Mind My Business

Some of you are like me and like to stay current with the events in our nation. Others aren't like me and seem to think there are better places to live in the world. I strongly disagree. I'll admit I am an advocate for facts, truth and most importantly perspective. From time to time I get zealous about things. I've been listening to people and their concerns with what's going on in our country. The things I hear amaze me. Especially with those that are my age. I don't have a lot of confidence with my generation when it comes to intellect. Now before you raise concern, you're probably not who I'm talking about. But then again maybe you are, because maybe you do what I want to talk about.

Lets look at some current things happening around us.

One of the biggest concerns is the energy crisis. Now, I'm absolutely not one of those people that jump on bandwagons. I'm not a lemming, and recently I was called an old man. Yeah, that's right my thoughts and opinions are very much nonconventional. Big deal. To make things clear, I like to look at the bigger picture. I think there is value in having perspective. I like to invest time and energy in learning, instead of just regurgitating someone else's point of view. So, we have an energy crisis. I'd like to change that to: we have an energy "concern". Now, we live in a entitlement society and most believe they are flat out entitled to things such as Healthcare, Gas and tax breaks. I'm sure later in the future people will believe that coffee is something they are entitled to. Here's the deal, we have an energy concern. Lot's of people have an opinion about what we should do about the Oil/gas concern. It amazes me how people become expert mechanics overnight. Some even banter about countries like China paying far less than what we pay here. Remember China is under a Communist Government which subsidizes the cost of fuel, that is why they only pay pennies per gallon. Looking at the offer Sen. McCain made is a perfect example. For those of you that haven't heard McCain is offering a $300M reward for a new automobile battery. He hopes to solve the country's energy concern with cold hard cash. I have to give him credit, I haven't seen anything from Sen. Obama on this issue. McCain is trying and I'll give him credit. So, the object of this idea is to develop a battery that far surpasses existing technology. In addition, a so-called Clean Car Challenge would provide U.S. automakers with a $5,000 tax credit for every zero-carbon emissions car they develop and sell.

McCain's $5,000 tax credit for each zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) sold isn't going to work.

I've confirmed some of my thoughts with the facts. The automobile's annual CO2 emissions (6 tons) and the average life of a vehicle (9 years), you end up with taxpayers forking over to carmakers $5,000 to avoid 54 tons of tailpipe emissions per ZEV car... this equals out to $92.60 per ton of CO2. In comparison, a ton of CO2 only cost about $5.27 on the Chicago Climate Exchange as of June 20th. But having cars that emit no emissions is better, right? Well, here is the perspective that I want to put out there. While we're over here in beautiful Cali driving around in a tiny little ZEV cars, middle america is sucking up all the smoke from the coal factories that provide the electricity for most of our nation. The fact is the coal factories would have to pump out far greater amounts to provide us with enough energy to even use this technology. So basically the emissions shift from the tailpipe to the smokestack at the power plant the generates the electricity. Just tell Auntie Em over in Kansas to deal with it, I'm sure she won't mind. Other things like repair costs, decrease in torque and horsepower result in unpractical traveling. You can't drive these cars long distance, up steep grades and there is also a weight limit. Just like you're electric scooter. I wonder why those haven't had much success. Remember it's a battery under the hood. It's a boondoggle if you ask me.

What about flex-fuel vehicles? Brazil uses them, in fact the majority of the country is driving around in them. Well, slow down.... comparing a nation that is significantly smaller than the U.S. is the first problem. Another problem is thinking our government can waive a magic wand and people will all of a sudden be able to purchase flex-fuel vehicles. Remember when you are sitting in your home that is under your dictatorship you have to consider that beyond your front porch is a market driven economy. The cost of producing such flex-fuels such as Ethanol is far more expensive than Gasoline, not to mention it has less energy. If you took 10 gallons of Gas you would need 15 gallons of Ethanol to equal the same amount of energy. See the problem? Not a money saver for your pocket is it. The country's cost is even greater. Another problem is distribution. Gasoline can be transported through pipelines at long distances, ethanol can't, at least not without replacing our entire pipeline infrastructure. You see, ethanol absorbs water. This means that pipelines transporting ethanol are subject to corrosion the practical solution is transporting by other means such as road and rail rather than the pipelines. This adds another inefficiency in the distribution network. We are also overlooking that Flex-fuel or Ethanol based fuels are dependent on the weather. Have a major drought and your fuel supply depletes. If the fuel is produced from corn, and we enter into a drought we would have to choose between food and fuel. If we are using sugar to produce our fuel, a natural disaster can demolish our production. So, you see flex-fuel isn't a solution it just gives us a different problem.

So what is the answer? Well, telling the oil companies to increase production isn't. Forcing them to lower the price isn't one either. Those views are Communistic and Socialistic. Who are we to tell someone how to run their business. This oil companies don't have to drill. And it isn't an issue of supply and demand either. Coke and pepsi. Apple, Intel and Microsoft have a larger profit margin than the oil companies do. If you don't like the service go somewhere else right? The prices are horrific and people are getting tired of it. But at the same time most don't want to make sacrifices. They want it to be free. They feel entitled to it. people will argue that we have become dependent on fossil fuels and therefore the companies have to lower the price. Well, what about my statement before on coffee. I think we can agree that this nation has become dependent on the coffee industry and I wont be surprised when someone proposes that they change in order to cater to the public. Give me a break. It's kinda like Healthcare, but that's another subject all together. The solution is simple. We have to decide which is more important. Us or the birds? Listen, we need to establish nuclear power. Power that is provided by coal just isn't going to give us the energy we need to do what we need to do. Hybrid cars are much more efficient than the other proposed solutions. We need to stick to the fossil fuels, establish nuclear power which will give us the energy needed for optimum use. Hybrids give us a break on fuel usage and the technology is already there and can only get better. I'm not a huge fan of the Hybrid but it seems to be the only practical solution to the energy concern.

What say you?

Next I think I'll blog either on Obama's Socialistic Healthcare plan or the Global Warming swindle. I don't know we'll just have to see.