Alternatives in transportation today and the future, Part 1

10-9-2008

Today, since we have all been hurting from the high fuel prices, let’s talk about fuel and the alternatives out there for transportation. I’ll talk about what I think and what I’ve done about it. That being said here are the alternatives that you can choose from (did I miss any?):

• Gasoline powered vehicles
• Diesel powered vehicles
• Hybrid powered vehicles
• Electric powered vehicles
• Train
• Bus
• Walk
• Bike (human powered vehicles)

Let’s just begin with the first few and see how far that I can get today.

Gasoline powered vehicles

• Pros: roads are heavily subsidized, infrastructure already in place, can use alternate fuels, can use hypermiling,
• Cons: dangerous, costly, inconvenient breakdowns (part failures, flat tires, bad fuel), inefficiency

Diesel powered vehicles

• Pros: roads are heavily subsidized, infrastructure already in place, more efficiency, can use hypermiling, can use alternate fuels, more efficient that gasoline power, fewer moving parts
• Cons: dangerous, costly (insurance, fuel parts), inconvenient breakdowns (part failures, flat tires, bad fuel), inefficiency, fewer stations carry diesel, may gel without additives in cold climates.

Just like the old days

Green Backslide?

I really wanted to get start talking about some exciting but practical ways that you can get immediate benefits from tips and techniques that I have found or thought up concerning alternative energy and conservation. But instead I just can’t’ resist spending this time talking about a frightening trend that I am seeing just in time for Halloween.

Is this “déjà vu all over again”? I hope we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past but it is starting to smell like the 70’s again. I just heard that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed legislation that would have imposed a pollution fee on cargo ships at the ports of Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach. He claims that it would have placed an additional “financial burden” on businesses in these hard times. Aren’t these the same stinky businesses that polluted the air in the first place? When is it going to stop? When we all have asthma and brain damage and lung cancer?

Excuses, excuses, looks to me like we are heading for another green backslide. We never seem to learn. Once the politicians have armed themselves with the tanking economy as an excuse to let the stinkers off the hook, the US can once again cave to the interests of the big corporations –including big oil. I know the oil companies have been really hurting for money lately (sarcasm intended). Meanwhile we can happily slide back into our old habits and the dark ages. Corporate marketing works wonders. It can hypnotize the entire nation into buying stuff that we don’t need so they can make more money and share less of it with fewer people. We can go right back to building McMansions, driving giant trucks, SUV’s and inefficient automobiles. I’m sure more oil drilling will get us out of this mess right?  Along as we can get the price of oil to keep falling (the price dropped again today), the mass of fat, dumb and happy Americans can get right back to their hectic lifestyles so they can pay down their debt on all the giant crap that they own. Oh well don’t worry, once this credit crunch thing is over we can get right back into debt. Just be patient, the government is taking care of it so you won’t have to change that lifestyle that you borrowed yourself into.  The rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer and the middleclass will just go away.

Hello lean, mean and green and world!

While I work on computers and websites, my greatest passion and love always has been all forms of alternate energy. Now that it’s cool again (or finally fashionable) to be green, I’d love to energize and build a raving group of people who never will let us slide into energy apathy again.

My mission is to gather and discuss all information regarding the support of new energy sources, conservation of existing energy sources and the transition from the old to the new. Here is the one place to consolidate and exchange all information concerning current strategies and innovative ideas about all energy. Here is the no BS zone; we will expose the truth and debunk the myths and legends about new energy, while carefully examining our reliance on the old finite shrinking reserves of fossil fuels as we move into an uncertain future.

The scope of this mission will include, but not be limited to, the following:

• Transportation
• Housing
• Heating/Cooling
• Food

All of these are the basic necessities that are essential to our survival. The United States has long been a leader in technology and innovation. Our sad decline down the slippery slope to energy apathy, even as Europe developed a superior infrastructure, was due to many factors. Some say it was corporate greed backed by the power of lobbyists to ensure status quo, government short sightedness, consumer ignorance and the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality that got us into this mess. Regardless of the causes, here we are with no bullet trains, no comprehensive effective light rail systems, McMansion houses, and giant trucks, SUV and automobiles that consume the most energy of any country on the planet. Let’s get on the ball and become a world leader again instead of being slaves to the market. Let’s learn our lesson (as we should have from the 1970’s) and reverse the trend. I hope it doesn’t take 50 years (as experts have predicted) to undo the automobile-based mess that we have gotten ourselves addicted to.