Re: Slightly off topic H2 (very little Alfa content)

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

At 10:57 PM +0000 2/5/03, alfa-digest wrote:
> So it
> looks like we will be able to run our gasoline-powered Alfas for many
> years to come, because there ain't no practical alternative to gasoline
> anywhere on the horizon.
Err...for "many years" until we run out of oil...probably not within 
your lifetime, but quite possibly within mine.  The above logic is a 
little backwards.  Running gasoline-powered Alfas will be a lot 
easier if 1) there's gasoline to be had and 2) demand for gasoline is 
less than what it currently is.  Hopefully people will have a little 
foresight and jack up gasoline prices about the same time we run out 
of conventional oil reserves and move to the oil shale, and said 
price increases will make people a little less wasteful.

I'd much rather see diesel-electric hybrids, hydrogen (be it IC or 
fuel cell), vegetable oils, and ethanol (and gasoline fuel cells, I 
suppose, if they're really as great as their supporters claim) gain 
some ground in terms of availability and public acceptance so that 
I'll be able to run my gasoline-powered Alfas forever, and hopefully 
fuel prices won't get quite so high if demand can be minimized by the 
time we run out of conventional oil reserves.

Hydrogen power isn't going to solve all our problems, but I don't 
think it shouldn't be discounted.  At current consumption rates, 
we're going to run out of oil looonng before we run out of coal 
(which generates electricity which extracts hydrogen from water), and 
while global warming doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, I'm 
confident that the air can clean itself up a lot faster than dead 
stuff is going to turn into more oil.  Of course, our coal-fired 
power plants could be roughly 25% more efficient and burn a lot 
cleaner if they were held to the same sorts of standards (i.e. making 
the most of existing technology) that the auto industry is.

Joe Elliott
'82 GTV6
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