What precisely is the delay in getting an alternative fuels program off the ground???????????????

Question

What precisely is the delay in getting an alternative fuels program off the ground???????????????

Answer 1

Gas is only $3/gallon

When it hits $5 or $6/gallon, it will make alternatives more competitive at their current cost.  

Don't worry, it will happen in the next 2-3 years as oil is running out and demand for energy is increasing.  And everyone is working to bring down the cost of alternatives.  So hopefully that price intersection will happen sooner rather than later.

Natural laws of supply/demand and cost/profit are at work here, all the incentives in the world do very little to change them.

Oil did great for years because:

1- Incredible energy density - 100 times greater than batteries

(6 pounds of gas takes you 25 miles, 1800 pounds of lead-acid batteries takes you about 75 miles on a charge)

2 - Cheap!  For almost all of the 20th century, oil has been cheaper than water.

(Go buy a bottle of water, go buy a gallon of gas.  Which cost you more per ounce?)

3 - Abundance!  There was so much of it, people felt comfortable building a nationwide infrastructure to support it, and all car companies designed cars that ran on it.  

(For this to happen to ethanol, hydrogen, batteries etc. companies have to be convinced that the energy source is going to be abundant enough for everyone to use)

I hope that makes sense.  Incentives are good to get a technology off the ground, but for it to succeed, it has to be cost competitive on it's own.

Answer 2

The oil industry.  They have enough money and power to keep any good idea from making it big.  Look at the electric car.  Oh that's right, what electric car?

Answer 3

hmm lets see....

record profits made by oil companies, doing exactly what they are doing, isn't really an incentive to change things.

Answer 4

big oil companies have little reason for alternatrive fuel vehicles.

Answer 5

Finding something we have enough of to make into fuel.  Oil was something we had a lot of, and don't any more.  There's nothing quite so abundant as the oil and coal once was.

If we go to ethanol, we have to switch farm land from food crops to fuel crops, for example.  Then there will be food shortages.  You can't just "Make" new farmland.

If we go to hydrogen, we have to build expensive factories to make the hydrogen by splitting water, then figure out how to saftly transport it, and then build fuel stations that can dispense hydrogen.  Big bucks, lot's of time. And hydrogen blows up easily.

If we switch to anything other than what we've been using, somebody has to make zillions of dollars of investment to make it happen.  That person who comes up with the zillions of dollars needs to know, without a doubt that he will make his money back then some.

Answer 6

money

Answer 7

lobby groups.

God bless,

gabe

Answer 8

The oil companies and auto industry have our president in their back pockets.  Watch "Who killed the electric car?" It will give you some perspective.

Answer 9

Which fuel is the right one?  Energy co.s will pay dearly to keep gas and natural gas number one.  Ag. industry wants ethanol and bio diesel number one.  Car makers know hydrogen is the answer ,but no one is making hydrogen fuel.  There are BIG BUCKS for who ever gets the nod from the government.  And a government with little leadership is no help at all.