Why isn't our country seriously pursuing new fuel options?

Question

It would mean less dependance on oil, and a cleaner environment. Are the multibillion dollar oil companies using their money to make sure we don't develop something that could greatly change our lives so they can stay in power? I mean hybrids are nice but that can't be the best they can come up with? E85 sounds great, but what's the point of buying a car that can use E85 when barely any gas stations carry it, and those who do are only selling it for around 30 cents less than normal gas.

Answer 1

Because there is not yet a pressing enough need to suffer the pain of the high cost and possible failure of efforts to discover and develop new energy sources. That will change when oil runs low, but for now oil is such a cheap, abundant and easy energy source, and society is a little complacent. Not just our country, but all countries.

Answer 2

I think someone will come up with a great solution sooner or later. But for the time being we are being held hostage by big business and some government.

A good example of where we have been are the oil fields of the North Shore Alaska, they have, what some agree is the second largest oil resources in the world. I say resources because they are not be kept as reserves... Our government simply stopped the pumping and building the pipeline back in the 70's.

As far as where we can go, just look at Orville and Wilbur Wright, or Alexander Bell. Both had enormous inventions that took hold and moved our world at mind boggling speed. Bell retired after two years working with his own company (Bell Tel).

In a nut shell, no one is guaranteeing E85 or any of the other mixes, not to mention how to distribute. But keep the faith, there's some person out there that is working on a new carburetor or engine, that when they have become successful in their invention it will be so big that no one will be able to stop it! Not even Exon or Mobil.

Answer 3

They are but not fast enough. E85 fuel? That is blown completely out of proportion. Has anyone looked into e85? Yes. I can produce enough e-85 fuel to run my car for several months on one 50 lb sack of corn. What is E-85? 85% Ethanol (moonshine) and 15% petrol. I own a Renewable Energy Business, and can tell you, everything I own can run E-85. E-85 flex fuel is just a new fancy word. Back in the day moonshine runners used to run their vehicles on moonshine with a shot of oil added to it. The cost at the pump? beyond me, it cost .75 to make the stuff, the only thing I can see is lining the pockets of the tax takers. A lot of gas stations are not educated in E-85, and some can't afford the extra tank and pump.

I burn e85 in the car, truck, and lawn equipment. So folks really need to get educated on e85.

Here is a helpful link to help more folks understand:

http://www.e85fuel.com/e85101/flexfuelvehicles.php

If you go to this link you will find a lot of useful information. But the biggest thing don't listen to the news and media, it is all hype. More and more stations are getting the pumps, and it will take more time to get it in all areas.

We run E-85 in our new Chev. Monte Carlo. When reg. unleaded gas was at 3.35 we were still paying 2.75 per gal. It is a much cleaner and environment freindly burning fuel. It is not totally clean but cleaner than regular petro. There are ways to convert any vehicle and internal combustion vehicle to E-85. The reason we have to have the 15% gasoline is the oil content. Most carburators and fittings cannot handle straight ethanol. It will eventually break down pot metals and aluminum if no petro is added.

Go to that link and start looking around for answers. A lot of folks have cars that will burn it, they don't know it.

By the way, our gas mileage and performance is almost equal as unleaded fuel. Depends on driving habits.

Answer 4

Have you read the multi-billion dollar energy bill?

They are trying, so be prepared to pay for it. In your electrical bill, natural gas bill, propane, heating oil, and at the gas pump.

Yeah, E85 might be 10% "cheaper" per gallon, but you'll use 30% MORE. Sounds like more expensive PER MILE.

When will you be pissed off? When electricity and gas prices double? triple? quadruple? Because the only way we really reduce electricity and gas usage is to raise the cost A LOT. If you don't believe me look at the % of trucks and SUVs on the road. Look at the people who keep their house as cold as an ice box in the summer and warm as an oven in the winter.

Answer 5

The big oil companies are suppressing the technology. They've bought the patents that could be used for batteries for all-electric cars and restricted them so only batteries suitable for hybrids are available to most manufacturers. The technology exists to build electric cars with a 200 to 300 mile range, and in fact Tesla Motors is making one, but none of the Big Three automakers have the guts to take on Big Oil. GM caved in and crushed every EV1 they had made except a few disabled ones displayed in museums. I find it extremely hard to believe their claim that there wasn't enough demand when people who had leased them were begging to buy them rather than allow them to be crushed. If the Bush administration had gone after Bin Laden and al-Qaeda with the same fanatical zeal that went into destroying the EV1s, al-Qaeda would be history.

