Is the Hype round Alternative Fuel really just a Placebo to distract us..?

Question

from the a much easier solution?

i.e. improving our public transport services, as buses, trains and minibus style taxis use just a tiny fraction of the fuel (per person) than cars use. No infrastructure would need to change, in the case of buses and taxis - the solution would take only months to manufacture, and only a couple of years to dramatically improve train services. It needs no technological development whatsoever.

So is the hype just one more way of not doing something positive?

Answer 1

Society always lags behind technology.

.

Answer 2

Yes and no.  They want to try and find a way "get off" oil, but biofuels aren't a long-term feasible answer.

The much larger problem, and I will flamed for this, is over-population and then pollution.

Answer 3

if anything it would be to distract us away from the s h i t we are causing in Iraq, but global warming is happening no doubts, and people do not want to compromise their s**y mustang for a dollar bus ride. Why? cause were selfish idiots. so its us not the gov't. but then again, Bush and all those other senators do take personal cars to work each morning as well.

Answer 4

This is typically the so-called "technology approach" from W.Bush which consisted first to cut the budget of the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) by over 10%.

Meanwhile much of the research and innovation on renewable energies is done outside the US.

If you consider fuel cells, the two largest companies are from Canada.

Answer 5

Rail is sad, I am all about traveling by rail but you just as well get a covered wagon and a pair of oxen they would be faster than rail service in this country.

Answer 6

anyone who suggests the world is overpopulated should drive through western Kansas and eastern Colorado. Most desolate dull endless landscape you could hope to see.

anyway, the system is not going to allow any alternative fuels in because oil runs everything. it just does. and they intend to make all the $$$ they can. cars used to run on ethanol until the oil companies blew up enough alcohol stations to run them out of business.

Answer 7

Kind of in my opinion. I have heard over the last 30 years of at least three different engines that can be used in vehicles to run on hydrogen taken from regular water and recycled back through the engine constantly. The only loss would be from heat evaporation in all three engines. Where are they. The oil companies bought the patents after threatening the owners of the patents with death and destruction for them and their families. Remember the guy who had a conspiracy theory that the oil companies were doing just this type of thing, he disappeared too.