Washington increases fuel spending in 2010

[Varn]

They want their subjects to spend less on fuel but it doesn't apply to them.
click here

[gasstingy]

I want me to spend less money on fuel, too. That's why I'm here. But, like I used to tell my kids when they were small, asking for something I didn't intend to buy them, "It's healthy to want."

Reality says that when the price of fuel goes up, you either conserve more or spend more. As most of us were already conserving, our spending is up.

For those who are here and are driving a renewable energy recharged electric car, I salute you {and envy you some too }.

[Frank Lee]

Imagine how many resources of all sorts we'd have were it not for the dept of homeland security!

[Varn]

I do like the bottom up grass roots approach that this web site gives. Write a letter to your reps demanding our public servants, the government, use less of everything.

Our electric grid could not sustain mass use of electric vehicles. We have not made the investment in the infrastructure to increase usage. Nice idea that won't go anywhere without the electric grid being beefed up.

I to need Homeland security like a hole in the head. On the federal level, don't we already have the FBI, ICE and US Marshal Service.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Varn

Our electric grid could not sustain mass use of electric vehicles. We have not made the investment in the infrastructure to increase usage. Nice idea that won't go anywhere without the electric grid being beefed up.

Chicken and egg problem. There's no reason to beef up the electric grid to handle electric vehicles unless you have a lot of electric vehicles to handle.

But when we do start to get meaningful numbers of EVs, the grid modifications will follow, same as when electricity use increased for other reasons, such as A/C.

[Varn]

Hi Jamesqf, I bet it takes 10 years to design and build a single power plant unless the power plant is one of those big gas turbine boosters that are around. You might be right that it would take longer than that to get many electric powered vehicles on the road.

Personally I don't have much use for battery powered electric vehicles. I have heard that the battery manufacturing and disposal are a real environmental nightmares that need to be addressed, are the batteries being made with US quality environmental standards ? You know that they are not.

I think fuel using engines have a niche in long distance transportation and will for the foreseeable future. We are using internal combustion engines now but I could see a fairly short leap into fuel cell technology.

The environmentalists and politicians have repeatedly squashed many power developments and make building a power plant a real nightmare I am told.

Ready for rolling brown outs again. I'm not.

Back to the point that I started with. Our elected government is ignoring efforts to save fuel the very same ideal that they want the average joe to swallow. Ever see a fuel efficient police or military vehicle? I wonder if there is a website showing the types and numbers of vehicles that feds own.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Chicken and egg problem. There's no reason to beef up the electric grid to handle electric vehicles unless you have a lot of electric vehicles to handle.

But when we do start to get meaningful numbers of EVs, the grid modifications will follow, same as when electricity use increased for other reasons, such as A/C.

[Varn]

I found some of the raw data from the the GSA.
Downloadable governmental vehicle data from 2005-2009