OPEC sells oil for $136.00 a barrel.
OPEC nations buy U.S. grain at $7.00 a bushel.
Solution: Sell grain for $136.00 a bushel.
Can’t buy it? Tough! Eat your oil!
Ought to go well with a nice thick grilled filet of camel ass!!!
Why do you think theres a push for ethenol??
Drives up the price of grains
I doubt we will ever have wide spread use of alternative fuels. Too much greed involved. E85 and Bio Diesel increased in price penny for penny with gas and diesel.
Ralph
And don’t forget E85 has about 70% the energy of gasoline, so your mileage is significantly lower. Figure that into your calculations when you’re figuring out if its cheaper or not. It’ll also ruin the rubber in your engine, you can’t just run E85 in any old engine.
But it is a good alternative fuel.
I’ll stick to LPG. Currently about 1/3rd the price of Petrol/Gasoline here in OZ.
1/3rd? Here in Sth Oz we’re paying close to 1/2. Doesn’t make too much economic sense to convert anymore
There is the threory that secretly some people are advocating the byproduct of abortion clinics as the chosen source for working this Country’s way out of the high cost of energy, but they are having trouble getting the Federal Grants to do their test models. Maybe that will all become easier for them after the election. 
God help this Country.
Screw ethonal, I’m paying enough for Popcorn at the dam movies as it is… I gots to figure out how to get me one of dez imported!!!
(http://i.treehugger.com/files/Minicat.jpg)
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/01/minicat_air_pow.php Powered by COMPRESSED AIR, 65mph and over 100 mile range, man this would be perfect for the daily commute, just add a solar PV panel on the roof to charge compressor to fill the tank while its parked, combined with plug in chrging overnight, dam near perpetual motion machine! 
Victor Smith said:
Screw ethonal, I’m paying enough for Popcorn at the dam movies as it is… I gots to figure out how to get me one of dez imported!!!(http://i.treehugger.com/files/Minicat.jpg)
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/01/minicat_air_pow.php Powered by COMPRESSED AIR, 65mph and over 100 mile range, man this would be perfect for the daily commute, just add a solar PV panel on the roof to charge compressor to fill the tank while its parked, combined with plug in chrging overnight, dam near perpetual motion machine!
Nice Idea, but what about those families who have multiple kids (I’ll have 4 by the end of next month)? That is the questions I can get no one to answer. If I had the dough, I’d go ahead and buy the conversion chamber to begin making my own Bio-diesel…don’t have the $4k to get started now, but will spend over time as i fuel the truck…argh! Drill Boys, Drill!!!
But Cale, do you take your kids to work? thats the beauty of this car, leave the hogmobile at home and use it only for local driving chores, but the commuter is for the drive into work, I can drive surface streets and my coomute is almost as fast as taking the freeway. So for those like me something like this would be awesome.
Now for large families, Honda makes a nice SUV, the Pilot that with its standard engine and 2WD gets as good milage as the flipping Chevy Tahoe Hybrid and still carries up to 8 passengers:
http://automobiles.honda.com/pilot/interior.aspx
Quick check of local prices shows used Pilots are pretty reasonable.
I notice that the ‘news release’ and all the comments for the Air Car are from early 2005: ~3 1/2 years ago. Going to their website, there is absolutely no information in the form of specifications or capabilities: Just hype and wishful thinking. Oh, they do also sell electric bikes.
I do see a mention that they are having range problems, with an actual range of 37 miles, or less than 20% of the advertised 186 mile (300km) range. I can just imagine what the last 10 miles of the 37 are like as the air runs out!
So, in over 3 1/2 years of development, during some of history’s largest run ups in energy costs, along with a world that suddenly wants everything to be ‘green’, there is no progress on this ‘revolutionary technology’. Perhaps the laws of physics are truly immutable, regardless of the bleating of the 'no drilling, no energy development, no power lines, no anything that might improve our energy circumstances. THERE IS (STILL) NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH!!
BTW, I am working on the development of a car called the Phart Cart (Reg. TM). It uses simple seat probes that attach to an appropriate source of methane, extracts said gas and compresses it for use in the single cylinder 10cc engine. It does require that one only eat beans and some other limited gassy vegetables, but taco wagons are ubiquitous in California, so range shouldn’t be a problem. Perhaps a little slow in traffic, but really economical and way GREEN. It even helps clean the air of what would be considered smelly contamination. Potential investors should email me for a prospectus.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
My wife had a 2003 Buick Century that would seat six. We took it on several trips and got 40mpg. Driving to work and back in the mountains she was getting 35mpg. I really wish I hadn’t traded it in when it reached 100,000 miles!
Ralph
Jerry, I use methane for jet power when I ride my bicycle. I do seem to run through seats, though, so no technology is perfect!
I installed an afterburner for help on hills, but then I couldn’t sit down for the descent. :lol:
Jerry Bowers said:Well, I tried an electric bike just the once.
Oh, they do also sell electric bikes. Jerry
I got almost 20 yards down the street and then the power cord pulled out of the wall socket.
Never saw the point after that…
tac
Steve:
Well, the Phart Cart will definitely have metal seats. A little uncomfortable, but they definitely will be ‘green’. Actually, the whole Phart Cart will be green, including the vapor cloud it operates in. Green and brown are usually considered complimentary colors. Dependent on the quality of the fuel, we do expect that some seat cooling sub-system will be necessary. We might use compressed air for that task, as it’s free.
Steve, it sounds like you might be qualified to be a test driver for our Phart Cart development program. My wife says I’m certainly well qualified!!
We too originally considered a direct acting pulse jet + afterburner power system for the Phart Cart, but ran into problems with (I started to write “. . . ran afoul of. . .”) the California Air Resources Board. They expressed serious concerns about the possible consequences of an unplanned flameout. They compared the potential resulting air contamination to the ground water contamination that resulted from their required addition of MTBE to our gasoline. They didn’t want to have a repeat of that fiasco. We redesigned our vehicle to use the 10cc internal combustion engine. Not as fast, but speed isn’t the primary objective when the alternative is walking.
The latest stumbling block for introduction of the Phart Cart is the licensing requirement for the taco wagons that will be approved fuel providers. Seems there just aren’t enough of these re-fueling stations to power the expected millions of Phart Carts without causing a severe food shortage for California’s 3+ million illegal immigrant population. The California Department for Illegal Immigration is requiring the addition of at least one hundred thousand new taco wagons. This resource addition is currently well underway in California, truly the Land of Fruits and Nuts.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Victor,
Please let us know how that works out for you. Then I’d like to know how big of a boat it will pull.
Yep, I have to drive my kids around with me wherever…I’m a stay at home dad! Almost no point and shoot driving for us?
The Pilot is nice, but I need much greater towing capacity for our camper and other chores…we have the Odyssey Van (it rules), but again, it won’t tote the load…we do most of our driving in the Van…Honda has hit it outta the park with that machine!!!
cale
Now if I could homebrew BioDiesel, I’d be set!
Ric Golding said:
Victor, Please let us know how that works out for you. Then I’d like to know how big of a boat it will pull.
Probably about this big…
(http://www.zendner.com/boats/images/ptb04.jpg)
hmmmmmmmmmmmm, Phart Cart? Maybe I should buy some stock in a couple of baked bean companies…