What gives me a good laugh is these yuppie do-gooders who think their electric cars are "saving the planet". What charges those POS electric vehicles??? COAL!!!
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What gives me a good laugh is these yuppie do-gooders who think their electric cars are "saving the planet". What charges those POS electric vehicles??? COAL!!!
Money is not the root of all evil, the love of money is.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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It varies here in the Northeast. A lot of our electricity is produced by hydroelectric dams. Some is nuclear energy and they're started putting up offshore wind turbines. There's a bit of solar here and there. We had a bio-mass plant in the area but that shut down a few years ago after the paper mill closed.
Not much for natural gas & coal in this area. That's the sensible choice for parts of the country where they have coal mines nearby.
In a way I can see what H.G. was driving at. It's not so much oil that's the problem but IMPORTED oil. I'm sure most of the old timers here can still remember the gas lines during the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970's. The arabs got pissed off over something and OPEC cut off our oil supplies. That drove energy costs up and triggered the economic crisis of the late 70's & early 80's.
They turned around and screwed us over again after we invaded Afghanistan & Iraq. Gasoline & diesel went from around a 1.00 USD a gallon up to around 3.85 USD / gal. That triggered consumer price inflation and the recession that hit over the winter of 2007-2008.
Like anything else there were winners and losers. Along with high energy prices came high scrap prices. When gas & diesel dropped the bottom dropped out of the scrap market and a lot of the scrap yards were forced out of business. Guys that were doing steel full time and making a living at it had to step back ask themselves if it was still worth doing. Operating costs were high and after steel prices dropped there really wasn't much meat left on the bone anymore.
~ It's all interconnected. ~
We're dependent on imported oil for about 1/4 of what we use. That's millions and millions of barrels a day. Basically, what it comes down to, is that if we start getting cocky and throwing our military weight around our neighbors in the world can give us a good spanking by screwing up our economy. We're vulnerable that way.
The other thing is that it's a lot of money leaving our economy. Other parts of the world are getting rich off oil sales and we're not as well off as we once were.
Last edited by Scrappah; 09-14-2016 at 06:02 AM.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Wind and solar can power those electric vehicles just as well as coal or nuclear enegry. Those dinosaurs are killing the planet.
I suppose that the only reason you stopped burning insulation off of wire is because you were told not to?
As far as the mess disappearing. Look at the defense budget. It should probably be renamed the "lets ensure our war profit" budget.
Prohibition was enacted by Standard Oil to ensure oil profits.
Hemp was made illegal by the same interests because Ford was manufacturing cars that ran on bio-diesel.
So yeah, this mess wouldn't exist if we could end our thirst for oil.
How much more destruction are you willing to endure?
Cash In The Trash
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Has anyone discussed the issues of unreliable power production, or the fact there is no way to ( energy efficiently ) store it ?Originally Posted by HipoGear
Australia has cut it's use of wind and solar due to how much damage it has caused it's grid !
In the US, if you account for day/night cycles, time of the year, clouds, weather, and humidity, you'd roughly need to cover 68% of the landmass with solar panels ... giving current wind generation statistics, you'd roughly need about 26,000,000 turbines ( each requiring about 100 acres to be cleared of trees, to efficiently operate ).
Last edited by RLS0812; 09-14-2016 at 11:57 PM.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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There's no single magic bullet to cure all of our energy problems. Those who believe that there is should step up and put their beliefs into practice in the real world.
~ Talk is cheap ... action is precious ~
Our family has reduced our (imported) fuel oil use from around 1,200 gallons per year down to about 150 gallons per year by switching to locally available renewable energy resources. In the past year we reduced our electric use about 20% by switching over to LED lighting.
It's A LOT of hard manual labor but it saves money and addresses some of the other problems we've been talking about. Switching over to energy efficient appliances means that new power plants don't need to be built. It reduces the load on the ones that are already here and they pollute less.
The thing is that it's all situational. What works best in one part of the country might not work in another. The Northern states use a lot of energy for keeping their homes warm in the winter. The Southern states use a lot of energy for cooling in the summer so their needs are different.
From what i've seen solar hot water works well just about everywhere. Half the domestic energy needs for a family of four are for hot water. For some reason we really haven't embraced it here in the U.S. It's probably the initial cost. The best figures i've got for Australia say that about half the homes heat their water with the sun but it's a different situation there. It works out to be cheaper to pay the up front cost than buy for other forms of energy.
Electricity from solar and wind has had some time to develop but it doesn't really work that well. Hard to say .... it might be one of those things where it seemed like a good idea at the time but it never really panned out. There might be something more sensible come along in the future.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Well ... let's stop an noodle it through for a moment. We have a large defense budget and i guess you could say that we are the number one global military superpower.
Okay ... the next question is what are we doing with our military ?
As it stands right now we're in the role of acting as the global police force. We're protecting not only ourselves but many other nations as well.
Take Australia for instance: They've done a pretty good job of keeping a balanced budget. Their government also provides a lot of services to it's citizens. It would be fair to say that they have a Socialist economic system. There really ain't no such thing as a free lunch. All of those services have to be paid for but the question is .... who is footing the bill ?
First off ... it's the citizens. Taxes are fairly high there. They take a good chunk of what you make every week.
Secondly ... They've been selling off their natural resources to the Chinese. The Chinese need those vital resources to keep their manufacturing base in production. In the real world you sometimes have to take vitally important natural resources from your neighbor by force if your survival depends on it.
Thirdly ... consider the global projection of American military power abroad. The Australian government is so heavily invested in it's social programs that it's military isn't capable of defending itself from bullies that would invade their country and take their stuff. We just re-ratified our treaty with their government to maintain AMERICAN military bases on their soil.
They're kinda riding on our dime aren't they ?
They've got a fairly balanced budget and ours is a mess.
What's the right thing to do here ?
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