Author Topic: State of the Union (Read 1387 times)

lazs2 · « **Reply #60 on:** February 02, 2006, 08:12:32 AM »

rolex... what's your point? I don't care how we do it so long as it is cheap.

lazs

BluKitty · « **Reply #61 on:** February 02, 2006, 08:30:01 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by lazs2
rolex... what's your point? I don't care how we do it so long as it is cheap.

lazs

Was the infastructure for power and phone lines cheap? no ... but the govement used programs to send lines out to rual areas, farms ... places no private company would take them for lack of profit.

What we need is a diffrant infastructure.... Hydrogen could work .. only problem is no infastructure... no hydrogen 'gas' stations all over the place....

Take you pick of fuels .. there's many choices ...the Hydrogen/Oxygen reaction is basicly a 'battery' anyway..

The expensive part is no infastructure ... and that's not going to change leaveing it to the private sector....

Think what Timmy and Lassie would have done without a phone. The govement provided the infastructure and money to bring local loops out to farms..... They won't bring a Hydrogen infastructure to us it seems. 'free market' blah blah blah.... just like the free market uses the public roads and highways......

lazs2 · « **Reply #62 on:** February 02, 2006, 08:40:58 AM »

we don't need the government to build and maintain highways. We pay for too much as a user fee for roads right now. The "free market" end would simply be to take the gas tax on fuel and use it to bid out the building and maintaining of roads.

I have nothing against municipalities getting tax breaks or borrowing to build infrastructure tho... such as nuclear power plants.

FDR is not the answer.

lazs

Rolex · « **Reply #63 on:** February 02, 2006, 09:00:21 AM »

We're living in a different era.

The phone companies pocketed $200 billion so far (yes, billion) in tax breaks and fee increases by promising to use the money to provide 45Mbps fiber service to all Americans. They have collected $2,000 per household.

So... how's that fiber connection working out for you?

The 'Greatest Generation' has been replaced by the 'Greediest Generations.'

BluKitty · « **Reply #64 on:** February 02, 2006, 09:18:00 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Rolex
The 'Greatest Generation' has been replaced by the 'Greediest Generations.'

No argureing that

But I guess you expect a dissertation on social reform posted with that....that's another thread.

Point is ... if we are going to get gas out of cars... then we need a diffrant infastructure.... and private business isn't going to make it happen until 'Peak Oil' hits... but by then... it will be too late for the economy. Economic 'bumps' are no fun.

and we still need the power from somewhere... at least with nuclear power it's not in the air, we just need to take care to keep it out of the water etc.

Holden McGroin · « **Reply #65 on:** February 02, 2006, 01:43:20 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Rolex
MEMORANDUM:

TO: Mr. Holden McGroin

FROM: Rollie 'Slick' Rolex
Public Relations Director
Snake Oil Corp.

RE: Shale oil

Dear Mr. McGroin,

Thank you for your enquiry...

Sasol produces liquid fuel from Coal in South Africa. Shell and Sasol are competing for a contract with the Chinese to build a coal liquification project in China. A pilot plant in Wyoming's Wind River Region is currently producing liquid and gas fuel from coal.

With oil prices more than doubling the break-even point of producing synthetic fuels, oil companies and world leaders are beginning to take a serious look at the future of Fischer-Tropsch fuels. Montana's Governor Schweitzer predicts they could be produced at a cost of about $1 per gallon in Montana if large-scale commercial plants could be developed in the state.

Fischer-Tropsch can be used on oil shale as well. In 1912, the President, by Executive Order, established the Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves. This office has overseen the U.S. strategic interests in oil shale since that time. The huge resource base has stimulated several prior commercial attempts to produce oil from oil shale, but these attempts have failed primarily because of the historically modest cost of petroleum with which it competed.

Canada has 280 billion bbls of oil in tar sands of Alberta. This is larger than Saudi reserves.

Seems like you went to a great deal of trouble to write off alternate sources of hydrocarbons, something that is going to happen whether you like it or not.

Quote

Originally posted by sixpence We need technology to catch up where we can burn and dispose of it cleanly. Burning coal is deadly.

Currently the USA burns a little over 1.1 billion tons annually, providing about as much electrical energy than Oil, Gas, Nuclear, and Hydro combined.

Coal use has steadily increased, and since the clean air act, steadily become cleaner.

Sixpence · « **Reply #66 on:** February 02, 2006, 11:16:50 PM »

"We are addicted to oil"

Ok, let me get this straight, oil companies posted record profits last quarter. Now Dubya says he wants a 22% increase in spending for the energy dept. Which will be handed out as research contracts back to the oil companies.

So instead of spending their record profits on research for alternative energy, they get to spend our money!

But hey, our oil stock is doing great!