Quote:
Originally Posted by Scotsman
The biggest question for me when it comes to alternative fuels/propulsion, etc. is "when"? There's all these fascinating ideas tossed around in the media, in the classroom, the laboratory, and so on. Yet, they're all just that, ideas. Nothing seems to be making any real progress towards becoming a tangible good to you, myself or anyone else. Of course it's all politics that supresses the expansion and distribution of these new ideas that hold great potential and many benefits for all of us, and the environment.
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When.. now there is a question nobody can answer. I am sure that the best minds in the world are working on it and have been for many years. The problem is all the technologies we have today are too costly to implement. in other words it is not economically fesible for a company to invest in something that will not return profits for them. Maybe, Just maybe these large increases in oil prices have been driven by a group wanting to make these new technologies economically fesible. not necessarilly more afforadable, but less expensive that fossil fuels... That way they can not only make a killing on fossil fuels but on the alternate energy sources.
I don't think the politicians are smart enough or could work together enought to do that.
I work for a medium sized Chemical company. Before the 1980's All our Chemicals and plastics were derived from Oil. Our company was the first to develope a profitable way of creating chemicals from Coal. Because of this we have been less effected by the increase in Oil prices than other chemical companies. Now we have been doing this for over 25 years, and we have licensed our technology to other companies. Although Coal is a Fossil fuel, the way we use it is cleaner and safer than other uses for coal. plus in this area it is very abundant.
I am sure our company is also working on new technologies that will eventually replace coal. It just takes time to do that, and until that time comes we need to do everything we can to keep our economy stable, and if that means drilling for more oil and building more refineries then I say do it.