Alternative Energies: Different kinds and a few thoughts

[smonkbmw]

You have a point but I don't think that the tax on the big cars is needed, they are taking it in the shorts every time they pull up to the pump.

yeah, but its not enough. suv sales are still moderate. and hummers are still available for sale.

You can't really tax the untuned cars because they are generally operated by people who don't have the money to maintain them. So taxing those people will only have more impact on the economy that is negative; not create many net benefits.

take the bus then, ride a bike. HEY fix the obesity problem in america at the same time, ride a bike to work, school!!!

[JasonC]

yeah, but its not enough. suv sales are still moderate. and hummers are still available for sale.



take the bus then, ride a bike. HEY fix the obesity problem in america at the same time, ride a bike to work, school!!!

So because people are buying stuff they like, we should make it so they can't?

For the public transportation systems, not everyone has that at their disposal cause of the location that they live in.

[BeirBrennerE30]

Dont tax my suv... i pay way more than my share of taxes already plus there is already a lux. tax on cars in Mass.

However I am 100% behind drilling anywhere and everywhere we can. Drill in my back yard for all i care as long as it lowers gas prices. However, I am also behind building nuclear plants quickly as well as increasing solar/wind/hydro to assist the nuclear plants.

also quick ay to lower gas prices. Force speculators to take delivery of commodity they purchase. it has been done before and it will stabilize the market. Gas prices would fall 10-25% with out rampant speculation.

[Hallen]

yeah, but its not enough. suv sales are still moderate. and hummers are still available for sale.



take the bus then, ride a bike. HEY fix the obesity problem in america at the same time, ride a bike to work, school!!!

Yeah, that isn't a bad thing really.

But taxing to modify behaviour really ain't a great way to go. We already pay enough in tax and people that use more gas, pay more tax already. When you start singling out groups of people for "special" taxes, it just gives the government more ways to screw you.

Oil is still cheap relatively speaking and it does have a huge head start over other energy sources. You can't charge more for electricity created by a nuke plant compared to electricity created by a coal plant. That is why we have so many coal plants. Should we go nuke and use other energy sources? Absolutely. We shouldn't smoke or drink or drive fast either. In order for any of this to happen there needs to be either some real grass roots movements that forces the changes, or there needs to be an economic reason to do it... one not created by artificial government taxes or subsidies.

[threlevenguy]

Not to be off-topic of different sources, I don't know if this has been covered, but why can't gas stations compete in price? If Gas Station A sells gas for $3/gal. where Gas Station B stays at $4/gal. , I would think Gas Station A would make more profit because more cars would purchase gas there.

But I believe we should heavily fund alternative energy and try to ease off oil as much as possible.

[z31maniac]

Not to be off-topic of different sources, I don't know if this has been covered, but why can't gas stations compete in price? If Gas Station A sells gas for $3/gal. where Gas Station B stays at $4/gal. , I would think Gas Station A would make more profit because more cars would purchase gas there.

But I believe we should heavily fund alternative energy and try to ease off oil as much as possible.

:drink:

Yeah, because when wholesale cost is $3.50/gal selling at $3/gal makes money.:crazy:

[madjurgen]

I think your research on solar is really lacking and youre way too quick to dismiss it.

Give this a complete read for starters:

http://teslafounders.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/solar-synergy/

Changing the building codes for new houses and adding a few hundred dollars to the purchase cost would make adding a complete solar system that can power the entire house a rather cheap upgrade.

Like was mentioned before, why the rooftop of every office building isnt covered by panels is beyond me. The owners/leasees of these buildings spend millions every year on electricity. The million or two it would cost to fit these systems would be paid for fairly quickly I would think.

[Rigmaster]

Good thread.

While I didn't read every word of every post, I did scan over all of them. One thing that was mentioned that I don't understand is the comment about Geothermal possibly NOT being renewable....(???). You evidently don't have a good concept of Geothermal energy.

We recently built a new house on the wife's family farm- it sits in the middle of a cow pasture. We didn't have an assload of $$$ to spend on it, but we had a good chunk of $$ from the sale of our previous house, and we were bound and determined to build something that would be reasonably energy efficient yet cost effective. In other words, we were willing to pay a bit more for energy efficiency IF it could be shown to pay off in a reasonable amount of time.

I did a TON of research on Geothermal heat pumps (aka Ground Source Heat pumps), and I REALLY wanted to use one on this house, but it was just not financially feasible. The quotes I got for a Geothermal system were 3-4 times the cost of an efficient electric heat pump system. I was willing to go 1.5 or maybe 2x the cost, but no way could I justify 3-4x the cost. I even thought about doing alot of the work myself (the "closed loop" system I was going to use required a bunch of trenches to be dug to accomodate the plastic pipes through which water circulates to facilitate the transfer of heat to or from the earth- I have access to a backhoe and could do this myself)- but the cost savings was just not there.

I think a big part of the problem is that there are just not many contractors that are doing Geothermal, and those that are doing it can charge whatever they want evidently. I think that as this type of system becomes more popular, costs will come down and maybe when the current system dies (or electricity costs get to be too high), I'll convert.

But, saying that geothermal is not renewable is like saying that the center of the earth is going to freeze over, same thing..... ;)



Bret

[uofom3]

Bumped since another thread has turned to energy