Why are we now getting into alternate fuel sources. Why didn't we start 40 or 50 years ago?

Question

From answers I have already received, it seems the only reason has been greed.

Answer 1

the major oil Co's. bought out anyone who started a different approach to fuel or they met with a untimely accident

Answer 2

Is anyone here old enough to remember when the NASH METROPOLITAN first came out in 1957. I remember a neighbor in our town bought one and everyone laughed at it.

No one wanted it and Nash went bankrupt. It was a fuel efficient subcompact. There were a few others as well. The public wouldn't buy them. Instead the big thing was 400 HP V8 engines that got 8 MPG.

Even after the oil embargo of the 70's the public went fuel efficient conscious for a short time then wanted gas guzzling SUV's. This was only a year go.

Now suddenly everyone is fuel efficient crazy as they should be. The market will respond accordingly as it does. However that doesn't solve the problem but it's about time the problem got the attention necessary to be solved.

I have met the enemy and he is US. We are the answer and the power. The market will produce what WE THE PEOPLE DEMAND.

Answer 3

Do you know what Henry Ford ran the first car he made on?

-Ethanol

Do you know what kind of fuel Rudolf Diesel used for his first engines?

-Peanut Oil

Most of the first cars were electric. The first electric car was made in the 1830s. Until the 1920s, electric cars outsold internal combustion cars.

The first hybrid car was made in 1899 by Ferdinand Porsche.

In the 1940s and 50s, there were cars that got 30mpg (Studebaker, Rambler, Nash and more).

Most of these fuel ideas are very old, but we are just now rediscovering them and improving upon the concepts.

Answer 4

spooty1 is correct the shell gasoline and other companies hold many of the patents for alternate fuel cars and ways of making alternate fuel if the people didnot sell the patent to them they would either kill them or they would put them in finacial ruin

Answer 5

40 years ago the USA produced enough oil that we didn't even need to import any. It was cheap and available. When I was a kid back in the 60's, gas was 20-25 cents a gallon. There wasn't any need for alternate fuel sources. Not everyone drove a giant hulking SUV back then either, so our country used a lot less oil than it does today.

Answer 6

because before in like the 70's people didn't think that under ground fuel (the gas that we know of) would never run out so they used more and more of it. like a few years ago that's when oil companies realized that we were really low on gas so they are trying to use nitrogen i think for gas..its safer for the enviorment but does have a few dangers.

Answer 7

nobody knew the effects of some things

Answer 8

It is the Democrats that would not us drill and build refinery's. There is no way to satisfy them ... They have us all in jeopardy.

Answer 9

necessity is the mother of Invention.

Human tendancy is to go for the "available"

Answer 10

We did start many years ago it's just that gas was very cheap and no one was interested in moving to other forms of energy.  We just need to make sure that gasoline stays expensive and many other form of energy will be economically viable.

Answer 11

Research was done.  I saw the IBM plant in Vaihingen, Germany using hydrogen powered vehicles in 1978, but the oil companies weren't interested in changing their highly profitable business and auto manufacturers weren't interested in going from the internal combustion engine to DC motors.  The only alternate fuel that is long term is hydrogen, but currently the are using propane to make the hydrogen and the loss is a two for one deal.  Additionally the process makes carbon dioxide.  The solution is solar farms in desert areas (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming have space and could produce all the electricity needed to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen to provide all domestic needs for the USA and export energy again to boot!  Auto manufacturers would have to shift to DC motors to use the electricity the hydrogen cells produce and that would be a massive undertaking.  Cars, trucks, ships, and trains could be built to take advantage of the new fuel and its system.  Only aircraft could not fly on electricity.  

The problem is that the shift would directly affect 4-5% of the US population and most of them are Union Stooges who would vote in a block to forestall the change.  That scares elected officials.  

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Answer 12

The problem of global warming and running out of fossil fuels wasn't a big issue back then

Answer 13

I've been wondering that since the OPEC embargo of the 70's.

Answer 14

http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2006/11...