It would seem our (USA) government ignores all but the bad things. Such as war, tax hikes, climbing gas prices. Nobody wants them but they give 'em to us anyways. Yet all the good things they refuse to listen too and simply set them on the wayyyyyy back burner. Offshore wind turbines, for example. The government needs to say "f*** off Greenpeace we're putting them everywhere!". As for the people who complain about their "view" being obstructed; would they rather have $7 per gallon gas or a grid of wind turbines 2 miles off the coast giving them an abundance of clean power yet "obstructing" their precious view? :slap:

For those watching the news. Mcain is pushing legeslation, that will eliminate the moratorium on contential shelf drilling. It will still be up to each state to allow it, but the federal giudlines could be dropped. They also could increase the sharing of the profits to each state to allow the drilling to happen.

When i started this thread, I wasn't a greenie by any idea. I been fastinated by electric cars. I know the short term answer for oil independance, is home drilling. Now if the government would get off the green horse and fix things in the economy, we could see middle east independance, then invest in green tech

down here in arizona you would think solar energy would be a top priority with over 300 days of sunshine per year....
but no...its something I dont understand. At present it would cost me about $40k to install a 4kw solar syestem on my house I would love to do this but it would take over 10 yrs to see the cost benifits and when the average home buyer will stay in thier home for 5yrs it doesnt make much sense...the government does offer some kickbacks but that cost needs to come down under $20k for me to consider it

I agree with you, on the new energies technology. Thats why i say, let loose the oil companies to solve our problems now. I read that there is enough oil on the contential shelf, to last for 10 to 12 years, using it exclusively over middle east oil. In the mid west, there is supposed to be 800 million barrels of oil locked in shale. Thats enough, if extracted, to make us an oil giant in the world. I say we look to our oil options for the short term and then invest in green tech when we can develop without pressure

Edit: I forgot to mention, with the coal to oil conversion, we got more coal than the middle east has oil. Using the conversion tech that was pioneered in the early 90's, could be made for about half what the current oil prices are. I'm sure the process has been improved since then

I'm not one for conspiracy theory, but are the high oil prices in part caused by the gov't setting them high? Maybe to give us US citizens someone to hate/be mad at (middle east) and then the gov't can come in and "save the day"? How much is political and how much is economic?

The only gov't involvement (that I believe) is taxes. Sense oil is an international commodity China, Japan, Europe, ect would not willingly let our politicians jack up the price of oil without compensation (lots of it).
Do, I do personally believe that not drilling more in alaska and on the continental shelf (political decisions) is raising the cost of oil, but that is because of reduced supply (if we announce we are going to drill, even if it will 7 seven years to get to full production we would see an immediate reduction in the speculation of oil because the "crisis" would be seen as less severe).

I don't think its a conspiracy as much as speculation, Its a world wide problem, so i think its the people actually buying the oil thats responsible. With china and india becoming manufacturing powerhouses, they are buying all the oil they can get. For us (U.S.) and the rest of the world, we got to pay the piper to play. That means pay what the rest of the world pays

I don't think its the gov't doing this, But i do believe there is, or was, a colusion of sorts, that spun out of control. I do however believe, that whoever of the candidates, that does the right thing to help solve this, will win the white house

The best our government can do right now is open up domestic drilling/exploration and lower the fuel taxes.

I agree with you crazy, whoever is on the side of dropping the fuel prices will own the White House. I know one thing for sure, raising taxes on the oil companies ain't going to drop our prices any......

not to start a political forum...but....politics has a lot to do with the gas situation, if Bush wanted to put the skids on it he could, but remember who it was that was backing him financially, it was the energy companies especially oil, the Bush family have been in the oil business for 3 generations with deep ties to the Bin Ladens....You think George W knows where Osama is? Of course he does....

Have you ever had a relative that was so messed up your family disowned him?
Maybe you have a relative that commited a crime. Does your relation to that relative make you a criminal?
I do think Dub could have pushed harder to get oil proces lower, but I do not think that he intentional raised prices (at least not this high). And I definetly do not think that Dub knows where Osama is but isn't doing anything about it.
I am guessing that the Bin-Laden's would even be willing to pay for Osama put away or dead as their family (which is a legit business family) is not trusted/taken seriously outside of the arab world.

They only part our dumb govt has in prices is the taxes we pay for it. The prices are set in the middle east where the oil reserves and production capacity is. We haven't had a role in prices for quite a while - other than our demand. Brian we're too stupid to play out such a scenario.

Just like the DAs now that we're talking about ending the moratorium on OS drilling and letting states decide - what a crock of misinformation! We're held hostage to incredible stupidity. Some of the most pristine beaches in the world line the gulf coast where billions of cubic of gas an millions of barrels of oil are and have been produced without a spill. I find it ironic that CA which by itself is the 3rd biggest gasoline consumer in the world and has the most readily known offshore resources, will not even talk about allowing drilling.

Talk about closed minds - CA should be paying the rest of us something for placing resources which the counrty owns off limits. I guess its encouraging that we are at least talking about it, but such misinformation/stupidity about the subject is incredible. If this is deliberate, then the agenda behind it needs to be exposed. If its just stupidity, then we need some education to happen.

There are a few different ways to solar charge an electric bicycle but
this is probably my favourite system; I can use one 48V panel through
a custom regulator to go straight to a lithium ion battery or else I
can use the same panel to charge a battery bank to store the energy
and then use an inverter and the normal battery charger for the bike
battery. I've made a short video to show how to do this and put it on
youtube. You can also access it through my Solar Bike website -
solarbike.com.au
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5j9VyuWNzU