So much for a Nissan Leaf!

[k0ua]

Do you know what year they started making engines that could handle the alcohol?

I think it was the late 70's.

Henry Fords, first car ran on ethanol, and the Model T could run on gasonline, ethanol or a mix of the two..

By the late 90's there was significant ethanol in gasoline.

 

[hazmat456]

Assuming 65% efficiency of the coal burnig power station and 65% efficiecy charging the battery the total efficency of Leaf is about 42%. Your truck engine is about 30% at best. Leaf is also way smaller car than your truck so considering that your truck polutes at least twice the amount than Leaf.

coal power is only about 35% efficient so assuming your correct about the charging station at 65%, your at 23%. If we only use them numbers the truck pollutes less, besides no battery is 100% efficient and it gets worse over time.

 

[RFY T]

I think we have been duped, and we are stupid enough to fall for it. Why should food prices raise if we use corn or grain to produce alcohol for fuel? Have you ever flown anywhere in a plane and had a window seat? Did you look at all the available land that has nothing on it? We could raise enough crops to feed the world, and make all the fuel we want. It's politics and greed that stops this. Alcohol is a cleaner burning fuel, and crops are a never-ending supply. Like trees, we can grow more and more. It is endless how much we can grow if we can kill the greed - you can thank Rockefeller for the start of this downfall- but if it hadn't of been him, it would have been some other greedy grabber.
Why don't we get together, like the Boston tea party and stop this nonsense and produce the crops necessary to do the job right, and break the hold the oil magnets have on us?

 

[RFY T]

Nuclear is not the answer in any shape of form. Do the research, the real story of what is happening at Fukashima. It is a disaster and may do us in. There is so much that Japan and our own government is not telling us. They are now having major leaks. Just research what has happened to the people of Japan who survived "survived", the nuclear bombs we dropped on them. The effects on them and their offspring have been horrendous. We are going to see such results from the Fukashima nuclear plant and others as well. We sure don't want that for a power source, when there are so many other alternatives.

 

[Redneck in training]

I think we have been duped, and we are stupid enough to fall for it. Why should food prices raise if we use corn or grain to produce alcohol for fuel? Have you ever flown anywhere in a plane and had a window seat? Did you look at all the available land that has nothing on it? We could raise enough crops to feed the world, and make all the fuel we want. It's politics and greed that stops this. Alcohol is a cleaner burning fuel, and crops are a never-ending supply. Like trees, we can grow more and more. It is endless how much we can grow if we can kill the greed - you can thank Rockefeller for the start of this downfall- but if it hadn't of been him, it would have been some other greedy grabber.
Why don't we get together, like the Boston tea party and stop this nonsense and produce the crops necessary to do the job right, and break the hold the oil magnets have on us?

The problem is efficiency. To make fuel from corn takes 8 units of fuel to provide 9 units of fuel. So after burning 8 units of fuel you get only 1 unit.
In example palm oil is much more efficient source of fuel. But then look at the consequences. If you fly in example from Miri over Bintulu to Sibu on Borneo look down. There are only specks of the jungle left. All you can see is palm oil plantation. It was sold to local people as "job creating" venture. The only problem is that the jobs pay so little that it made only very little difference in their lives. Now the same companies are pushing in central and South America with the same disastrous consequences.

 

[Redneck in training]

coal power is only about 35% efficient so assuming your correct about the charging station at 65%, your at 23%. If we only use them numbers the truck pollutes less, besides no battery is 100% efficient and it gets worse over time.

I give it to you but your numbers are also inacuarte. US coal burning plants are about 36 to 44% efficient. While batteries used in electric cars are in fact 80-90 % efficient. So electric car is at least 32% efficient. If you take into account the polution and energy used to make the fuel for your truck electric car is significantly ahead of internal combustion engine. Since some electric power is produced by combine cycle with efficencies about 60% and hydro with about 90% efficiency the electric cars will look even better. Then if every house in the USA had solar on the roof ........You get the picture.

 

[Redneck in training]

Cars like Nissan leaf or Tesla are the Ford T of yesterday. You have to start somewhere. The technology is not there yet. The electric cars are either expensive or not completely practical. That was true about Ford T and cars at the beginning of 20th century also.

 

[ultrarunner]

Fifteen Million Model T's were made and they were assembled in some 30+ countries around the world.

Me thinks you have to go back a few more years to Curved Dash Oldsmobiles... the first mass produced car and also one of the very first cars to travel from the West Coast to the East Coast... just like a Telsa did recently.

Speaking as a Restorer and owner of at least one car from each decade starting with a 1905 Curved Dash Olds all the way through Model year 2002... maybe an electric is in the future for the 2010-2020 candidate?

 

[woodlandfarms]

Nuclear is not the answer in any shape of form. Do the research, the real story of what is happening at Fukashima. It is a disaster and may do us in. There is so much that Japan and our own government is not telling us. They are now having major leaks. Just research what has happened to the people of Japan who survived "survived", the nuclear bombs we dropped on them. The effects on them and their offspring have been horrendous. We are going to see such results from the Fukashima nuclear plant and others as well. We sure don't want that for a power source, when there are so many other alternatives.

So this is where it gets interesting.... You can have along drawn out debate about Fukashima, but in the end it was this old design plant. 50 year old architecture when it should have been 10 year old architecture. This is where I feel the greatest disconnect is.

Take a look at this Greenpeace article

Yes, things are very bad at Fukushima but it

So moving on from Fukashima, the question is asked how many people have died from Nuclear Reactor Meltdowns. Roughly 47 - Russian, in the US none. How many have died from exposure via cancer, 4,000 on the very highest end. OK, not great, actually kinda scary. But then the question comes how many people have died from Coal. In the US roughly 100,000 have died directly from mining coal since the 1920's. How many have died from black lung or other coal related illness? A milllion? Do we want to look at greenhouse gasses, global warming, and all the other ways coal effects all of us?

Look, I am a greenie, a liberal, but Solar and wind manufacturing isn't a very clean process and it is terribly inneficient. Nuke can be quite safe, but, IMO, the oil and gas companies have spent a lot of time and money keeping nukes from modernizing, while demonizing the industry. People are scared, and lots of people are making a lot of money keeping people scared.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Fifteen Million Model T's were made and they were assembled in some 30+ countries around the world.

Me thinks you have to go back a few more years to Curved Dash Oldsmobiles... the first mass produced car and also one of the very first cars to travel from the West Coast to the East Coast... just like a Telsa did recently.

Speaking as a Restorer and owner of at least one car from each decade starting with a 1905 Curved Dash Olds all the way through Model year 2002... maybe an electric is in the future for the 2010-2020 candidate?

Can you imagine if 30 years trying to restore a Tesla? I can't even imagine.......