Quote:
Originally Posted by 2000v6
So... hm... I really don't get this. Most of the armed forces happen to be in iraq. Iraq happens to have a reserve life of 150 years. I'm not saying that we should force them to accept the military.But, what about somehow getting iraq to become a us territory in the middle east? Kind of like the virgin islands. Not by force, but by diplomatic and political resolutions.
Also... like others have mentioned, what about ethanol, hydrogen and electricity. I definitely wouldn't mind a hydrogen run camaro.
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I think that 150 year reserve is not a world reserve but a reserve of their own needs? I could be wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragoneye
Not necessarily. There are options out there that are similar to the price of gasoline. My personal favorite is algae-based gasoline/ethanol/diesel/etc.
Current estimates have one gallon of algae-gasoline at about $4.00 a gallon. But this fuel is NOT being mass produced, so that number would go down.
In addition, as you burn this fuel, it releases less carbon dioxide than petroleum-based gas, and growing the algae "consumes" Co2 from the air...making it a win=win. This could be settled for, or we could even join a coal-power plant to an algae-'farm' and scrub the exhaust.
It is said that in the physical area of 1/10th of the state of New Mexico, enough of an algae 'farm' could be built that would produce enough oil to replace the entire US usage based on 2007 estimates. OIL...not just gasoline, so that means plastics, too.
Sooo...apply that on a local basis...and every major metropolitan area could have its own personal algae plant/refinery. That would drastically reduce the costs of transportation and create localized jobs.
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I think this is great, but the even greater thing is that these discoveries and innovations are rolling pretty damned fast now. In the last 10 years we've gone from corn ethanol to using things like switch grass and algae and now we're talking oil instead of alchohol, and in 10 more years who knows what we'll be seeing.
Batteries are improving as well though so I can see a time when EVs become real competition. Of course, then you have to run the powerplants- but that's a discussion for a different day.