Posted on 01/31/2008 12:23:24 PM PST by ddtorquee
addiction [to oil] has taken a toll on our economy while funding major sponsors of the jihadis and other terrorists that seek to harm us...
we [should] dig our way out of this problem. The United States is the "Saudi Arabia of coal," and Pennsylvania is sitting on hundreds of years of this affordable and accessible resource, which, with innovative technologies - spearheaded by Pennsylvanians - we can use cleanly and right away.
Pennsylvania coal already generates most of the electricity in this state. The industry is in the process of doing it more cleanly through clean-coal technologies, such as gasification of coal into methanol, a form of alcohol that can be burned in internal combustion engines...
Across Pennsylvania, farmers are also digging and planting corn and other crops that will be turned into ethanol that can replace gasoline in our cars. Most cars in America can't run on ethanol, however, so who is going to install ethanol pumps at the gas station without the cars to run on it? At this point I would say to all of my hard-core conservative friends: Hold on to your hats.
What we need is a government mandate! We need to mandate that all cars sold in the United States, starting with the 2010 model year, be "flex-fuel vehicles" - that is, they should be able to run on a blend that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline (the so-called E85 blend), or even a coal-derived methanol/gas mixture....
Finally, Congress should immediately repeal the protectionist $26 per barrel tax on imported ethanol... Ethanol will begin to flow into this country from poor third-world countries that don't have oil or much in the way of terrorists.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Not to mention the world’s largest coal deposit in Utah, which Bill Clinton declared off limites to mining. There’s a story somewhere on FR about that.
Santorum is wrong. We need to get the government out of the way of energy production, not have it intrude more. The only thing keeping us from developing our own energy resources is the government itself.
Burning food is a dumb idea. We left that crazy inefficiency back with horses.
Stopped reading right there.
Have a good life Rick.
No kidding.The only thing keeping us from developing our own energy resources is the government itself.
No kidding.
"What we need is a government mandate!"
I was a big supporter of Santorum a few years ago........Now I'm deeply disappointed once again...
FMCDH(BITS)
Nukes and coal. Coal and nukes, if we are serious.
While other people promote carbon credit money laundering, we should be focused instead on energy independence. When they tell you we can’t drill our way to energy independence, they are lying. We can and must drill, dig, and build our way to energy independence, and anyone wanting to lead who is worth his salt should make that job one. It can be done in a decade. It should be done in a decade, starting today.
Exactly right.
Beyond that, we need to remove all barriers to free trade, to enable products from other countries -- products that we as consumers need, such as oil -- to flow freely, rather than only in accordance with PC mandates.
A good example of this is (flame suit on, but hopefuly not needed) sugar. As you probably know, Brazil's ethanol comes from sugar cane which is many times more productive than corn. But this country has enormous import duties on sugar, dating back to the time Castro came to power in Cuber. Sugar producers love it that way, as do corn growers. But the American consumer pays and pays and pays.
Rick Santorum jumps the shark.
That (Utah-gate) was one of the three things Jerome Zeifman said he’d have impeached SlicKKK over.
How much more corn starch should Americans have in their diets?
The biggest and most necessary part of the solution to our problems is getting rid of at least half the commuting; the solution would involve neighborhood work sites which people walked or drove half a mile to. In any given metro area, there can’t be more than 20% of the workforce which needs to be at one physical site five days a week; every body else could be working from neighborhood sites four of those five days.
What we need is a government mandate! We need to mandate that all cars sold in the United States, starting with the 2010 model year, be "flex-fuel vehicles" - that is, they should be able to run on a blend that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline (the so-called E85 blend), or even a coal-derived methanol/gas mixture....
Rick, the LAST THING we need is another government mandate. We need the government to get the heck out of the way, open up ANWR and the gulf coast to exploration and production, and get ready to reap the tax revenues of all the economic activity that the free market generates in response.
There just isn’t much call for sugar anymore. Artificial sweeteners are cheaper and just as good.
It should have been done in a decade starting in 1994, but clinton vetoed it. Then when we had a president that would sign it in 2001 and following, the gutless wonders in the senate allowed the democRATS to filibuster it. Then the gutless wonders lost their majority in the senate and killed any chance of freeing up the resources we have for domestic energy production.
Too bad the writers are on strike. The elephant in the room has appeared so many times lately it is on the list of banned metaphors for next year.
