Doesn't this sound just like where gas prices are going?

[LordRaiden]

Have you noticed how gas prices are going up, up, up, with little sign of them going back down?

Well, you're not alone. This image is left over from last year's big price crunch, but it's still funny. Plus it's very true right now and it sucks.

Gas prices in my opinion blow. Personally, I'm sick of driving gas powered cars. I'd drive electric or something else if those blasted oil companies would quit crushing every single innovation that comes along that MIGHT actually help people, free us from foreign oil, and actually be environmentally friendly just because it MIGHT cut into their profits. Oh wah! Big deal. Greedy jerks. (and yes, I hate all greedy people equally) :|

Personally I hope gas prices fall soon, or I'm gonna drop a hammer on someone. I'd go with an environmentally friendly or alternative fuel vehicle in a New York minute if the offerings that they have didn't suck so tramendously. Heck, now that I think about it, I'm going to work on making myself 100% oil free. That'll teach those losers to try to gouge me. :|

 

[etech]

LordRaiden


I'd like to know more about how the oil companies are " crushing every single innovation that comes along "

Do you have details or is that just one of those urban ledgends?

 

[LordRaiden]

They're not urban legends at all. I know of a number of them I've discovered.

The advanced carborator system. Developed by a detroit gentleman. 1 week after he announced his design he was sitting phat in the bank and his invention was sold to an unnamed buyer and "vanished", never to be heard from again.

These gentleman here invented a self powering generator that very convinently after several months "disappeared" and the designers are living much better off.

There was another guy featured back about 5-6 years ago who had come up with a white pasty looking motor fuel that was supposed to be way cheaper and require a fraction of the petrolium to make and would require cars to burn about 1/4th the amount of fuel for the same power. 2 weeks after he made his announcement an "anonymous" buyer bought the creation. It has not been heard from since.

Those are the ones off the top of my head. There are lots more. Search google for alternative energy sources and you'll find a lot of these cases.

Another that comes to mind that wasn't the oil companies this time. In fact it was Ma Electric. Don't remember the electric company that did this, but they did much the same thing. What happened was a company had invented a type of solar power system that would allow factories and other buildings to go 100% self sufficient with zero need to be on grid for any kind of power, and it was a very low cost solution. The electric company came in, bought out the company and destroyed all designs, patents, etc. to this solar cell system to prevent others from using it and maybe cutting into their profits.

There's lots of companies out there that have crushed various innovations across the board all over the place. But my primary focus right now is on the oil companies. For as cheap as electric is right now, I won't rip them until they start gouging me like the oil giants are.

 

[LordRaiden]

Personally, now that I think about it, I'd like to see the oil and power companies come in and try to shut down any of my inventions or buy them out. Sure, they're not started yet, but that doesn't mean I can't build them in record time and have them fully functional.

Gee, maybe I ought to make myself as a threat to their profits so that I can get people to take notice of what a bunch of creaps they really are. :|

 

[Yossarian]

cheapo 87 is up to $2.07 here in SoCal

 

[LH]

Electric cars suck. Hybrids are good.

Theres a reason why oil prices are where they are at. