ComputerHunter.org |
|
|
|||
|
 |
Are We Serious About Fuel Alternatives?
As you can see from some of our previous articles, government agencies predict about 40 years of petroleum still remains. As usage climbs, the amount of time remaining may shrink even more. New reserves will be found, but developing countries, such as we're seeing in China with their industrial revolution taking place, will demand greater volumes of petroleum to supply energy needs. People under 50 years of age should be considering this phenomenon as a potentially life-changing circumstance. For most of us, there is little we can do except watch events play out, and perhaps vote when the opportunity arises. Our industries must step up to the plate to meet the task at hand. Since the first petroleum shortages of the 70's, some groups have come to the forefront to inform others about the dangers and difficulties we will face. Few took them seriously. Radical groups made drastic lifestyle changes to reduce their own fuel consumption, and hoped that others would follow suit. Not likely. However, these groups are and have been dedicated to spreading the word to the public that we are running out of fuel as we know it. It won't be today, nor next week, nor even 10 years from now. Maybe it's 80 years from now, but all signs and reports indicate we are running out. Social Security also has 40 years of successful operation, but the Bush Administration has clearly taken on the task of "fixing social security", because in about 40 years it's going to crash too, according to administrative estimates. We suggest that fuel alternatives are even more important than social security. Without fuel----and MASSIVE quantities of it--- this nation will dry up like a sand dune. Operations of most business will cease, and we'll be returned to the pre-industrial age. Keep vaccinating the horse population for West Nile Virus?..we may need them for transportation. It is our belief, although we have no solid evidence, that fuel companies are squarely behind the petroleum pumps, and the scare is played very low-key. Huge profits exist where a product can simply be drawn from the ground, and with one refining process, produce gasoline, diesel fuel, propane, methane, etc. from the run. It is by far, the cheapest present alternative for large companies. All corporate companies are dollar driven, and so it makes perfect sense for them to continue using petroleum. Our government has committed more resources than we can ever afford, to secure and protect our overseas interests where petroleum is abundant. If new massive volumes of petroleum are located, it will alleviate some of the crisis for the time being. But this looming crisis will never go away. It is imperative that government begin providing the means for business of all sizes to develop alternative fuel strategies. Government does at present provide some incentives, in tax breaks, informational support, and even grants, but more can be done. Investing large quantities of time and money into the research and development of alternatives is crucial. As supplies dwindle, this ever-growing concern will do just that. It will grow. Oil companies will continue to lobby Congress, and place propaganda in the public eye to insure them that everything is OK??just buy oil. But at the same time, the concern about dwindling supplies, and the subsequent raise in prices for petroleum fuels will begin to catch the attention of the general public. At present, the best bet for alternative, renewable fuels appears to exist with ethanol, biodiesel, and the newest addition to the list, hydrogen fuel cells. But full compatibility with regard to motors and machinery will require some changes in manufacturing. Since most new vehicles are now monitored by computerized equipment, governments need to encourage engine manufacturers to engineer and develop computerized motors that can determine a fuel mix, ethanol, gasoline, biodiesel, etc. and make adjustments to the fuel burning mix at the injection point. Few changes would be needed on the pistons or block. Piston technology is, in its primitive sense, the same design for the last 100 years when steam coursed through the cylinders instead of fuel explosion force. Air-fuel ratios are the biggest hurdle in engine conversions, and computerized sensors would allow a slow changeover without interruptions. By being able to sense what fuel is being used, engines could run on ethanol/gasoline for gas engines, or diesel/biodiesel for diesel engines, with any proportions, and switch back and forth. While some may envision a whiskey still in everyone's backyard, that is far from realistic. Americans enjoy their plush way of life, and expect to pull up to a fuel pump anywhere in their travels and fill up their tank. Only the fuel mega-companies are up to the task of maintaining such presence. So with all likelihood, the future of alternative fuel manufacturing still lies with major petro-producers. Some experts have said that alternative fuels are "unfeasible". Perhaps a true statement when looking at the bottom line profit, but as petroleum prices rise, this gap closes, and may reach a point where feasibility is achieved. Corporations will make the jump when this gap is closed?..it's a simple buck to them. It will be important that the American community at large supports such conversions with their capital stock investments, and with their patronage. In other words, be willing to burn an alternative fuel. Along the lines of feasibility, how about making it feasible for farmers to produce high-oil crops, or crops for fuel? Millions of acres in the Midwest lay idle, because the government programs that pay farmers NOT to grow crops are more lucrative than the potential profit of growing them. For the farmer, it is also a simple buck. So if the government is going to invest tax dollars in these operations, how about paying a farmer TO GROW a crop used for fuel? At least this would allow such acreage payments to be a benefit to the country??perhaps the world, by moving slowly toward independence with regard to fuel production. Electrical power generation is another