Ralph Roberts - 16 November 2008 10:00 AM

Well, nuclear powered aircraft carriers are perfectly safe, get fantastic mileage, and have plenty of room for both passengers and cargo.

They’re hell to parallel park, though.

Perfectly safe????  I don’t think so.  Cost per mile of operation of a nuclear powered aircraft carrier? Cost of storing nuclear waste from same, astronomical due to the prolonged storage requirements?

tattttms - 13 November 2008 07:55 PM

We can’t save detroit ...

Let smarter better managed money come in and retool these facilities ... let them utilize the human resources in a way that makes competitive sense ... if at all possible

Going green is not an option any more it is a necessity, but it won’t fix fundamental problems in the market ....

Agreed. Plus, a lot of “hybrid” and “electric car technology” still requires enormous energy inputs at the manufacturing level, as well as just driving around. In addition, hybrid and electric technology will do nothing for the 18 wheel rigs that do most of the driving in this country. You cant move a diesel on a hybrid engine. And you cant get your cheap, plastic crap at wal mart, or even malaprops, without big, stinky diesel trucks and boats and whatnot bringing them to you.

It’s all a band-aid on a dying infrastructure. I am of the somewhat fatalistic opinion that we have passed the tipping point, and are quite doomed to live in a mad-max sort of reality quite soon.

As much as I am enjoying the lower gas prices, I am also concerned that they may encourage people to stop conserving and slow the conversion to alternatives.  I agree with PFKaP that we are probably going to go down hill soon as far as fossil fuel production goes, and feel we do not have the luxury of time when it comes to implementing those alternatives. 

Yes, most of the alternatives we have are still energy intensive to produce, but there are realistic options other than fossil fuels (nuclear) for power production.  As I’ve said before we need to make it a national priority and commit ourselves to restructuring our power infrastructure to prevent a catastrophic shortage of energy.

hi jasmine!

welcome to the forums!

pret auto

Rise from the dead!
That’s a very useful timesaver. Never used it, until now :-)

Having been to Detroit on several occasions I am all for just bombing the #### out of it.

A couple of new hybrid vehicles have been announced recently.

BMW will build a hybrid SUV (though they call it a Sport Activity Coupe) at its Spartanburg plant:

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20090814/ARTICLES/908141026/1083/ARTICLES?Title=BMW-s-ActiveHybrid-to-drive-off-the-assembly-line-in-fourth-quarter

But if you don’t have $60K to drop on a car, the Mahindra pick-up—made in India with final assembly in Ohio—might be a better option.  Tentatively named the ‘Appalachian.’

http://www.pickuptrucks.com/html/news/mahindra/dieselhybridandmore.html

The “Appalachian” hybrid pickup uses diesel fuel.  I hope that means it could use biodiesel.  Does anybody know?

Wade - 16 August 2009 12:10 PM

And, there really is no savings using bio-diesel when you factor in the cost of changing fuel filters more frequently and wear and tear on your injection pump and clogged fuel injectors.

True. It’s a pain in the arse. Most people have no idea what they are getting into with biodiesel. But the cost could be much better with straight grease, which is far more ‘green’ or ‘environmental’ or whatever.  Only waste grease is “green”. Virgin grease has a very big ‘carbon foortprint’ that is comparable to standard petrol in most cases. The stuff from blue ridge biofueles is often either virgin (like bio-willie), or waste from food-oil companies.

In my understanding/experience, any diesel engine can run bio-diesel/grease. It’s basically the same thing. The diesel engine was made to run on vegitable oil.

also, Bio diesel does not generally contain much/any sulfur if it is made from waste grease. Perhaps it does if it it the commercial-grade stuff they sell like that Willy Nelson stuff. I’ve never run that crap.

But i used to make batches of bio and then straight grease with a friend back in the day. We spent a lot of time changing filters because it’s such a good engine cleaner. it was constantly clogging the filters with old engine gunk from 20 years of regular diesel. But since the grease was ‘free’, and the only real investment was time and some filters, it was far cheaper than buying diesel.

Thank you. For as much extra as I paid for my diesel engines over and above the cost of the base price of the vehicle, I think I will burn what the manufacturer recommends.

good idea. buy an old clunker if you want to run bio-deez.

The price of being politicaly correct and the novelty of the exhaust smelling like french fries isn’t in my budget.

Snob factor. And that’s really the only advantage, unless you are running straight waste grease. It’s just a PC novelty that is only negligibly “green’.