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Pastimes : The California Energy Crisis - Information & Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: portage who wrote (813)	8/7/2001 1:20:35 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

Hi portage, Re: Hewlett's think tank on energy: Do you suppose that the solons will find that the coal underneath Hewlett's ranchs will be part of the solution? <w> The end of the Mercurycenter article is a hoot. Suggesting that the way to deal with excess consumption is recycling. Oh, boy. With a naive assumption like that, we'll never win. For instance, Ford's effort in the behemoth class of SUVs, the Excursion, includes all of 12 pounds of recycled plastics, though it does much better in the steel category at about 1,000 pounds. By the time all the Ford Excursions have been recycled, the excess barrels of oil spent pushing these behemoths (and their half a ton of recylced metal) back and forth to the shopping center and soccer field will be counted in the hundreds of barrels per rig*. I'd love to know how Mr. Boudreau of the Mercurycenter proposes that that fits into a recycling scheme.... Re: FERC changing of the guard: The replacement of Curt Hebert by Pat Wood III ought to be very good news for California. Wood has a reputation as a tough and fair regulator in the Texas markets. Re: Price fixing, Houston Style: Finally, I'm wondering if you can point me to a transcript of the El Paso gas executive's conversations that you mentioned in your post? TIA. * Re: Fuel Economy and the Ford Excursion: Assume: Typical gas mileage for the small gasoline V-8 - about 12 MPG. For a fuel-economy legislation conforming automobile assume about 24 MPG. Useful vehicle lifetime: 200,000 miles. Assume - Miles driven in conditions when SUV capabilities are mandatory: 5,000. Calculation: Fuel consumption by vehicle: Ford Excursion - Standard Engine: (195,000/12)= 16,250 gallons of gasoline used, (equal to 387 barrels of gasoline) Typical EPA limited sedan: (195,000/24)= 8,125 gallons of gasoline used, (193 barrels) Thus, each Ford Excursion, during its lifetime, will require an additional ~200 barrels, (or ~8,000 gallons) of fuel to accomplish the same work as a more sensible vehicle would require, IMO. That's the cost of status and style, I reckon. Best, Ray