On Mar 17, 2004, at 2:14 PM, Frank Leahy wrote:
We moved to England from San Francisco last September and bought a Ford Galaxy, 7 seat mini-van, diesel, that gets 45 miles to the gallon, and can cruise all day at 110 mph (I've driven 100+mph from Cornwall to London several times -- try that in California without spending all day looking in your rear view mirror). (And why is it that the same car gets under 20 miles per gallon in the States?)
Frank, don't you really mean 45 km/gal? And 100 km/hr? Barreling down the A4 at 100 miles per hour really boggles the mind! ;-)
Richard and others: I've bitten my tongue long enough; I can't stay out of this "energy" debate even tho it doesn't really belong here.
First, thanks for posting the google search results. Most people have little idea what the energy game is all about.
I've been in the oil business for 40+ years. My background includes nuclear and geophysics. I've served as president of two medium-sized and one fairly large (2500+ employees) energy company. Currently, we are not exploring for new oil and gas in this country (too long a story to tell here) but are "reviving" old or abandoned pools. As you may or may not know, 70% of the oil of ALL the oil field discovered has been left in the ground. And that is a conservative estimate. That's three times the amount of oil we've consumed is still there. But that is another long saga.
One of the primary reasons these so-called "alternative energy" aren't in use is because they are very expensive. Solar panels cost more environmentally, as well as monetarily, than digging and producing and refining oil. Oil and gas are cheap. When I started out in the oil business, crude oil was selling for $3.00 per barrel (42 US Gal.) and we were lucky to get 25 cents per thousand cubic feet (MCF) of natural gas. That was in the early '60s. Today's price of crude is less than $38 per barrel and natural gas is about $5 per thousand. Discounted to the present money value, that's about $3.50 per barrel and 50 cents per MCF and the US public is screaming for lower prices.... go figure.
I agree, the price of crude oil is way too low. About $70 per barrel MIGHT get the SUVs parked. That would get gasoline prices up to the $5/gal the Brits and Europeans are paying now. It would also slow any growth in the world economy to a dead crawl at best.
The Alternatives Are Coming
The Hydrogen Economy is THE answer! Not so fast, Tonto. The "hydrogen" alternative doesn't begin to meet the minimum energy balance (get-more-out-than-you-put-in). The binding energy of water is three times greater than the "hydrogen energy" it would release.And stripping hydrogen from natural gas is throwing away at least 2/3rds of the energy of the methane molecule (aside from the fact that vehicles running on methane/propane is about as environmentally clean as it gets.)
What else is there? Well, there's solar, biomass, water (dams), coal, wind, nuclear and fusion. Without all the tax gimmicks, which one holds the best promise to deliver cheap, reliable, safe energy to the moving consumer? Hint: it ain't corn which costs more to produce (environmentally and monetarily) than crude oil. It's that old, nasty energy balance thing again. Diluting gasoline with ethanol actually lowers the efficiency of the gasoline. But don't tell that to the Congresscritters from the corn belt.... Shhhhs.
Solar to hydrogen:
http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2002/Projects/J0710.pdf
presents an interesting case of solar to hydrogen. Not likely but interesting.
I've been looking for decades for alternatives. I'm open to new ideas. Someone once mentioned unobtainium.... ;-)
Ray
P.S. I, too, walk to work every day.
Ray G. Miller __________________ Turtlelips Productions 4009 Everett Ave. Oakland, CA 94602 MailTo:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (V) 510.530.1971 (F) 510.482.3491
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