large consumer of energy. Nuclear, coal, and hydroelectric make up the bulk of this grid, but wind power is beginning to make significant additions as well. In the last website we reviewed, electricity from wind power is at about 6%. There is tremendous opportunity to increase the contributions of electrical power via wind and hydro. Because the amounts of power needed are so great, wind farms and hydroelectric dams are huge development projects, which can have a great impact on the landscape and surrounding environment. Environmentalists that reject such proposals need to give themselves a reality check, and come to grips with the size of the problems America faces. Yes, hydro and wind will impact the environment. Yes, we'll kill some birds. And yes, some fish (lots of fish) will be re-navigated because of hydroelectric dams. But no American??not even an environmentalist?..is willing to give up their computer, their hair dryer, their car, their massive amounts of printer paper, their telephones, their cell phones, their lovely homes?..well, you get the idea. So the impact to the planet if we do NOT develop these technologies is significantly worse. No one will willingly return to the stone age, so any and every fossil fuel will be seized, stolen, or warred after to make the power?..at far greater environmental harm. It is more likely that America would bomb itself back into the stone age over the last drop of oil rather than "conserve" or adapt the livestyle of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We believe that true energy freedom will not be acquired until our energy is produced from renewables within our borders. Mega-consolidators will still hold the reins to alternative energies. They'll still have their lobbyists, and a lot of money in their coffers. However, the American Dream will still live on. Our way of life depends upon the procurement and distribution of affordable energy. Only with public support and the encouragement of Congress can businesses develop the systems needed to make it happen. ---Tom Clouser, Madisonburg, PA Tom Clouser is a 38 year old farmer in Pennsylvania. In addition to farming, he and his father publish a monthly 16-page newspaper called "Trees 'n' Turf", which targets subjects of interest to those in land use industries and activities. View their website at http://www.clouserfarm.net
Google News - Top Stories
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Hypocrisy of Over Regulation All to often law makers and regulators create rules and regulations using a linear mindset. They claim they understand the issues, even have public hearings to prove it. Yet the people who are able to attend such things are usually lawyers and losers. Losers because anyone in the market place who was winning does not have time to show up, they are too busy producing and participating in their respective industries. So they hire attorneys to show up and talk with regulators. Those attorneys who have no real clients of any value also show up because they know be getting in bed with the regulators and bending over a little, they can get the occasional reach around in the process and a little juice. This can help them get good corporate clients and make big bucks. All these scoundrel, I mean attorneys have to do is promise the regulators jobs when they get sick of the bureaucracy. Workmens Compensation Lawyers, Lets Raise Minimum Wage; No Lets Not, Say We Did, We Have The debate to raise minimum wage in California is totally negated. The debate holds no weight because workmen's compensation rates are completely out of control there. Arnold the Governator was able to get a little reform but with all the lawsuits flying it is no use, the system is broken. How can the employers pay the workers anymore, they are already paying more only the insurance companies are getting the money not the workers. This recent article is very telling indeed. Lawyers and Franchising It is amazing how the Federal Trade Commission has destroyed franchising, by selling the industry out to lawyers. We need to have accountability for the regulators and we can start by firing the head of the Franchising Group at the Federal Trade Commission and anyone who has worked in that department in the last 6-10 years. Let me give you an example of what the Federal Trade Commission's Franchising Group's policies have made a mockery out of the purest of business models; Franchising. The Dawn On The Nile Valley Has Secrets To Tell! (2) Submiting the Criminals to The ICC! When Political Correctness in NOT a Virtue The other day I was sucker punched, hoodwinked, bamboozled, had the wool pulled over my eyes, and generally sidelined by an expert in Political Correctness. In fact, so sidelined did I get that I have been depressed for a week-and I mean really depressed. How Can You Have True Freedom if They Control Every Aspect of Your Life? Freedom is in the eyes of the beholder. In Communist Countries the populations are told they have a good life and a great life's purpose, supporting the country and leadership with a much needed and important job. In Capitalistic countries in the current period we find most of the nation's inhabitants completely economically enslaved in debt. All There is, is dust in the wind; Dust Particulate Traveling The Globe Dust from Deserts and Particulate Control Electronic Commerce Taxation: Emerging Legal Issues - Part I The CBR taxes the Pakistani source income of nonresident individuals and foreign corporations with respect to income that arises from a trade or business, however, Pakistan generally asserts jurisdiction only with respect to taxable income which is effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the Pakistan. Liberal Agenda and Communism; Lance Rants If we go hog wild towards the liberal agenda where everything is equal and everything is fair and it does not matter if you produce or not or have any productivity all you're still entitled the same amount of potatoes, then you will find every American in line for said potatoes. Think of this unemployment lines of 2000 as our inability to live within reality as we listen to podium