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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (398345)	7/13/2008 5:25:20 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575658

Ted, Yes. I thought at least 10-15% of the electricity generated in the US was from oil but in reality, its only about 5%. Natural gas + oil are roughly 20%, and the plants can switch from one to another. Yes. I agree. I don't see going this route with the average car. At best, it would provide only an intermediate step.....and the cost to convert to NG usage, and then back, I suspect would be significant. There is another area - home heating - which is more applicable, IMO, to be switched to natural gas or electric. But for this to work, natural gas heat or electric heat need to be cost effective, so that it makes sense for homeowners to switch. Oil - or gasoline - has such advantages in transportation over all of the other current sources that it is hardest to replace in this particular area (transportation), so the wholesale conversion to natural gas is not going to happen. But there are niches where it may make sense. The best path is the one that leads through cheap enough electricity. The market forces would than direct the conversions to electricity - in home heating and eventually in transportation. So the question in my mind is if wind power can has a potential to become a source of cheap energy, cheaper than not only oil, natural gas, but also coal. If so, then what's stopping T. Boone Pickens from plunging right in? There is another, big problem with wind energy, specifically as a replacement for natural gas. Natural gas plants are the best for meeting power needs during the peak power demands, such as hot summer days - and specific hours of the day. It just happens that there is not much wind during those times of year and hours of day. Joe