You've obviously never tasted a Dublin Dr. Pepper made from pure cane sugar.
Yeah, sure. Got a $ trillion I can borrow to start up a few synfuel plants?
Across Pennsylvania, farmers are also digging and planting corn and other crops that will be turned into ethanol that can replace gasoline in our cars.
That happens to be the cheapest solution to the imported oil problem.
The USA is the corn capital of the planet. That’s the one thing we do better than anybody.
That's correct. Now, if someone wants low sulfur coal they need to get it overseas from mines owned by The Liggett Group. HUGE donors to the Clinton campaigns.
Coincidence?
Take the manacles off the energy producers and they will mine, dig, and nuke us out of dependence.
dig = drill
The displaced coal could be shifted from electricity to liquid fuel production.
That game was over in 1970.
A government mandate to force car makers to build flex fuel vehicles is the cheapest solution?
Yes, but it is too late. Congress has already ignored that and gone for the solution that costs 30X as much.
At the least, you've identified a big part of the problem. There has been a move, at some companies, towards working at home and working from satellite offices but not enough of a move to make a dent in the fuel consumption from commuting.
UH....NUCLEAR POWER!!!!!
You are correct. Burning food for fuel is a dumb idea. The corn could be used elsewhere. We should be drilling everywhere and letting companies build refineries.
“addiction [to oil] has taken a toll on our economy”
What a freaking crock! addiction to oil fuels our economy. What the heck does this moron think it takes to produce. The ethanol scam is a joke, it takes more fuel to produce a gallon of it than if you just used the fuel in the first place, we’re paying the producers tax subsidies and in the meantime food costs are going through the roof.
That's Lippo Group, as in Lippo Suction.
Most new electricity these days is from natural gas, most of which is home-grown. Thats a good thing. We are building LNG facilities just over the border in Mexico and Canada, to bring in nat gas from overseas, but its a small percentage of the total, I’m sure.
If electric cars, or hydrogen fuel cell cars take off, generated electricity will take over an increasing percentage of transportation energy. Thats where nukes (and clean coal) come in.
Beyond that, nukes generate no carbon dioxide. Thats not really my issue, but it is for some.
Still, if you prefer clean coal to nukes, you won’t get much of an argument from me. My opinion is “let a thousand blossoms bloom”. Energy independence depends in part upon multiple sources, so that all your eggs are never in one basket. I like seeing lots of technologies pick up the slack. But nukes and coal have been underemphasized over the last few years, and I’d like to see them both back on page one.
DRILL ANWR!
Heard a coal demonstration plant costing $2 billion was cancelled today because of cost overrun. It’s funny. They went from coal to oil to save the environment, then from oil to nuke to save the environment, then from nuke back to oil or something to save the environment, then from oil/coal to natural gas to save the environment, and now what? from carbon back to nuke to save the environment? Wind is out of course because it is unsightly and kills songbirds. This is getting expensive, but the greenies all drive BMWs and run Macs and don’t know about cost. But solar power satellites? Crazy, they will cook frogs and spotted owls, don’t even think of doing that.
You're right of course. I ALWAYS make that mistake.
Thanks
Coal powered autos??
Exactly. No way in hell should the government be mandating highly energy-inefficient processes to produce energy. Ethanol is an abysmal source of energy, and is really only being used here in the U.S. because companies like Archer Daniels Midland have a bunch of Midwestern Congressmen and Senators in their back pocket.
Has been done. During war with no oil or gasoline, a few in Japan, Germany, and even China converted their cars to coal or wood.
Why is imported oil a “problem?”
>>methanol from coal is food?<<
Where did he mention coal?
Because we need problems so politicians can have something to solve.
I’m a believer in thinking globally but acting locally. I also believe it should be completely voluntary.
In that vein, I drive a Scion xBox (and LOVE IT). I get 31-36 mpg and it is great for getting all my band gear to gigs.
And I bicycle commute to my job except in crappy weather.
This is all that simple really. The funny thing is that I don’t feel that I am sacrificing anything! Plus, I am a 54 year old working in an office full of 20-30 somethings. Thanks to the bike commuting I am one of the healthiest people there.
I am giving up NOTHING, but the important thing is that I am doing what I do by choice, not some fascist government mandate.
That’s only been suggested a million billion times. We ought to get off oil/gas and convert to solar power satellites.
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