Everyone is going around and around in a typical political game of arguing the points but not solving anything.
Oil prices are going to fluctuate, but like everything else, will continue to go up over the long run. It seems obvious at this point that it’s bound to go up faster than most everything else. The problem is that our use in the global market will continue to diminish percentage-wise giving us less pull over time.
I see people talking about hydrogen as a solution or other types of fuel. The bottom line with those approaches is that they’re not going to happen anytime soon. That is they’re not going to happen in the next 10-20 years. The main reason they’re not going to happen is that, for them to happen, 100 million of us have to change plus the infrastructure has to entirely change.
Electric cars don’t have this problem. You could, if they were available, buy an electric car tomorrow, plug it in, have it charge up and drive it away without much of a change on your side. People talk about mileage limitations with electric cars. I see people mentioning numbers as low as 60 miles. What are these people smoking? The electric cars of the 1980’s had ranges of 300 miles and more. Plus batteries have made huge strides since then. As for long trips that’s pretty simple. You drive for several hours and then stop to get a bite to eat and plug into an outlet at the restaurant (everyone can be in the energy business). When the bill comes it would include an entry for the energy the car just used. Simple enough. Off you go.
The great part about an electric car is that it wouldn’t require 100 million people to dramatically change. Nor would it require huge infrastructure changes. Outlets are pretty easy to deal with. Additionally, while electric means energy it means energy from any source. We can leave it to the energy companies (including the oil companies) to come up with what they power the grid with. Let them figure out if it’s biofuels, solar, wind, nuclear, etc. We’ll be somewhat energy agnostic. As long as it ends at an outlet we can be happy.
The other nice part about an all-electric car is that it means you won’t need to spend a lot on vehicle maintenance. No more oil changes, filter changes, etc. Most of what you spend money on today will go away. Brakes and tires will still be there but that will be the bulk of it.
The one trouble will be the lost revenue for car dealers which will only make them even more shark-like than they are today.
I’m ready. Just give me the options.
