Think gas prices are high now? Wait until 2010

That's why I'm beginning to wonder if in some way this is a good thing because it will take this kind of public outcry to get other fuel options on the market.

 

Lots of things have been invented, they're just not mainstream, thanks largely to the oil companies.

Maybe we should just invade Venezuela...

 

For example, several people run converted diesel engines on vegetable oil. Why is this not mainstream? Vegetable oil is renewable, no? And every one of the Big Three build diesel engines, so it's not like they lose market shares.

 

Yeah, let's drive up the cost of vegetables while we're at it too...

 

i saw an article where toyota is going to come out with a cheap hybrid in 2010. too bad it will still cost 19k.

 

It can run on recycled oil from restaurants, which now have to pay to have the oil removed.

 

It's used veggie oil that's discarded by restaurants. When you burn it, your exhaust smells like whatever was cooked in it.

A few weeks ago, I pulled up to a light next to an older Mercedes diesel that smelled of KFC.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel

 

That's a silly, silly, inflammatory talking point.

From a totally bipartisan point of view, it should be clear by now that the world needs to get off of oil. Nothing good comes of it. Not for the economy. Not for our budgets. Nothing.

I think the world of our old age is going to be vastly different than our world today. I can see us moving back toward the time when people mostly worked close to home rather than commute, mostly settled where they were born, etc., etc., since traveling to see family will just get too expensive, etc., etc.

I can see them talking about the "Oil Age" in history classes some day as a remnant of a very distant past.

What we're doing now just isn't sustainable. Not in the long run. And we should be acting as stewards of this planet for the long run.

I don't understand how thinking long term makes me an "environmentalist whacko."

 

damn dirty hippie.

 

Perhaps that's exactly what it will take. A massive public outcry or uprising. The problem is, things will have to get much, much worse ... to the point where people simply cannot afford to drive at all ... before things reach that tipping point.

 

I had a biodesiel truck.
A professionally installed biodesiel conversion kit.

I will tell you why it hasn't caught on.
1. Performance is crap at best. It is a low-grade fuel. Really low grade.
2. What it saves you fuel, it costs exponentially in maintenance. Sending used food oils, no matter how purified, through fuel lines and fuel injectors and turbo injectors is a nightmare. Not to mention fuel pump failures.
3. Anyone who has had a diesel engine will tell you, they are expensive. Mechanics, good ones, are hard to find. And expensive.

Hope that helps.