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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (11259)	7/14/2009 10:23:46 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86356

if Intel's Andy Grove had said that PCs weren't ready for prime time, when most PCs were kit computers built by geeks as a hobby, then we wouldn't have had the PC revolution. Oh yeah.. I remember the Apple IIc and all the games my buddy and I used to play on it. In fact, another friend had a TSR 80 with a cassette tape as it's "hard drive".. Truly a technical leap in economic productivity there.. ;0) And I also remember that the "unwashed masses" couldn't afford them until YEARS LATER. And some would say that it was Apple's Mac and later Gates "Windoze" that opened PC's to the mass consumer. But it was really the advent of the internet that eventually opened up the PC markets mass consumption. Again, and get it through your thick skull, I have no doubt that battery technology will get better. I've ALREADY STATED that we're possibly on the verge of unveiling the "holy grail" of power storage, Ultracapacitors. But it isn't the technology.. It's the cost and securing sufficient quantities of the necessary raw materials in order to scale up production so that J6P, and not just Jay Leno, can actually afford it. Hawk

To: RetiredNow who wrote (11259)	7/14/2009 11:13:15 AM
From: Eric	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 86356

We are fortunate here in the U.S. that we have NG and some coal. Most of the world doesn't. But in the end even that will run out much faster than a lot of folks realize. Europeans are getting very serious about alternatives and working on the electric car at an accelerating rate. Batteries are the current weak link but now that we are spending some serious money on R&D we will see some serious improvements in the next few years. 15 years ago car manufacturers were spending virtually nothing on improving cell performance. NG is nice but it does not have the energy density of gasoline and the physical requirements of the pressure cylinder to contain it takes up much more room in a vehicle. I can hold up the empty gas tank of a car in one hand, I can't do that for a NG car. But what I'm most concerned about is this country not continuing to improve the energy infrastructure as others improve theirs and get off of fossil fuels. The brain drain continues...