High Gas prices

[Bender1]

Has no one considered the power of flatulence? Think about it... 7 billion people on this planet all releasing a viable alternative fuel from their anuses every day. I'm speaking of course of Methane.

If every man, woman and child were to wear a butt-plug with a methane collector attached to it we could, dare I say it, solve our energy crisis overnight.

Discuss.

This might be the best first post on a forum ever.

 

[krische]

When fuel to heat homes, cook food, heat your shower, power the lights, and generally keep the world turning goes up in price, the public will be much more aimiable towards nuclear power. Let's face it, wind energy is a black hole for money, solar is too inefficient, and there is only so much in the way of fossil fuels. Since the development of nuclear power there have been only a few nuclear power plant disasters that were bad, Chernobyl, the recent Fukishima, and in the 50's Windscale. I think that the benefits of cheap and almost limitless nuclear power far outweighs its costs.

I dunno, if you figure that all of the time, money, and effort that has gone into nuclear power development went to something like solar, it would be way better than the crap we have today. Solar is a very viable energy source if we can actually harvest the energy efficiently.

We just need to develop what is called 'nantennas' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantenna) which are basically antennas so tiny that they are tuned to the extremely high frequencies of infrared, visible light, or UV. Idaho National Laboratories has designed one to for the largest wavelengths of infrared, but there is very little energy emitted by the sun at that wavelength. Most of the energy is around the visible light spectrum.

 

[Stevec717]

Yeah that is what I'm afraid of. Everyone will be like "look how unsafe nuclear is" and not take into account that:

A) That nuclear plant was build in the 1970s.
B) It was tested to withstand up to a 7.9 earthquake, last reports I heard was the main quake was 9.0 at the epicenter.

Sadly, you know this is already happenning. There always a group who is against something that will use any opportunity to use a tragedy to make their case, no matter how remote or irrelevant the reference.

i.e. - Anti-Gun? Why not use a tragic shooting like Ft Hood to say "See, there you go, all guns need to be outlawed".

Anti Petroleum (Drilling/exp)? take the Gulf Spill - "See, there you go, all offshore drilling must be stopped"

Anti-Nuke - well you get the idea.

These conclusions are myopic, self serving, opportunistic rants put on by those that still wouldn't want Nulcear Power if there never was an accident.

I'm not saying any of these things are 100% safe, but let's be scientific (as mentioned above) and use these events as learing opportunities and as data points when considering the "big picture". (I don't mean to minimize the severity or loss from any of these events by calling them data points).

Nuclear power is still one of our best mid-term power options. It's still not perfect, but it is viable. So is natural gas. Enviro wackos are always pusing for electric cars - great, but where the h*ll do you think the electricity in the plug comes from? Elves? Wind and solar are still far off from being viable commercial sources for replacement of our power needs. France may not be the world leader in many things, but Wine, cheese, and NUCLEAR POWER come to mind. :yikes:

We need to have a sound, long term energy policy to reduce dependence on foreign oil and right now the two biggest steps we can take (both will take 5-10 years to yield results) is develop more Nuclear PLants, Drill Offshore, ANWR, Shale Oil, Oil Sands, etc.


Steve

 

[jamesgti1]

When fuel to heat homes, cook food, heat your shower, power the lights, and generally keep the world turning goes up in price, the public will be much more aimiable towards nuclear power. Let's face it, wind energy is a black hole for money, solar is too inefficient, and there is only so much in the way of fossil fuels. Since the development of nuclear power there have been only a few nuclear power plant disasters that were bad, Chernobyl, the recent Fukishima, and in the 50's Windscale. I think that the benefits of cheap and almost limitless nuclear power far outweighs its costs.

^^^This x2. I lived in France and Morocco for a few years and while cost of living was higher in general, on a percentage basis power was cheap (not petrol of course), most being nuclear in France.

As far as flatulence. There are entire communities in France and Denmark that run (i.e. produce electricity) on these wonderful machines called anaerobic digestors. They run on shit and food waste, literally, to produce biogas. A small number of US dairys use them, and produce so much biogas they end up flaring most of it because they have too much. Not to mention absurb quantities of nat gas in the states.

