"John R. Carroll" wrote:

We have the carbon crowd wanting to get rid of coal fired power plants and
stopping the
construction of new ones so expanding our electrical generation seems a
bit difficult.
Wind generation isn't very significant.

Well Wes, you guys have that boondoggle they stopped working on in Midland.
Michigan is ripe for nuclear power with all of the water around.

Michigan has so much going for it and we can't get out of the ditch. I sure hope Grandholm
doesn't get on Obama's economic recovery team. I'd rather have him have success.



Some people don't understand just how taxed their local distribution
system is. We don't
notice that until the lights go out. Maybe someone on the list that is
more familiar with
this can pipe up on this. A lot of housing developement went in w/o a lot
of upgrade to
the local distribution systems.

This is something the western states are accutely aware of. We don't
actually have power outages here, we have distribution failures.
The result is the same but the fix is entirely different.



Upgrading the system turns into a fight over NIMBY or
front yard for that matter. Generally means taller poles and another
substation that no
one wants in their designer neighborhood. Up the road, the locals fought
an expansion so
long that federals rules on reliablity changed so now the system they
didn't want has
become even bigger.

Do what San Diego did - put it all underground.

That is very expensive though.


Taxing gasoline to make batteries more viable seems at odds with how Obama
wants to
stimulate the economy by tax credits.

Not really and the tax credits have nothing to do with gasoline.

Dollars are dollars. Add them here and take them back there and they cancel out.


Long term, most passenger vehicles are going to be a hybrid, I think that
is a given. How
the vehicle is constructed may be a mix of lotsa engine with not so much
battery to not
much engine with a lot more battery. Everyone has different needs.

I have read a little about LiPo batteries and they sure sound good. High
energy density
and if I read correctly, not as nasty to dispose of. Expensive though. So
were computers
once.

The cost of a top of the line PC CAD workstation hasn't changed much over
the years Wes. What's changed enormously is the performance.

I don't doubt you on that but the typical PC has dropped significantly in price. Cutting
edge always demands a premium.

Btw, saw you mentioned you were thinking of moving. Where to?

Wes