With gas prices still high in this country, a lot of companies are investing in alternative technologies.?

Question

Hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells, ethanol cars, and biodiesel are all being pretty well covered in the media. What do you think about these (or any other) alternatives?

Answer 1

High?

If gas followed inflation it would be a lot higher than it is. If the price wasn't kept artificially low alternative technologies would become viable based on price and the oil economy would collapse.

Your best alternative is if you have to use fossil fuel, use it wisely.

Answer 2

The 1970's oil embargo, the late 1980's - fusion-in-a-flask theory and trials, the 1990's Gulf-war, should have been our wake up calls. But it came and went with only a few entities acting positively on limiting our dependence to fossil fuels. All this years it seems that oil was still cheaper. With the current situation on oil prices and with the better technologies available, alternatives will indeed be "the" business for the coming years, and hopefully we learned our lessons after all these decades.

Note worthy are the steam engined-trucks during WW2 - saw it in an old movie; use of ethanol (from sugar cane before - now also corn) as fuel additive - heard it first Brazil as "alcogas" in the 1970's - others followed but I think it was only Brazil who went full swing in to it (?); use of hydogen gas - an off-shoot from the simple chemistry water electrolysis model - safe tank / containers were developed - heard already of trial filling stations; electric cars - the boy's dream toy in the 1960's named "go-cart" and reliable golf cars are now taking center stage with efficient and smaller batteries being developed, LPG which was only solely for cooking / heating are now fast becoming alternative to gasoline with a lot of advantage, fuel efficient engines - better mileage with lesser gasoline - running at more than 30km per liter of gasoline was already advertised by a company for their sedan model, solar paneled vehicles are on a race / contest in Austrailia for a number of years already; and a lot more on the energy / power generation.

The only limiting factor for now was the time missed for development / trials / improvements - which was somehow over-looked, and most of these alternatives and technologies were already conceived - almost four decades ago (or even more).

Answer 3

I would have no problem with the price of gasoline in the United States going up in price if the reason was for higher gasoline taxes that are more properly earmarked for transportation/infrastructure improvements (rather than put into a general fund). If the extra higher prices meant better bridge/tunnel upkeep, road repair, and even better funded alternative transportation methods (rail, commuter light rail/bus/subway service, carsharing, carpool matchup services, etc.) or alternative fuel research, I wouldn't mind the upward price changes. However, most of the upward pricing in the US is just market driven. Higher demand = higher prices. Oil companies are touting record profits over the last few years, with higher stock prices and nice dividend payouts. More Americans are owning more cars and driving more miles on those cars than they did in the past. (Add to that pressures from other developing nations, like China, where citizens are acquiring more cars and therefore using more gasoline too, and demand world-wide for gasoline is going up.) I do think that it is fair to complain that the price of gasoline is going up to just line the wallets of the oil companies (and their shareholders, which includes many of the complaining Americans thanks to mutual funds in their retirement plans) with no other good coming out of it. However, some of the complaining should go farther to point at the real source - the higher demand for the fuel. If Americans demanded more fuel-efficient cars (such as buying the most fuel-efficient vehicle in whatever class that met their needs), and drove with better fuel efficiency in mind (slow down to the speed limit, no jackrabbit start/stops, no idling, combining trips, better maintenance of their car (such as proper tire inflation and regular filter changes), then there'd be less demand for the fuel and therefore there would be less upward price pressure.

Answer 4

All alternatives are good. With world demand for oil growing faster than the supply you can expect prices to go up and up. This will make alternatives more attractive. I think we will see lots of work in this area in the next decades. One big alternative that I expect to be widely used is liquid fuel made from coal. This will be bad for global warming though, unlike other alternatives.

Answer 5

Most alternatives are good for specific needs. I think we may also see many more small diesels in the future. Other than the diesels and hybrids, most alternatives are not yet very cost effective. As fuel prices increase, we may see more/better designs available.

I welcome anything that will get us off foriegn oil.