pushers promise us the world of unattainable dreams, of an unreachable utopia for the impossible price of FREE? Oh really since when? Quite frankly it cannot exist without the commitment, integrity and teamwork that built this country in the first place. Freedom is not free, it did not just pop up one day and say HELLO, HERE I AM, HOPE YOU LIKE IT. How Senator Sarbaines and Oxley Destroyed America You have probably heard of the Sarbaines Oxley Law (SOX) on corporate governance to make corporations totally transparent. And the voters and investors wanted this law so they could know which companies to invest in so they could make 20% per year on their money, which they damn well feel entitled to. The issues is that those corporations abroad do not have to follow those laws and therefore are able to scan and study all that financial data to beat American Companies in the market place. Smelter Closures In America Hurt Our Industrial Output The United States is losing its industrial capacity quite rapidly. Some environmentalists call these "old industries" and say we do not need them anymore; that we want clean industries. Yet the environmental mitigation equipment has kept up with the needs and our heavy and older industrial industries. Such industries are extremely important to the health of our nation because they represent the raw material production needed to make things. The closer these industries are to the final assembly points of parts means cost savings are rendered which make it easier to compete on the finished products with foreign competitors. For instance if we have a low dollar compared to the rest of the world we have an advantage in cost. But if we eat up that advantage in transporting the processed raw materials from foreign lands then the advantage is lost in transportation and distribution. UAV Materials and Thoughts on New Technologies and Keeping Up With Our Opponents Possible UAV materials are infinite: Foam, Composite, Balsa Wood, Plastic, Synthetic Balloon Material, Aluminum, Titanium, Spider Web Organic Material, etc. I propose some late breaking technology and newer materials, ceramic coatings and or UAVs built from photorefractive composites? Materials such as this: The Looting of American Taxpayers Social Security Disability by Fraudulent Employers Pt. 1 For more than a decade, you the American taxpayer have been burdened with my disability assistance. Why? Because my high-profile employer, a member of the bar and a politically connected entity in this area along with the assistance of his insurance carrier, insurance investigator and other members of the bar as well as a president-elect of a national civil rights organization at the local level assisted my former employer to get away with denying multiply sustained on-the-job injury and infirmities. The Power of Media: Russian Perspective Journalism, as it is often said, is the 'fourth branch of power', along with legislative, executive and judiciary, not any less mighty than those three, even if not legally endorsed in the Russian constitution. It is the power of symbolism, and it cannot be escaped, but can only "used" to bring truth, or "abused" to bring propaganda. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdier claims, that it is the opportunity to create reality with the help of words: we are approaching the time, when the social universe is described and prescribed by mass media. One cannot but agree with this view. Bio Attack Nation Unready We are told by out leadership that we risk loss of American life from a Bio-Attack. This is quite a scary notion. We have already allotted over 20 Billion US Dollars to the cause of prevention since 9-11. Tom Ridge indicated that Bio-Terrorism is amongst one of our biggest fears, as much or more than nuclear detonation within our borders. Meanwhile we have Pig Disease and Bird Flu running its course in China and the CDC, WHO, HHS and other organizations and agencies are warning of us an impending Pandemic on top of any Bio-logical or chemical attack being planned by Al Queda. Fair Trade and Pearls in the U.S. Guides for Retailers Technology and International Terrorism Airlines do not allow cell phones on board, but they do allow AirCell a specialized new technology for in flight calls. AirCell's technology has been approved by the FCC because it uses a single regulated frequency. Normal cell phones are not allowed on flights because with the current technology a phone trying to connect with ground cell towers might connect with multiple sites and confusing the system and ties up space and could possibly interfere with avionics, which I disagree because the 900 MHz band is quite unique in its frequency characteristics and not close to the other. AirCell is the only airborne cellular system operating on a traditional cellular frequency band, which has been proven to the FCC not to interfere with nearby communications. The FTC Purports and Misrepresents Their Law Enforcement Experience as It Attacks Business We should all give much kudos to the Federal Trade Commission. We sincerely compliment you on your misdirection, smoke screams and use of self-aggrandizement to further justify the on-going ability to govern, lead, legislate, regulate, and enforce law in the franchising industry. Many of the fear tactics and public relations ploys at the Federal Trade Commission show tactics straight out of the Machiavellian Play Book. Therefore we believe some sort of award is deserved for such strict adherence to that methodology. Paid Assassins The civil war in Iraq seems to be much more mild than some had been predicted. Many pundits painted a doom and gloom scenario out of control. Yet we see in time period in Iraq that the civil war is reduced in duration. Generally civil wars do involve other nation states supporting one or the other. Ours surely did. Both the North and South had outside support. The Iraqi situation is no different. But all in all these things are to be expected by anyone who studies history and our war planners definitely have studied up on these things. NAFTA; What did we learn? A quick look back at NAFTA; how did we do?
|
|
|
|
|
