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7537. arkymalarky - 6/6/2008 12:47:55 PM Heard the other day that driving in the US is already down 11%, the steepest drop ever. 7538. anomie - 6/6/2008 10:32:11 PM I think car companies have been missing a golden opportunity the last few years by not selling a small, street legal, electric car, for a fair price. I'd have bought one years ago. It's almost impossible to calculate the gas and money that could be saved if we didn't take our full-sized cars down the block for local errands. 7539. robertjayb - 6/10/2008 5:27:12 PM ANWR drilling worth six-bits a barrel...(McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — If Congress were to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, crude oil prices would probably drop by an average of only 75 cents a barrel, according to Department of Energy projections issued Thursday.
The report, which was requested in December by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, found that oil production in the refuge "is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices."
.................................................
...the report also finds that opening ANWR could have other benefits, particularly in Alaska, where tapping the resources in the Arctic refuge could extend the lifespan of the trans-Alaska pipeline.
Sounds a bit like the space program where we need a shuttle to reach the space station and we need the space station to provide a mission for the shuttle.
7540. robertjayb - 6/11/2008 2:53:23 PM Charlie Rose had an excellent show last night with a panel on the price of oil and an interview with author Misha Glenny.
The panel prescriptions included: clean coal technology, nuclear power, plug-in hybrid autos, removal of subsidies for corn-based ethanol, elimination of tariffs on imported ethanol (read Brazil). So-called major oil companies are inflexible dinosaurs. Independents will lead the way to improved domestic oil production.
Author Glenny's new book is McMafia, about international organized crime which he says accounts for 20-percent of world GDP.
Videos should be available later at The Charlie Rose Show... 7541. alistairConnor - 6/11/2008 9:40:58 PM Hey hey Misha Glenny would be TMachine's brother, if my memory is correct?? (TMac was on the Fray, I met her in NY in 1998, along with such luminaries as Wabbit, Webfeet and Marjoribanks.) I remember he wrote an authorative book on the Balkans back then... yes that's him! 7542. concerned - 6/12/2008 5:21:46 PM Re. 7536 -
I understand that Yurrup's use of petroleum products is increasing faster than that of the US. That fine by you, AC? 7543. concerned - 6/12/2008 5:25:36 PM Re. 7539 -
You using bicycles and public transportation exclusively yet, rjb? 7544. thoughtful - 6/12/2008 6:36:25 PM good memory, ac...i met tmac as well in her place in nyc...perhaps that was a different year? I don't remember meeting you or am I mistaken...the gray matter withers and dies, y'know. 7545. jexster - 6/16/2008 5:29:01 PM Honda's Hydrogen Car in CA 7546. concerned - 6/20/2008 4:36:56 AM Only $100,000 or so a pop. The insurance is a killer, too. 7547. alistairconnor - 6/20/2008 10:37:53 AM I have no patience with this hydrogen refuelling station crap. A tank of compressed hydrogen is simply not an efficient medium to store transportation energy.
Fuel cells, yes. Hydrogen fuel cells, yes. But ammonia as the storage mechanism. Far easier to fabricate, transport, fill up. They just need to get the on-board NH3 to H2 process right, i.e. affordable. And then we'll hear no more of hydrogen filling stations. 7548. concerned - 6/27/2008 10:53:14 PM CBS News sinks to new low; publishes crackpot global warming story, attributes it to Associated Press, kills it with no retraction
Must be more of that 'fake but accurate' CBS news that's fit to lose.
7549. concerned - 6/27/2008 10:57:45 PM Here's something that AC can really get behind.
Global Warming: Can Earth EXPLODE ?
Ooooh. That's good. Now it's not just the falling sky that global warming chicken littles have to worry about. Now they need to watch out for an exploding earth.
7550. concerned - 6/27/2008 11:22:57 PM 
Hey, AC! LOOK OUT BELOW!!!
7551. concerned - 6/27/2008 11:28:02 PM Re. 7548 -
I don't think CBS News can do any more sinking. It just moves laterally on the ocean floor. 7552. jexster - 7/1/2008 1:42:10 AM Tesla Motors Chooses Bay Area to Build Electric Car
and damn I've been seeing more and more Smart Cars about 7553. thoughtful - 7/1/2008 1:43:12 PM I'm still partial to steam engines, but no one is talking about them...except maybe target="new">BMW as a recapture device. 7554. thoughtful - 7/1/2008 1:44:25 PM I found this most exciting:
One of the [invention] sessions that [Bill] Gates participated in was on the possibility of resuscitating nuclear energy. “Teller had this idea way back when that you could make a very safe, passive nuclear reactor,” Myhrvold explained. “No moving parts. Proliferation-resistant. Dead simple. Every serious nuclear accident involves operator error, so you want to eliminate the operator altogether. Lowell and Rod and others wrote a paper on it once. So we did several sessions on it.”
The plant, as they conceived it, would produce something like one to three gigawatts of power, which is enough to serve a medium-sized city. The reactor core would be no more than several metres wide and about ten metres long. It would be enclosed in a sealed, armored box. The box would work for thirty years, without need for refuelling. Wood’s idea was that the box would run on thorium, which is a very common, mildly radioactive metal. (The world has roughly a hundred-thousand-year supply, he figures.) Myhrvold’s idea was that it should run on spent fuel from existing power plants. “Waste has negative cost,” Myhrvold said. “This is how we make this idea politically and regulatorily attractive. Lowell and I had a monthlong no-holds-barred nuclear-physics battle. He didn’t believe waste would work. It turns out it does.” Myhrvold grinned. “He concedes it now.”
It was a long-shot idea, easily fifteen years from reality, if it became a reality at all. It was just a tantalizing idea at this point, but who wasn’t interested in seeing where it would lead? “We have thirty guys working on it,” he went on. “I have more people doing cutting-edge nuclear work than General Electric. We’re looking for someone to partner with us, because this is a huge undertaking. We took out an ad in Nuclear News, which is the big trade journal. It looks like something from The Onion: ‘Intellectual Ventures interested in nuclear-core designer and fission specialist.’ And, no, the F.B.I. hasn’t come knocking.” He lowered his voice to a stage whisper. “Lowell is known to them.”
Full article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=1
7555. jexster - 7/2/2008 7:48:56 PM As I've reported for the past several weeks, I am seeing more and more in my hood (just down the hill from this mash-up)
And to think, just a few short years ago McBush pushed through a 25K tax credit for SUV's
Test drive: The Smart car is revolutionary
A car small enough to alter your relationship with the city
 7556. concerned - 7/2/2008 9:31:14 PM Only 36mpg highway? Not very smart after all.
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