[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

1. IF today they came out with a Electric car/hydrogen car/CNG car/Solar car etc that would perform and have the range of a Gasoline engined car it would take aproximately 16 years to replace all the cars in the USA alone.
This is based on that last year there were 250 million cars in the USA, and dividing that by the number of cars sold last year. also assuming that nobody that bought one would buy another one before every car was replaced, and each car traded in would be destroyed and the materials recycled never to be used again.

I don't feel that that's a valid argument. Just because it's not going to fix our problems now, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. Abandoning a project because it's going to take a while to get to a final result is a bad idea...

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

2. Even If we invented a new Battery and solar cells that would equal the range of a gas powered car, What are other natural resources that would probably be used in their manufacture. also what polution would the disposal of these batteries with their exotic materials cause?

True. Yet we don't know what we've invented yet, if you take my meaning.
It is possible that some new battery, or any electrical-engery storage tech will arise that requires a space no bigger than a laptop battery to power your car... Just saying.
In any event, I agree; right now, I'm not sure we could put our current battery tech into all the vehicles in the road due to lack of resources. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't put it in SOME. This goes along with the whole energy diversity idea. Relying on ONE sole source of energy is stupid. We're seeing the results of that stupidity with Oil..........

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

3. How many people will be electrocuted or burned to death by one of these new Electric Cars? With high currents and voltages in the cars, they would have to be able to withstand an high speed accident without causing a short circuit that may electrocute passengers, safety workers, or even cause a fire.

If gasoline were to be introduced RIGHT NOW as a new "alternative fuel"...it'd be shot down in a heartbeat. It's expolsive, you know!?!

Current electric cars (see: Tesla Roadster) have built-in saftey systems that isolate parts of the battery if one part of it experiences a "thermal event". This prevents the whole battery from exploding all at once. It also has sensors (similar to airbag deployment) that sever any electrical connections thought to possibly electricute passengers and/or rescue crews. In many senses, an electric car is safer than our gasoline-powered cars.

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

4. Hydrogen power.. now they say Hydrogen is the most abundent naturally occuring fuel we have. This is true, but what if we start extracting it from our oceans and atmosphere at such a great rate needed to fuel our economy. What kind of environmental impact will that cause? They say burning Hydrogen only expells Water vapor from the tailpipe, introduction of that much water vapor into the atmosphere from millions of cars could effect our weather!!!

I'm no ecologist...but I don't think it'd do too much damage. If it's from water (it's most abundant location), then the end result is water. Water vapor, yes...but that's just because it gets hot. Cool the vapor, and you've got liquid water again. So no harm done there. If weather becomes an issue...it's a real quick fix: retro fit vehicles with an exhaust-radiator that will condense the vaper into water; or design them like that from the get-go.

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

5. Wind Power, They are saying we could put millions of wind turbines out in the midwest to make electricity. But if we did could all those large spinning blades going through the air possibly change the airflow patterns and change the weather patterns across the country? And what would happen when a tornado came through and ripped out many of them, would oure electric rates jump just as they do now when a hurricane threatens the oil production in the gulf?

I dunno about the Tornados thing. But a few Turbines (in the grand scheme of things; it is a 'few') aren't going to be enough to alter wind patterns. Literally, the EARTH generates them. (See: Coriolis force + solar heating) Unless you start altering the rotation or tilt of the earth, the winds will continue to blow just like they have been.

EDIT: Maybe the tornado-scale winds could provide a surge of power that would last us through the rebuliding/repairing of the turbines!

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

These are just a few of the questions I have, I have not ever seen anyone asking things like this, I have many more questions that concern me.

At the risk of sounding arrogant; I'd love to hear them. I like to answer these questions more for my own benefit than anything else. I want to know if my opinions on this matter is grounded or not: if I know what I'm talking about. These questions are unique.

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

There will not be any quick fix for our problem, but we do need to produce more of every form of energy we have available to us now and push forward the development of new energy technologies, but not until we know what problems our kids and grandkids may be facing because of any quick rash changes we make today.

As one of those "grandkids" (well...20...but you get my point), I would at the very least like your generation to set us up for success. Build the turbines, make the ethanol, start Hydrogen production, etc. Let us work out the kinks. It will be far less trouble for us, than to let you have a debate till the end of time about whether or not your grandkids will encounter any issues. You know we will; there's no escaping it. Our generation is going to be centered around energy: Production, conservation, efficiency. So at least get us started, there's no time for delay.