Diesel- and Hybrid-Powered Vehicles Can Provide More Societal Benefits than Gas-Power

[wonderworm]

Good link. If we want to ever have a long term solution to our addiction to foreign oil, then yes, we need to end the massive subsidies that serve only to add a few extra Billions to the oil companies profits every 90 days and make oil executives even richer. And there are also massive homeland security implications as well since each time we fill up our Tahoes and Ford F350s with $150 bucks worth of gas, we are making our competitors and other potential parties who are anti US, even richer. ie: Middle East, Venezuela, Russia.

It will take a bold leader and US sacrifice to make this country change it's energy wasting ways. But if we don't make a change now, expect prices at the pump to double again even with the massive oil subsidies.

America desperately needs more energy from ALL sources and an energy plan that doesn't cater to only one group (big oilmen). We need to quit wasting Trillions in Iraq and immediately begin investing in truly groundbreaking and massive SOLAR, WIND, NUCLEAR, and HYDROGEN infrastructure. And we also need to remove regulations and open up our coastlines to huge offshore wind farms and deep water drilling to find all the great natural gas and oil deposits that are right in front of us, but current regulations prevent. This country needs a fundamental shift in thinking about energy and that is why this site and others like it are so special. You guys are the pioneers learning to survive in the new world of super high transportation costs and I expect this site and the others like it to grow a tremendous following over the next few years as the US energy crisis blossoms.

[bestclimb]

The corn crop is heavy subsidized to begin with. With out the subsidy everything on your table would likely cost double what it does now. Would also taste better but that is kind of a subjective thing.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

One problem that I see in the current generation of hybrids is their unsuitability to run on the hydrated ethanol available here in Brazil on cold weather (yes, it's not just a giant beach with an all-year-round summertime). And even though it still decreases the gasoline consumption, it just addresses one part of the problem, so if we don't take the fuel prices in consideration I would be more inclined towards a conventional flexfuel car running on ethanol instead of a comparable hybrid. Anyway, for spark-ignited engines, biomethane seems to be the most promising alternative for the next decade since it can still rely on fuel systems developed for fossil CNG.

When it comes to Diesel, I am still favorable to biodiesel and eventually vegetable oils to be used directly as fuel. Beyond the wide supply of waste cooking oils, since many people nowadays are eating more processed meat-based products instead of fresh meat it would be a good move to use more of those leftover carcass and viscerae fats as a feedstock for biodiesel. Supplemental injection of either a water+alcohol blend or CNG is also not only possible but also a good way to deal with the stricter emission standards and seem to be more beneficial than that DEF thing that does nothing to improve the combustion process and actually wastes more energy resources.

Originally Posted by bestclimb

The corn crop is heavy subsidized to begin with. With out the subsidy everything on your table would likely cost double what it does now.

I'm not unfavorable to corn (and corn-based ethanol by extension) at all. Even though I'm from Brazil, often pointed out as an example of success for the early days of the long-gone ProÁlcool, it's worth to remind that corn-based ethanol is a reasonable option to address the seasonality of sugarcane and the distillation-dried grain is still valuable as a high-protein substract to feed cattle or eventually also be used as an ingredient for certain processed foods instead of soybean-derived products that are more expensive.