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boden

wrote:
On May 31, 12:30 am, David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 5/30/2008 5:00 PM Lee spake thus:

Here in Phoenix, AZ we had a radio talk show host named Preston
Westmoreland that, at that time, was on radio station KTAR (620 AM).
He had a guest on his show talking about the feasibility of hydrogen
powered cars.

[...]

As a result, this professor invented a way to convert water into
hydrogen and powered a regular car with it.

Shoot, *I* know how to do that (at least the converting water into
hydrogen part): it's called hydrolysis, and uses electricity to split
water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. But you know what? It requires
*energy* to do that.

That's OK, the environmental extremists know the answer to that
problem. The electricity for hydrogen or electric cars comes out of
the wall socket. Every home has one.

--
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute
conversation with the average voter.

- Attributed to Winston Churchill

The electric car is one of the cruelest hoaxes being offered up by the
uninformed environmentalists. Sure an electrically fueled vehicle will
work. Sure you can recharge it from an outlet in your home. BUT, if
many of us were to do it the system would fail.

Oil can be seen as stored sunlight. Energy stored over billions of
years. Oil has the highest energy density of any currently available
(nonnuclear) fuel.

A few months ago using data from the DoE website I calculated the energy
content of all of the gasoline used in the US and comparing that with
the total electrical generation capability of the US found that to
replace all of our gasoline with electricity would utilize ALL of the
electric energy produce for 19 of every 24 hours each day. Exact
(accurate) data is hard to find so my estimate may be off a bit, but not
enough to alter my conclusion...for the majority of us to have electric
cars, the lights will have to be turned off.

This nation has little generation reserve. Typical generation
facilities run at 90 to 95% of "name plate capacity." Further, there is
not much reserve in our distribution system. It doesn't seem possible,
without MAJOR additions to our electrical distribution system, to
recharge electric cars in the 12 hours between 6 pm and 6am. The energy
isn't there and even if it was there is no way to distribute it.

To advocate widespread use of electric vehicles without addressing these
issues is irresponsible. But, that doesn't stop those with an agenda.

Serious attention needs to be given to wind, tidal flow, and solar.
Especially when located at the point of use so that distribution is not
a serious issue.

Boden