Comments on: Curing America’s Oil Addiction

By: Paul J. Gregg

Paul J. Gregg — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 19:02:22 +0000

One of the most immediate and practical things that can be done to save on petroleum consumption is very simple. STOP USING DRIVE-UP WINDOWS! There is a popular myth that restarting an engine uses more fuel than letting it idle for 1 to 2 minutes. THIS IS WRONG — Check with any automotive engineer. Modern fuel- injected engines are highly efficient on restart. To “save” fuel by keeping the engine on idle one would have to be in and back out in less than 20 seconds! Also, if idling an engine is supposedly “more efficient”, why do hybrid vehicles stop the engine every time the vehicle stops moving! This is one of the ways that they boost MPG. An idling engine gets 0 MPG!

By: Paul J. Gregg

Paul J. Gregg — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 19:02:00 +0000

By: Eileen Trainor

Eileen Trainor — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 16:09:53 +0000

No single solution can meet our society’s future energy needs. The answer lies instead in a family of diverse energy technologies that share a common thread: they do not deplete our natural resources or destroy our environment.
Free and efficient energy– whether generated from running water, sunshine, wind, differences in temperature, or chemical reaction–is a gift from God. Yet we turn our eyes from this bounty and continue to pursue energy policies that pollute our rivers and air, desecrate the landscape, and holds us hostage to its use. On the other hand, homegrown renewables can increase our energy security and create local jobs. Visit the Union of Concerned Scientists website for more information.
The Alternative Fuels Data Center is a source of varied information on alternative fuels: biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane. This site has more than 3,000 documents in its database, an interactive fuel station mapping system, current listings of available alternative fuel vehicles, and lots of alternative fuels information and related links.
Biodiesel is better for the environment because it has lower emissions compared to petroleum diesel. It is less toxic than table salt and biodegrades as fast as sugar. Since biodiesel is made in the USA from renewable resources such as soybeans (or hemp), its use decreases our dependence on foreign oil and contributes to our own economy. See BioDiesel.org for information on this nationwide initiative.
Fuel cells are now available as an alternative source for renewable energy. Unlike traditional generators, these fuel cells do not require gasoline, diesel or kerosene to generate power. These fuel cells run on methanol – an environmentally friendly fuel that is water soluble and biodegradable.
Solar power is proven. The tax incentives will help generate interest in some folk, but the momentum gained back in the 1980s has been stalled.
Support alternative energy in all forms. Its good for America and good for the Earth.

By: Eileen Trainor

Eileen Trainor — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 16:09:00 +0000

By: Lyn Henri

Lyn Henri — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:06:07 +0000

Our president doesn’t walk the walk about energy independence; just talks the talk.
He’s a preacher, and I honestly don’t trust him, and he will do everything in his power to keep
America shamelessly dependent on foreign oil, due to the ongoing war in Iraq that’s based on greed and oil fields.

By: Lyn Henri

Lyn Henri — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:06:00 +0000

By: Charles Phillips

Charles Phillips — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 09:15:34 +0000

Getting off petroleum products could be easier then one might think.
But you can not come straight out with the answer. Business, for the most part,
controls congress. They’d ambush you with even a hint of anything that could stop the trough. I think that the democratic party needs a new vision. And that vision should be based on the family farm. That the american people should have a system where farming could be profitable to the point of becoming wealthy. AND Corporations may not farm!
Then a set of standards that would would be ever enriching of the soil and water. A farmer would be taxed for how he did not meet the standards. But that the industry would need a crop that would not only make allot of money, and but improve the soil and the air.
That crop is hemp. There must be information some where on how many barrels of oil an acre of land could produce. And how hemp pulls 5 times the CO2 out of the air when it grows. It enriches the soil as it grows, and one is forced to rotate. Hemp also makes good paper at a low cost, sparing trees. If this were really thought through, one would have a program that would give American can do better then any country in the world and that is FARM! To give a further example;Only 6% of the farm land could produce all of the completely clean energy to make all the electricity this country would ever need. Meaning you could close all other types of fuel, oil,natural gas,and coal. And coal miners can become farmers. How long do you think it would be before we could close down every oil well,coal mine, and nuclear power plants.Before you propose it, get it polished to the point of teflon, anticipate the objections of the attackers
and build in the answers.

By: Charles Phillips

Charles Phillips — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 09:15:00 +0000

By: Charles Phillips

Charles Phillips — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 08:38:36 +0000

As I read it, the dilling companies will never stop trying to attach the drilling funding where ever they can.
I say attack! count your likely voters in each house
and pass a bill that can not be overturned without a national referendum and a 2/3′s vote. On Easter Island,
its native peoples cut down every last tree. I have to wonder, while they were dying
off,did they think about that last tree, and wonder, what have we done.

By: Charles Phillips

Charles Phillips — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 08:38:00 +0000