07-09-2008, 03:30
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#1
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Red State
Posts: 3,774
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My Plan to Escape the Grip of Foreign Oil
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Don't mess with old farts...age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! Bullshit and brilliance only come with age and experience.
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BMT (RIP) is offline
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07-09-2008, 07:45
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#2
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Area Commander
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 2,760
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Great article, Sir.
I'm not sure that natural gas powered vehicles are an optimal choice; but at least Mr. Pickens is opening the conversation.
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nmap is offline
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07-09-2008, 07:58
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#3
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Quiet Professional
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Good one... The locals down here have been converting their Taxis over to gas for the past 2-3 years. It is easy and very cheap. Hell if a Peruvian can do it why can't the Great American Motor Industry? 
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SF_BHT is offline
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07-09-2008, 08:02
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#4
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Quiet Professional
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SF_BHT
Good one... The locals down here have been converting their Taxis over to gas for the past 2-3 years. It is easy and very cheap. Hell if a Peruvian can do it why can't the Great American Motor Industry? |
Yeah, but it does cut back on trunk space for the taxis to the airport. 
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Mike
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Mike792 is offline
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07-09-2008, 08:39
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#5
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Quiet Professional
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Location: Colorado Springs
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The power cycles created by windmills require conditioning before hitting the grid, and its not an easily regulated and controlled source. What does that mean? Once again, we need an improved, high capacity battery to truly take advantage of wind (and many other alternative source) energy.
I'm with TR...the sooner we get serious about nuclear power, the better.
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Razor is offline
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07-09-2008, 08:47
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#6
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Quiet Professional
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Razor
The power cycles created by windmills require conditioning before hitting the grid, and its not an easily regulated and controlled source. What does that mean? Once again, we need an improved, high capacity battery to truly take advantage of wind (and many other alternative source) energy.
I'm with TR...the sooner we get serious about nuclear power, the better.
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Roger all. Furthermore, you either have to have sufficient reserve capacity in the grid to provide 100% of the power needs for low or no wind days, or storage for the windmill power to cover needs during reduced wind power production. How do you store terawatts of power?
This would lead to a very spotty availability, with California type rolling brownouts or blackouts to reduce demand to actual real time generating capacity.
The winds drops, and you lose power periodically. You want to live in the Southern or Southwestern summer with intermittent AC?
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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07-09-2008, 09:24
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#7
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Quiet Professional
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike792
Yeah, but it does cut back on trunk space for the taxis to the airport. |
Yes it does....... When I am driving I look at those yellow tanks and just think when i hit them how hot it will get.  For them....
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SF_BHT is offline
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07-09-2008, 08:00
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#8
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Quiet Professional
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Location: Free Pineland
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I am not sure that we would derive sufficient power from windmills to justify covering 30 states with fields of them, but he is a bonafied oil expert. Five years ago, ethanol seemed like a good idea as well.
Personally, I think the long term answer is nuclear power (fusion reseach should be accelerated immendiately) and fuel cell technology, but clearly, we are going to need to have several interim solutions.
IMHO, he should have hit immediate exploration and accelerated drilling ASAP much harder as an interim fix.
IIRC, LNG produces less energy per pound than gasoline, but it does burn slightly cleaner. This swap would have a secondary effect of running already elevated LNG prices further through the roof.
As an aside, Toyota just announced that they would be offering an option to put solar panels on the roof of the Prius. Net energy produced is barely enough to run the air conditioner.
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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07-09-2008, 09:26
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#9
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
I am not sure that we would derive sufficient power from windmills to justify covering 30 states with fields of them, but he is a bonafied oil expert. Five years ago, ethanol seemed like a good idea as well.
TR
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Just put them on Capital Hill, plenty of Hot Air there and it never stops
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SF_BHT is offline
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