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What Would It Take for YOU to buy a diesel car?
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Logistically, (up to B-100) it is a much easier and so called (I even gag when I say this) more "environmentally friendly" procedure to develop and implement in many instances it is just adding volume. Most policies and procedures are in place.
On the other hand, the US nexus to the middle east is really one HUGE consequence of our domestic NIMBY dreams and schemes. How anyone of the NIMBY'ers can deny this is sheer and absolute lunancy.
One small example, there is not ONE single commerically available passenger car engine that is certified to run on 100 per cent bio diesel, aka B-100.
There exists a whole sub industry "between the cracks" as it were for the winks and nods of regulatory innuendos where B-100 can be run and has been for years.
On the natural gas to passenger car diesel fuel's issue ,I would love to compare and contrast up to B-100, ULSD (conventional diesel) GTL, etc.
I have read in passing that Shell has mixed in some percentage of GTL (gas to liquids) diesel into its' ULSD product mix (hope I am saying this correctly ) Shell
It emits 10 to 15% less polutants off an already LOW ULSD product.
"The province's estimated 170 billion barrels of proven oil reserves now ranks it third in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela."
Canada Has Plenty of Oil, but Does the U.S. Want It? (WSJ)
It amazes me that we continue to show Canada almost utter disdain.
What,... 17/19 terrorists of the 9/11 tragedy were from Saudi Arabia or shall I say the ones we publically say we know of ?
Also don't know if the Canadian deposits are in marlstone like in the U.S Rockies, or in some other type of rock that might be easier.
Perhaps the envirocons are plotting the next poisoning or vilification campaigns.
Moreover, it's not a golden age coming up--at best, and this is good---natural gas is breathing room while we solve the ever more ominous stats about climate change. Last year saw a record-breaking amount of greenhouse gases ejected into the atmosphere.
If we should push over a 2 degree Celsius overall global temperature rise, we are probably screwed.
By the way, many climate change activists do support natural gas as a cleaner alternative to oil, but not as a longterm solution to anything. It's still producing greenhouse gases.
Indeed, CA has MANDATED natural gas to be used in all new power plants and are pushing coal fired plants to converted to ...natual gas. The problem with that is, no one in their right minds will build a power plant in CA !!!! Why? Ask those very same envirocons who annoint natural gas as the "interim solution"? The interim solution to what? What is THEIR terminal solution? They have NONE, ZERO, NADA !! The subject of nuclear power is now considered a bit like devil worship or cursing in church. Yet, I am sure CA continues to be the biggest users of fozzilized fuels, even as they decry its use.
I also like GTL for our vehicles. Running diesel produced from natural gas seems so much more efficient than taking up your entire trunk to haul a potentially dangerous CNG/LNG tank around. I don't have any idea what the cost per gallon is on diesel produced from natural gas. Probably close to what we are paying now.
We all, being, like Mongo, "only pawn in game of life" (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKRma7PDW10)
can only act in a "ground up" kind of way, by using *less* of it, by being mindful consumers of "stuff".
But going off grid, or growing my own biodiesel, these things are beyond my means and my available time.
I can only "slow things down" but my little world requires oil for survival at the moment.
With all this capital, brain, innovative, creative, constructive firepower why did no one implement partial to TOTAL solar panel support of public works projects like BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) etc.etc. ?
The Diesel Particulate Filter is just for soot particulates, and they've been around in many forms since the 90s. Diesel cars, trucks, and buses have near-universal use of DPFs since 2007. The difference between active and passive regeneration can affect fuel economy, but both still have an effect.
The urea catalyst (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) is for converting NOx, not particulates. It eliminates the need for EGR, and that's where the primary fuel savings comes from.
kcram - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host
It is where the various endeavors and disciplines gives you the stuff that Hollywood uses to make... scary movies. Nice entertainment, but remember its just a money making (they hope) movie.
The scared people are the oil companies I think, because policies to arrest climate change imply, by definition, that no one is paying the true cost of energy.
If we required everyone to pay the true cost of energy, and if corporations were not allowed to pass the costs on, (in other words, they had to pay for what they damaged in making their profits--not US) then their profits would be (estimated) 2/3rds of what they are now.
All of a suddent sacrificing virgins (of cultures and civilizations of old, some current also) seems like a common sense and practical procedure.
You can see this in a very easy to enforce procedure/regulation etc.
Essentially it is this concept. No new construction, unless it is locally sustainable. ALL current non sustainable constructed projects will become sustainable by a date certain. If not, it will be torn down at the owners costs. You have just created complete and utter chaos with this utterly simple idea.
Didn't people say the same thing 20 years ago about biodiesel? Or do you expect all the research and funding for demonstration plants to be privately funded?
In the case of algae, the real question is where does it NOT grow!!?? Most folks will ponder what this means. :surprise: :sick:
The key word is VIABLE. We wasted $millions on both wind and solar 40 years ago. It is still not viable in the real world. It is all political smoke and mirrors. The viable research and development of biodiesel from algae will more than likely come from the private sector. I don't think our R&D money is very well spent when you look at the results. Maybe at one time. Now all it does is subsidize corporate bosses and over paid professors.
