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Non-Tech : Alternative energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Fleming who wrote (1601)	3/14/2005 6:55:12 PM
From: Rock_nj	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16955

I just don't think it was ready before, and I don't believe in conspiracies about oil companies and secret government plots stopping science from marching forward. I know it's hard for people to accept conspiracy theories retarding the progress of science, but consider this. In 1981 when Reagan took over he cut Carter's alernative energy research budget by 80%. Also, around the same time, the oil companies all scrambled to buy into the solar industry. It's a fact that the solar industry was more or less brought out by the oil industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The question is why did both of these actions happen? Certainly the U.S. government didn't just cut alt.energy research for no reason. This was directly after the 1979/1980 oil shocks, after all. There was good reason to pursue alt.energy. Perhaps it was part of the Reagan agenda of smaller government, or perhaps it was part of a hidden agenda to thrwart the development to alternatives to the incredibly profitable hydrocarbon economy? Why all the oil company interest in solar at the same time? Better to keep your friends close and your enemies closer as they say. The oil companies pretty much brought out the solar industry and then they kept a close eye or developments or even afffected developments. Chevron-Texaco just brought Ovanonics back in 2001, which happens to have the most promising battery technology for long range electric vehicle operation (like 300 miles per charge). They said they wanted to diversify and catch part of the hybrid phenomenon. However, they won't sell these batteries retail to people who want to use them in cars and apparently have little interest in developing uses for electric cars. Now why is that? That would be a huge market for them. Just not nearly as huge or profitable as oil, so they buy it and sit on it. Starting in the 1920s and 1930s when the oil, tire and car industry started buying electric trolleys and dismantling them, real conspiracies have occured to keep a lid on the competition to the petroleum economy.