Peak Oil Investments I'm Putting My Money On: Part III, Natural Gas Vehicles

[jschaub]

I found the following article about natural gas vehicles, where the author uses a masters student as a proxy to supposedly show why NGVs will not decrease oil dependence. Take it for what it is worth, which is not much in my opinion. It is just one example of why one should always assume that whatever one sees posted online has not been properly vetted. Here is the article:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/195265-peak-oil-investments-i-m-putting-my-money-on-part-iii-natural-gas-vehicles

[siai47]

Re: Peak Oil Investments I'm Putting My Money On: Part III, Natural Gas Vehicles

Interesting read. You could subsitute any other "alternative" technology in the article and come up with similar conclusions. The "Masters student's" bio states that he is in Dublin and is focusing on electric vehicles. I thought I saw that bias in the article and links to other articles by him. Hey, if he likes electric vehicles---fine with me---I like them too . However we need to be less focused on one fuel or technology to break our bond to foreign oil. Try 'em all and let the marketplace sort it out.

[jblue]

Re: Peak Oil Investments I'm Putting My Money On: Part III, Natural Gas Vehicles

Hey, if he likes electric vehicles---fine with me---I like them too.

I'm okay with electric vehicles too. What is annoying about electric vehicles is the spin job that is often put on them as if they are some type of environmental panacea that must be attained in a do or die fashion. I guess most people who are drinking that kool-aid think that electricity is just something that occurs free for the taking. I've almost developed a sadistic pleasure of sort in popping their balloons by asking them to think about where the electricity comes from. Solar, while helpful, doesn't have the cost efficiencies that make it practical. Wind? ummm .. yeah. So we are still in bed with the hydrocarbon all gussied up as electricity, its just that we are offloading pollution to some place else instead of it coming out of our tail pipe.

Something else that is starting to get annoying is the dog and pony show of how alternative energy can be tool for the glorious goal of abolishing dependency on "foreign oil". It's been trotted out far too long and I've grown tired of hearing it. The real problem here is insistence on schemes of power in the form of nation/states.

I mean, seriously, does anyone really care about the men who died in the first battle of Granicus? What was the name of one man who died defending his nation that ultimately was defeated? That name and untold countless others throughout all recorded history died in vain. And for what? A nation? It is absurd. Fast-forwarding to present time and it is not hard for one to realize that nothing has changed. Hundreds of t-r-i-l-l-i-o-n-s of dollars is being spent every year by every nation on the face of this planet in defense of nationalism. Think of the possibilities of what life could be like unshackled from nationalism! It is plague on humanity and Albert Eisenstein correctly described nationalism as "an infantile disease". I also like how Karl W. Deutsch referred to nationalism as, "a purely vegetative group feeling".

So the next time you read about how "American" CH4 is, think herd mentality.

My apologies about turning this into a rant, it kind of got out of hand as I started typing. It is easy to complain about what is wrong, doing something about it is a completely different topic of discussion.

[thackj]

Re: Peak Oil Investments I'm Putting My Money On: Part III, Natural Gas Vehicles

I totally agree. People need to get real about Energy. Wind power is a joke. When you look at the huge investment (and undoubtedly, heavy maintenance) on just one of those monsters, as well as, the relatively pathetic output of each one, its a big waste of money. I read an article that said it would take over 13000 of them just to power New York City, and that's when the wind is blowing. It would probably take millions of these to power the US. We don't need anymore wasteful Govt subsidizing of feel-good green programs. Let the free-market sort things out. This Cap-And-Tax program will most certainly bankrupt the US. I can get on my soapbox too.

Later dude, James