Posted on 08/05/2009 6:21:42 AM PDT by bridgemanusa
As I was driving home last evening on one of the many newly paved roads in MA, I began to think and formulate a few questions (this is where the uber brain power of freepers can come in)
1. Where does this massive quantity of asphalt come from? 2. Asphalt is derived from oil. Where are all the leftist environmental global warming zealots and why aren't they crying foul? 3. How much of this stuff actually gets recycled (after the roads are dug up)? 4. How much of our taxpayer $$ is going towards buying asphalt from middle-eastern oil companies? 5. If the present administration imposes cap and trade, what does that do to the cost of our roads?
These are just a few (of many) questions that the present administration does not talk about and it would be very interesting to see the #'s.
A great point and a great question. No wonder the price of oil is rising again...
Asphalt comes from specific oil fields that produce it. Most of the oil wells in Newhall CA are all asphalt wells - it is pretty low grade that cannot be refined into gas or other products. It also sells for much less. I would say very little if any comes from the middle east.
Oil rising on a worthless dollar.
I will try to tell you about the recycling.
I dont know about where you are from, but recycled asphalt is used all around where I live.
A good proportion of it is being used in private driveways. It makes a pretty decent driveway. It is sold by the gravel companies and put down and rolled and becomes hard once again when the sun sets on it. Around here we call it the poor man’s asphalt. I have it on the driveway and in a car port I purchased. There is always a bit of the stone left that doesn’t melt into it , but it works fairly well. Much better than gravel.
I dont really see why the asphalt companies couldnt take it and add a bit more tar and use it on the road again, but then that is their problem.
Actually, if you look at some of the newer road paving machines by Caterpillar and others, you’ll notice that much is recycled on the spot.
It’s well and good that we talk about the so-called renewable energy sources like wind and solar etc., but the only people finding this a sound choice are you political scientists. No one.... NO ONE... forsees this as being a viable and important source. Well maybe T. Boone Pickens, but we all know why he’s pushing it, because he owns wide ranges of land where he can lease out to wind farms.
If you’ve ever had your power out for more than an hour due to a storm, you will realize immediately how we take our electricity that comes from coal for granted.
It’s winter...you’re some tree hugging liberal... your power goes out...and you expect some guys to climb poles and get it started again...And I expect you’re the one screaming to the electrical companies to do it fast, because you’re a radiologist or lawyer or something, and you consider yourself more important than the rest of us.
It makes no sense why this country is NOT on a full scale Manhattan Project with regard to mining oil, coal and nuclear energy sources for our country.
Then again, it makes sense when you realize that the democrats have undermined the American public for generations now by preventing us from using the sources of energy that are beneath our feet.
One thing I learned when I moved to East Texas (from West Texas) over 40 years ago is that all/most of the county roads are oil top. They mix oil with dirt. I worked for an oil company in the 80’s. They sold oil straight out of the ground to the local counties. I also learned - the hard way - don’t let your children play in that heap of oiled dirt sitting in your road.
“Asphalt comes from specific oil fields that produce it.”
Well, partially correct. The real answer is that ALL oil contains some level of asphalt (which is really just very large hydrocarbon molecules). The less of it there is, the more valuable the oil.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt
I do not know about asphalt for roads, but asphalt roof shingles are up 35 % in the last year. That is with new home starts off 75 % from four years ago.
Feel free to comment as I have no idea why they are up when ALL other commodity building materials are near their lows because lack of demand.
My wife taught petroleum engineering. I promise that there are asphaltenes in ALL oil. There may not be much, it's definitely there.
If the left has its way roads of the future will be sun beams, or we can ride the wind.
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