Gas prices: Who or what is to blame?

[Flying Mullet]

Originally posted by LH
Oh yeah, here's a thought - maybe Honda or Toyota could try making a hybrid car that isn't the ugliest thing on the road. Prius, Insight, they're ugly. The Civic Hybrid is even ugly, but it looks good compared to those other turds. I will never drive anything like that.

Yeah, most hybrids are ugly. I think it's so that the major car companies can say, "See, we made a hybrid but no one wants it. Guess we'll just keep using gas cars." and thus they keep their oil company bedfellows' pockets loaded.

Originally posted by LH
And another thought - premium is $1.99 a gallon where I live now, and minimum wage is $5.75 last time I checked. Before someone ignorantly comes in crying "you Americans, you Americans" he should do his homework and look at the cost of gas versus the cost of living, because I find I have little to no money left over after paying my stupid bills, and it's $60 dollars a week in gas that is killing me.

Why do you need premium gas? Most cars run fine on regular gas, and if you are driving a car that takes premium gas and are bitching about price, then you shouldn't have the car in the first place because you can't afford it.

[LH]

Originally posted by Dingo_Jellybean
...it looks just like a regular Honda Civic...

Haha, yeah, that's my problem with it.

Mr. Mimic:
Why do you need premium gas? Most cars run fine on regular gas, and if you are driving a car that takes premium gas and are bitching about price, then you shouldn't have the car in the first place because you can't afford it.

I don't use premium gas. The difference between premium and 87 is rarely anything more than 15 cents a gallon, so no matter what I use in my car I'm paying a lot. I'd save about two bucks a fill-up if I use the lowest grade instead of the highest.

[Garland]

What about solar electric cars? They have the benefit of already existing, after all. Solar lets you drive all day, and electric lets you drive a good distance at night. Unless you have the endurance to drive 24 hrs straight, there's not much such a vehicle couldn't manage.

[Dingo Jellybean]

Solar power is kinda hard to capture. Even if a car was solar powered, it wouldn't run very fast. I remember seeing a solar car in person when I was in 5th grade. It could barely go more than 30 mph. And even if you do store the power, it would run out in about half an hour. And AC, radio, heat, etc. would run down the battery quicker too...but eh. It could be a combination of all three, gas-electric-solar...that could be the ultimate and most convenient way to build a car's fuel source.

[Moxie]

Originally posted by Garland
What about solar electric cars? They have the benefit of already existing, after all. Solar lets you drive all day, and electric lets you drive a good distance at night. Unless you have the endurance to drive 24 hrs straight, there's not much such a vehicle couldn't manage.

You'd need a 200,000km long solar panel to substitute for all the power that oil gives us

The only way that people aren't going to die is by either growing soy beans, or lining every single highway and buliding with small solar panels

[Nemesis the Warlock]

People will have to stop wasting so much. How come huge plantations in the Australian outback can run on solar and wind power alone, if free energy is as inefficient as you all say?

There is no choice anyway. In another five years, there'll be no oil left in the world except for some hard to reach areas in Sibiria. That means people will use bicycles and public transport again, less children and pets will die on the streets, and Shell's private army will stop murdering locals in Africa. I can't wait for oil to run out. It's the devil's semen.

[Sephex]

I live near Chicago, IL, and I have heard that this summer gas prices are supposed to go over $3.00. Right now they are $1.83-$1.95 (unleaded, which is what I use). I just wanted to vent about this. Needless to say, I am pretty pissed off about it. Bring on a different source of power already(yeah, I know it's not easy, but damn)!

[Doomgaze]

we clearly need to build a dyson sphere.

[Nemesis the Warlock]

With the current rate of pollution, we'd suffocate to death inside a Dyson sphere within half a year.

We need to build solar panels, wind and tide powerplants, and cars that run on hemp or alcohol (thought that'd be a waste).

[Big D]

...Not to mention that a Dyson Sphere would require destroying thousands of solar systems, just to get the raw materials... pity, it's such a cool concept.

Anyway, there's practically limitless energy out there, waiting to be harvested. The sun - gives us light and heat; the winds can be harnessed, rivers diverted through hydro dams... so many ways of gathering energy without fossil fuels of any kind.

[DocFrance]

That was one of my favorite episodes... Dyson Spheres rock.

Yes, there is limitless energy out there. The only questions are, how do we harness it, and how do we do so efficiently enough to power everything we need in this day and age? Solar power is all good and well, but it takes an enormous amount of money and space to do what a gas power plant can do.

[Big D]

You're absolutely right. Every machine used to build a 'clean' power-pant is going to churn out pollutants, unless someone comes up with a solar-powered bulldozer sometime soon; all the plastics used in circuitry and wiring are made using toxic chemicals... even the 'clean' alternatives require a lot of mess, just to get underway.

It's basically going to take sweeping fundamental changes in every area of industry before things truly change. Because in every production line, every process that builds the things we use, traditional forms of energy are absolutely essential in this day and age.

It'll take time, but I think the change can be made.

[Doomgaze]

Those other thousands of solar systems are harboring terrorists bent on destroying Earth's way of life, we must launch a preemptive strike to mine them dry so we can build our dyson sphere.


Alcohol's an idea, though. I mean, if we can run things on, say, fermented corn alcohols...

We'd need to work out a large-scale growing system, though. City-sized greenhouses and the like. Then again, I suspect large, hyrdroponic greenhouses may be the future of agriculture..

[xenapan]

someone clue me in on what a dyson sphere is?

plus the problem lies the in population not the amount used. with the growth rates, nothing will ever supply that amount of energy for all the people efficiently at a decent price for one it would need to be renewable *gasp* that means the current infrastructure would need to change as well and we all know how much modern culture resists change.

[escobert]

Yeah, in some ways I like gas price hikes. Those people who drive SUVs drive them in ways that consumes gas almost 1.5x more than normal cars. SUV drivers accelerate too fast to be economical, I welcome the gas hikes...sometimes. But i don't mind it, people need to quit braking so hard, accelerating so fast, and driving so fast.

I have an SUV. It's a 90 chevy blazer and gets about 19 miles a gallon. And I accelerate too fast because I have a big engine and I liek to shot it off