In the early thirties, leading scientists (Einstien included) believed it would take over 30 years to weaponize the atom. With every major country throwing limitless resources at it's development during WWII, it took less than ten. I agree with Bender, the money, technology and ingenuity to acheive far better energy processes exist, just need the motivation. 5$ gas? $10 gas?

 

[x_paradoxal_x]

Jamesgti: I too lived in europe, but the UK, I actually just moved back stateside after a couple of years over there. Back around christmas time I took a road trip all over Spain, and I was amazed by the amount of Wind energy farms down around Aljacerias/Gibraltar. I almost fell over dead I saw so many of those things. It got me thinking "wow no wonder the Spanish are so broke." I think it just helps underline the fact that right now, Wind isn't the solution. Yeah nuke plants are bloody expensive, but they return that money unlike those big white fans.

 

[jamesgti1]

Jamesgti: I too lived in europe, but the UK, I actually just moved back stateside after a couple of years over there. Back around christmas time I took a road trip all over Spain, and I was amazed by the amount of Wind energy farms down around Aljacerias/Gibraltar. I almost fell over dead I saw so many of those things. It got me thinking "wow no wonder the Spanish are so broke." I think it just helps underline the fact that right now, Wind isn't the solution. Yeah nuke plants are bloody expensive, but they return that money unlike those big white fans.

Maybe their renewable projects are just as heavily subsidized over there as they are here? Drove from Santa Barbara to South Bend, IN this summer and was blown away (haha no pun) by the amount of windfarms out in BFE, america. not to mention their kindof garish.

 

[x_paradoxal_x]

Haha, love the pun. If those fans were cheap to produce, it would be a brilliant idea, but they are not. The government or whomever spends their money on these (energy companies or investors), should put the money into other energy sources that are far cheaper and more efficient.

 

[Bender1]

Haha, love the pun. If those fans were cheap to produce, it would be a brilliant idea, but they are not. The government or whomever spends their money on these (energy companies or investors), should put the money into other energy sources that are far cheaper and more efficient.

Much cheaper over their lifespan per kilowatt hour than almost any other sort of electricity. If you subsidized them to the same extent as fossil fuels they would be nearly free.

 

[jp0319]

I still drive mine the exact same amount and way. It's painful to pay more initially but what do you do? My wife bitched at me when she realized (3 months late) that I'm using 93 and not 87. I told her the car required it and that's just the way it was can't change it so deal with it. I'm not going to ride a bike everywhere because gas is more expensive, if it comes down to it I'll just get like 3 less starbucks a month.

JP

 

[speed]

how much do you pay for fuel?

I live in an Arab country which has one of the most reserves in the region which explains why we can buy premium fuel (octane 98) at $1.82 per gallon. For an oil-rich country, this is actually the 3rd highest in the region, Egypt with so much lesser reserves sells for 1/3 the price.

How much do you pay for in your area?

 

[Xtreme1]

Texas USA 93 Octane $3.81 today for Shell V Power ( US Gallon 3.78 liters)

 

[A_Bowers]

Close to 4 dollars a gallon.

I find this sickening....

 

[Rockchops]

Right up around 4 for 93 octane, think I paid $3.95 the other day.

93 AKI (U.S.) octane = about 98 RON octane

 

[rawbdog]

jeez. iv'e been paying 4.35 for diesel. fuck.

 

[maxtdi]

Petroleum based fuels are, long term, fully unsustainable. It doesn't matter if you reflect on it from an economic position, foreign policy position, or an environmental position; there will be a day when they are too expensive for the average person to rely on. People need to be ready for that.

The first step in getting people ready should be revoking the $60 Billion (yes, $60 Billion) that the U.S. Government gives in subsidies (gifts) to the oil companies. That cash should be redirected into Nuclear, Clean Energy, and Smart Grid implementation.

The natural result would that gas prices would be reflected at their actual cost, rather than hiding their cost in our tax dollars.

The writing is on the wall for production of new internal combustion engines. I think the end is still very far off, but its now definitely on the horizon.

I'd like to see where you got this #. And what exactly this subsidy entails