I am a firm believer in American ingenuity. Hopefully it has not been destroyed by government red tape, taxes and regulations. A lot of the dot.com money ended up as early retirement for some very bright minds. Easier to just kick back and enjoy the money than fight with the government.
Those very same envirocons that say we have to go to wind and solar are actually part (if not parcel) of the efforts to BLOCK solar panels (farms if you will) in the Mojave Desert !! For folks not familar with the CA/NV Mojave Desert, suffice to say it gets LOADS of sun.Indeed absolute to total abundance comes to mind. It even is the home to Death Valley. So if you can't put solar panels in a sun DRENCHED desert, where it literally is in massive sun the huge majority of the time, what about foggy places like... Germany or England can be good to better?
Then in 1996, the price of oil bottomed out at roughly $20 a barrel. The estimated cost of algae oil at the time was about $80 a barrel.
With those price factors and other budget pressures, DOE stopped funding the Aquatic Species Program. Algae strains were sent to the University of Hawaii for safekeeping and the NREL team summarized nearly 20 years of research in the program's Close Out Report.
Algae Comes Back into the Race
Fast forward 10 years and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) is passed by Congress. The 2007 law required that the U.S. produce and use 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022. EISA capped the use of starch based ethanol at 15 billion gallons and called for the remainder to be made up by 'advanced biofuels' basically anything else.
Because of its past research, NREL was ahead of the curve. In 2006 an NREL research team began seeking new funding for algae research. 'We started another aquatic species program but it is really quite different from the first,' said NREL Principal Group Manager Al Darzins.
It is back on the budget. Kind of hard to tell how much. Nothing like what is wasted on Wind, Solar & ethanol would be my guess.
http://www.oilgae.com/club/users/Natalia/blogs/915
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/pdfs/algal_biofuels_roadmap.pdf
This affects electrical plug in power also.
Think 245 mile range with a $109,000 cost, when a 700 mile range will do @ a cost of $18,000 dollars.
If you project that to bio diesel the bio diesel production from algae actually is NNN neutral and actually oxygen is a by product.
I think we need a "Manhattan Project" level of total national commitment to break this chain of pathological growth and come up with a *real* rabbit.
Until then, we need all the breathing space that viable energy sources existing now can afford us.
Given the almost uphill battle of (Prius type) hybrids to gain less than 2% with a decade or more full court press. At the same time we suppress diesel which is a viable portal to bio diesel. Bio diesel is scale able: from locally manufacturable all the way to NIMBY.
Just because you don't want a nuclear power plant in your backyard doesn't mean you're fundamentally opposed to it. That's really not quite fair---would any of us pass this test?
The Nuclear power plants at San Onofre just a stone's throw, a long one, from where I live has been producing clean power since 1968. I would like to see them expand the capacity by replacing the now decommissioned reactor. The two remaining reactors put out a total 2200 MWs all the time. Don't get me wrong I think Solar on the home or business is a good thing. I just don't see it as viable for a utility that is required to provide around the clock power. All wind and solar mandates have done is make my electric bills higher.
http://www.sce.com/PowerandEnvironment/PowerGeneration/SanOnofreNuclearGeneratin- gStation/default.htm?goto=songs
PS
I moved to Los Angeles when I was 6 month old in 1943. After a 4 years in Portland Oregon we moved back to CA and down to San Diego in 1957.
Then I moved far away. :P
My room in Prudhoe was less than a football field from 4 big diesel generators. After a while you did not notice them running. I don't think I suffered as much lung damage from them as I did growing up in Los Angeles.
And I still think that we've only scratched the surface with conservation efforts.
Doubt that I could handle a diesel power plant with the fumes emitted.
I drive diesel. The shame is so many sources of biodiesel are ignored, wasted or misused. Most everything organic that we toss out or aside can produce biodiesel fuel. Ie, human solid waste should produce engery, not pollute our waters. Get government out of the way and AMERICANS will get the job done.
That is a fact. Sadly the Feds have got their nose into EVERY aspect of our lives. They have people believing that big government is the only solution to the energy problems. Getting big government out of the way is a real challenge. I don't see that getting resolved soon enough.
Welcome to the forum. We need more diesel/biodiesel fans here.
If the government tax-incented diesel purchases more heavily - compared to hybrid or EV incentives - it would help lower the vehicle cost. As for the fuel cost, we need federal, state, and cities to tax diesel at lower rates. This would help lower the cost of owning a diesel and may also help our CPI since it would lower freight costs.
IMO, of course...
It's the cost and selection of cars using diesel. I was just in France and I would imagine their laws and taxes favor diesel because they were everywhere.. over 50%, easily.
We should be able to foster an environment where more than just 4 German brands offers diesel cars. (3 of them being luxury and very expensive, 1 of them being... well, perhaps not overly reliable.)
I want more choices for a diesel, plain and simple.