Australia’s prime minister is proposing giving car owners up to $2,000 each to get them to convert from gas to LP. And what are we doing to get off gas?
Tags: energy
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August 14th, 2006 at 8:31 am
While alternative fuel choices can only be better for all of us in the long run, LP is hardly the savior I’d bet the farm on, especially when the largest natural gas reserves are in the hands of a Russian government monopoly that was more than willing to let people in Ukraine freeze to death last winter over petty politics.
Oh, and the number two global natural gas player? Iran.
August 14th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Australia has at least 50 years of natural gas reserves, so this does make sense for us. A different solution might be better for the US.
August 14th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Forget about the geopolitics…this is dumb for so many more reaons.
switching from one carbon-emitting non-renewable resource to another carbon-emitting non-renewable resource solves nothing about the major problem with gasoline: it emits carbon and is non-renewable. I mean, WTF? I suppose this is just a very shortsighted realization that natural gas is cheaper…but for how long?
August 14th, 2006 at 9:53 am
They’re just doing this because LP will make the cars explode much more excitingly in the Mad Max movies.
August 14th, 2006 at 10:00 am
I converted my old V8 Bronco to run on LPG (propane). Flip a switch, you’re burning plain old petrol…flip another switch and you’re on propane.
Ideally, I’d like to buy an old 1980’s vintage diesel Mercedes and run it on old french fry grease. They are especially well suited to run Used Vegetable Oil. A lot of people out here had the same idea. The prices for those old Mercedes jumped overnight.
August 14th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
While it’s a step in the right direction, and certainly a much larger step than our country has taken, it is not nearly as promising to alleviate world demands for oil as plug-in hybrids or hydrogen powered cars (if they could knock the price down).
August 14th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
We should applaud any effort to get the world off oil & hydrocarbons. Telecommuting. Solar Energy. Handgliding across the oceans(?). Windmill farms. Bicycling!
Think of all the benefits! Less pollution. Bicycling would reduce obesity, making us live longer! No human induced global warming. No Oil Wars!!
Its a no-brainer!
August 14th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
In the 1970’s when we had the oil embargo and prices went threw the roof Toyota came into the US with smaller cars and we bought them in droves. The same forces at at play now. Supply and demand in an unfettered free market will eventually reduce the price of oil. When prices go up there is eventually demand destruction and conservation.
We are competing with China and India for a commodity that may or may not have peaked in supply. Ironically, our conservation means more supply to them. So, the global conservation of carbon fuels isn’t going to happen.
We need to get more of our power grids on nuclear power. It’s a disgrace that this at a standstill while the rest of the world builds more nuclear plants. Ethanol is a joke, wasting the same or more energy to grow and process it. It’s a nice subsidy to Iowa corn farmers.
August 15th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
We don’t need to stop using gasoline - no matter how many docile fools repeat that mantra.
August 16th, 2006 at 10:55 am
Here is an item that (together with the upcoming hurricanes) ought to make oil prices edge a bit higher:
http://www.coha.org/2006/08/15/mexico-the-electoral-crisis-goes-on/
Happy motoring!