Electric Cars: The reality

[TexasSP]

Oh I read it, I just thought it was not very clear or forthcoming. I also put the electric only vehicle part in there because most don't know it isn't a pure electric vehicle because that's the way GM is touting it. Very misconceiving information from GM in my opinion, but no surprise.

Again the idea of solar panels and wind generators for everyone is interesting, but they have an environment impact and cost to produce. Have you ever priced putting enough solar panels on your house to power it completely? Or enough wind generators to power it completely? There are also some major environmental impacts of wind farms that many proponents don't want to admit. Not to mention the shear amount of land it would take to replace one average coal or oil burning plant with a wind power.

We seriously need to take a better look back at nuclear. It is the only real available option we have right now that can be implemented right now. It also is not the same as the nuclear of yesteryear. Does this mean we stop looking for newer and more efficient forms of energy? Of course not, but why not use what we have now until we come up with the better form. We also need to quit trying to make fuel out of our food supply, it's not efficient when considering how much land is needed for it to be a real viable option and it's driving up other costs astronomically. In 2000 you could buy 10-12 ears of corn for a dollar most days and many sales put it at up to 20 ears for a dollar. Now a sale is 2 ears for a dollar and in some states it is as high as 2 dollars for one ear. This also means the cost of all corn based products is up. This is anything made with corn flower, corn syrup, corn meal, corn starch, and so on. Check it out, corn is in everything from dog food to soda. You also have many farmers switching to corn now because they make more off the crop than other crops and in turn this is drastically reducing land used to grow other crops. This in turn is driving up the prices on all of the other crops as well. It's not sustainable and is a major underlying issue within the economic crisis right now.

I want an electric car for sure, but I want it done right and I want accurate information to the public about it. GM now being Government Motors I think the chances of them having accurate information is pretty much nonexistent.

[JThiessen]

Originally Posted by TexasSP

We seriously need to take a better look back at nuclear. .......... We also need to quit trying to make fuel out of our food supply, it's not efficient when considering how much land is needed for it to be a real viable option and it's driving up other costs astronomically. In 2000 you could buy 10-12 ears of corn for a dollar most days and many sales put it at up to 20 ears for a dollar. Now a sale is 2 ears for a dollar and in some states it is as high as 2 dollars for one ear. This also means the cost of all corn based products is up. This is anything made with corn flower, corn syrup, corn meal, corn starch, and so on. Check it out, corn is in everything from dog food to soda. You also have many farmers switching to corn now because they make more off the crop than other crops and in turn this is drastically reducing land used to grow other crops. This in turn is driving up the prices on all of the other crops as well. It's not sustainable and is a major underlying issue within the economic crisis right now.

I fully agree with you on the nuclear power. I worked at the site in Idaho about 20 years ago, and even back then they had the technology to make it safe.

I dont necessarily agree with you that the effects of using food sources for fuel is bad. For many years the govt was paying farmers to leave their fields barren due in a large part to our surplus of food. Yes, it raised your cost of food, but IMHO, its about damn time. Farmers have been getting screwed for 40 years due to the regulations and "farm programs" - I dont know any other commodity or job that pays the exact same today as it did 40 years ago. The processors and distributors of the grain(s) made all the profit, virtually eliminating the "small farmer", then these same companies bought up a vast majority of the land, and are now running the industry. We;ve been too used to low priced ag products (similar to our fuel). Speaking of fuel, a large part of your increase in price on products was also due to the fuel price spike. But watch, you'll see the price of corn, wheat, barley drop now, but you wont see a decrease in the store. Guess who's keeping the money - not the farmers....
Yes, I'm a little biased, as my family runs a "small" farm - but they were just large enough to make it.