I'm not advocating carbon taxes or other measures to force people into compliance. I'm just saying why can't they give us the option and let us choose for ourselves? The Republicans are always spouting off about the importance of the free market, but the truth is they're afraid of a little competition and they'll do anything to crush it. I hope courageous companies like Tesla Motors will hang in there and turn things around.

This isn't just conspiracy theory. It's been thoroughly documented in the movie, "Who Killed the Electric Car?". I haven't seen it yet, but I've read quite a bit about it. Just based on what I've read from various sources, I'd say that if anything it goes a little too easy on the government and big oil. It doesn't take an MBA degree to recognize that even if GM wasn't making a big profit on the EV1s, they could have recouped some of their losses by keeping them on the road until the leases ended, or selling them to the people who wanted to buy them. They actually threw money away by destroying them, so they must have gotten a huge incentive from someone to killl the EV1.

KAVE, other countries are doing better than the US on alternatives. The Japanese are way ahead of the US on hybrid technology. In fact the only "American-made" hybrid currently available is the Ford Escape Hybrid, which is actually made by Mazda with technology licensed by Toyota. More significantly, a British company is producing a fuel-cell-powered motorcycle (see third link). That's about the cleanest energy source imaginable, and US manufacturers are still years from putting a fuel-cell-powered vehicle into production.

Answer 6

Oil will not run out for a long time, and there was never a shortage. The shortage was due to not enough refineries to change the oil to gas, and the solution was to build them in the Middle East and create OPEC. And as far as running out of oil, the US hasn't even touched it's supply yet. Pennsylvania is loaded with it, and is the first place in the world where oil was drilled for. Massachusetts is another place, and San Fransisco is yet another. Pretty much from a few miles out to a 100 miles inland from anywhere on the East or West coasts you will hit oil. But no one want you to know this. Senator Larry Craig of Idaho has a complete plan.

Answer 7

It is largely because the big oil companies do not want to lose their grip on the entire United States. Also alternative energy solutions right now, are a lot more expensive. Our countries biggest hope is the E85 which is 85% corn oil and 15% refined gasoline. There are E85 gas stations and GM has a full lineup of E85 or "Flex Fuel" compatable cars, but refineries are not at full readiness or are not very effiecient yet. All in all it won't be long espescially with the import hybrid cars before us as America joins the party.

Answer 8

Based on your question, you must have done extensive research to show that no one in the US is looking for alternate energy? That's what I thought - just because you don't have it, it must mean we aren't trying...

And I laugh at you liberals blaming Bush! Even if Bush had that much control on the US, why aren't other countries using other energy sources, huh?

Because they don't exist!

E85 is a joke! Costs nearly the same as gasoline, gets worse gas mileage than gasoline, and takes more energy to manufacture than gasoline.

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, E85 has made everything else in the US (corn, beef, chicken, etc., etc.) more expensive! That's just great!

This just proves that we need to better assess the impacts of new energy sources completely before the government steps in and mandates its use.

Answer 9

They are looking for stuff, but there just is not anything as clean and efficient as oil. E85 ethanol is horrible for the environment, as it has dangerous emissions and the growing of corn or sugar cane is causing the clear-cutting of forests. Not to mention is greatly reduces the life of your engine... by about 50%.

Dont think for a moment that oil companies dont want to find another product to sell you. Exxon-Mobile does not care if it sells you gasoline or some new form of energy... they will be selling you energy.

New technology takes time... people cant just snap their fingers and have a new form of energy. But their are plenty of people and companies that want to get rich of turning water into energy, or make any of a number of brilliant ideas work.

Answer 10

A TV newscast from WKYC channel 3 (WKYC.com) had a report on John Kanzuis of Erie, Penn. who has invented a machine that will burn saltwater. It was tested in the labs in Akron Oh. by APU polymer engineers and the broadcast can be seen, with interviews of the inventor and 2 Akron engineers, by checking the archives of the TV station. That's a clean fuel and the most abundant resource on earth...saltwater. Even a demonstration w/ a small steam engine. This could make the sand and oil "over there" equal in value.