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Posted by Doug Jacobs on 05/03/06 22:14
In alt.games.video.sony-playstation2 RKRM <rkrm@nospamcomcast.net> wrote:
> > But, none the less, do you have to burn the oil to create fertilizers?
> The fertilizers ARE oil! It's a petroleum product.
While most fertilizers are made from petroleum products, you have to
remember that mankind managed to survive quite well using other substances
for 1000s of years prior to discovering the liquified remains of dinosaurs.
> If
> > you eliminate the oil used for fuel, you can pump the rest that's "needed"
> > from the US alone.
> You can't just make ethenol for free it takes energy -- fossil fuels.
It may very well be that you expend more energy producing ethenol than you
get by burning it but that doesn't mean you have to use fossil fuels to
produce it.
> And, there's alternatives to petroleum in just about all
> > applications as well.
> No. Where do you think our energy comes from? It's all fossil fuels. Oil,
> gas and coal. Wake up. Google it if you must but Ethanol is an energy sink.
I don't know about you, but about 20% of the electricity my house uses
comes from solar, wind, or nuclear sources. Go to Google and look at
PG&E's energy mix.
Anyways, the president is just using things like hydrogen and ethenol as
lipservice. Neither are short term solutions and scientists still have
many issues to resolve before they're even close to introducing a
commercially viable product.
And there is plenty of stuff that we can, and should have been doing,
since the LAST gas crisis hit back in the 70s. Things like:
* Keep you car in good repair. Just changing your air filter can give
you a couple extra miles.
* Wrap your hot water heater in a fiberglass "blanket" - will help it use
less energy to keep the water inside hot.
* Fix leaky windows/doors. Help keep the heat in during the winter, A/C
in the summer. This could be as simple as using some caulk, or sealing
the window with one of those plastic sheeting kits for the winter.
* Close your blinds during the day if you aren't home. This helps
insulate your windows better and helps keep the heat out during the
summer, or helps keep the cold out during the winter.
* Add additional insulation to your attic or walls.
None of these are especially difficult or expensive and will net you
immediate 10-15% savings on your annual energy bills.
If you want to spend a bit more, look into replacing your older windows
with newer multi-pane models with solar coatings on them. Not only will
you increase the value of your house, but this improvement will pay itself
off in just a few years in terms of the energy you'll be saving to heat
and/or cool your house. Replace older appliances with newer ones that use
less energy. You may even be eligible for rebates from your local power
company, state and federal government which can help defray the initial
costs of these improvements.
Personally, I'm hoping the cost of those solar-electric roof tile systems
come down in price. I'd love to put one of those on the back roof of my
house. By my estimates, that'd cut my electric bill almost to 0 - sounds
good, but at $13-15k, it'd still take the system about 20 years to pay for
itself. If they could get the cost down to about $8, I think we'd start
seeing a lot more solar roofs.
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