels get better mileage than the currently available >hybrids, but seems if they threw a diesel into a hybrid drivetrain it >would only get better. Not that I'm promoting that people should go >out and buy those SUV hybrids and think they're doing better than the >guy down the street who's still driving his old 1985 diesel. I don't >like the big hybrids myself. > >But promoting fuel cells over hybrids, which you can get TODAY seems >the wrong way to go. Is there something that I'm not seeing? Usually >this list, and definitely you, Keith are on track with my opinions on >such things. > >Seems either things have changed, or this article managed to slip in somehow? > >Thanks, >Erik _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
