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Forums - General Discussion - Energy solution for the U.S.?

LNRT on 23 May 2008
luinil said:
LNRT said:
Desroko said:
That only affects one aspect of the energy crisis, also. Most petroleum usage in America is put towards transportation.

Solar and wind power would be helpful in producing ethanol or hydrogen, but ethanol has a lot of problems as a fuel (corn ethanol is believed by most to be net-negative, meaning it requires more energy to prpduce than it yields, and it inflates food prices by taking supply off the market, which is also becoming a problem these days), and we don't realy have the technology to store and transport hydrogen efficiently, though I believe hydrogen-fueled vehicles are possible today.

It is true that corn based ethanol is net-negative is some areas such as western Kansas but it is efficient in Iowa and other places because they don't have to water their crops. Plus most of the ethanol plants are set up to switch to other crops such as milo or sugar cane. Once they are able to produce ethanol from the entire plant instead of just parts of it it will be effective. But until then it is iffy at best.


Ethanol is not only ineffecient, because it cannot be pumped to a destination, but it is causing food shortages, especially in 3rd world Countries. It is increasing the cost of food in America as well. It solves nothing and only creates more problems than it is worth.


 That is true in the short term. Check Dogs Rule's post to see why it can be effective long term.



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vaio on 23 May 2008

Why not build the biggest hamster farm ever and let the poor suckers run their heart out in that wheel that they like running in?



Vaio - "Bury me at Milanello"      R.I.P AC Milan

In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird.
Now the world is weird  and people take Prozac  to make it normal.

If laughing is the best medicine and marijuana makes you laugh

Is marijuana the best medicine?

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

“If any creator has not played Mario, then they’re probably not a good creator. That’s something I can say with 100 percent confidence. Mario is, for game creators, the development bible.

luinil on 23 May 2008
vaio said:
Why not build the biggest hamster farm ever and let the poor suckers run their heart out in that wheel that they like running in?

 KND FTW!



Luinil - Marisa (FE:SS). She's calm, collected, and really likes swords. (Courtesy of Words of Wisdom)
Tag: luinil - "Liberalism is a mental disorder." - Thanks fkusumot!
vaio on 23 May 2008
luinil said:
vaio said:
Why not build the biggest hamster farm ever and let the poor suckers run their heart out in that wheel that they like running in?

 KND FTW!


sorry for my ignorance but what does KND stand for?



Vaio - "Bury me at Milanello"      R.I.P AC Milan

In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird.
Now the world is weird  and people take Prozac  to make it normal.

If laughing is the best medicine and marijuana makes you laugh

Is marijuana the best medicine?

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

“If any creator has not played Mario, then they’re probably not a good creator. That’s something I can say with 100 percent confidence. Mario is, for game creators, the development bible.

Dogs Rule on 23 May 2008

I had to look it up too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codename:_Kids_Next_Door
http://knd.wikia.com/wiki/Operation:_N.O.-P.O.W.U.H.



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largedarryl on 23 May 2008

The only currently viable way of generating power is nuclear power. Every other solution is too costly, too inefficient and technologically behind.

As for large scale windfarms, they are only now starting to see the effects on the environment because of taking that energy out of the air.



Kytiara on 23 May 2008

New oil fields can't just be drilled tomorrow. They often can take years before anything gets extracted.

Also, not all oil is equivilent. Just because there are million of barrels of oil available in some of these places doesn't mean it's the same type of oil the world is used to.

These new oil fields are only economically viable because the price of oil is high enough to cover the extra cost in extracting and refining it. Most of them were discovered years ago but ignored because it would cost more money per barrel to extract and refine it then it could be sold for. As the price of oil skyrockets, companies are seeing profits and therefor drilling the less desirable oils.

As for ethanol, its unlikely to solve anything in the long term. Even the newer cellulose ethanol isn't likely to make a big enough difference to change the outcome, especially if you take China and India into consideration.



Kytiara on 23 May 2008
largedarryl said:
The only currently viable way of generating power is nuclear power. Every other solution is too costly, too inefficient and technologically behind.

As for large scale windfarms, they are only now starting to see the effects on the environment because of taking that energy out of the air.

Replacing oil usage with nuclear power plants is at best going to delay the problems.  First, those power plants take oil to construct and second the reserves of uranium and other fuels are almost as limited as oil.

*edit: Not to mention the fact that nuclear power generation has a bad problem with waste byproducts.



vaio on 23 May 2008
Dogs Rule said:
I had to look it up too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codename:_Kids_Next_Door
http://knd.wikia.com/wiki/Operation:_N.O.-P.O.W.U.H.


Thank you, didn´t even know how to beging looking it up. :)



Vaio - "Bury me at Milanello"      R.I.P AC Milan

In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird.
Now the world is weird  and people take Prozac  to make it normal.

If laughing is the best medicine and marijuana makes you laugh

Is marijuana the best medicine?

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

“If any creator has not played Mario, then they’re probably not a good creator. That’s something I can say with 100 percent confidence. Mario is, for game creators, the development bible.

largedarryl on 23 May 2008
Kytiara said:
largedarryl said:
The only currently viable way of generating power is nuclear power. Every other solution is too costly, too inefficient and technologically behind.

As for large scale windfarms, they are only now starting to see the effects on the environment because of taking that energy out of the air.

Replacing oil usage with nuclear power plants is at best going to delay the problems. First, those power plants take oil to construct and second the reserves of uranium and other fuels are almost as limited as oil.

*edit: Not to mention the fact that nuclear power generation has a bad problem with waste byproducts.


 The waste byproducts of nuclear power are less harmful and in smaller quantity then most people believe.  I am well aware that our current mechanical power generation is currently oil based, but we are eventually going to need a different way of doing this and is most likely going to be electricity based.  We should eventually be able to generate all of our power in power plants.

If we were to switch all coal and oil power plants to nuclear fission reactors today, we would be able to produce power for another 100 years.  The only problem with re-refining uranium is its currently a very dirty process, but we could get better use out of the uranium because currently a spent uranium pellet uses less than 1% of the usable material available.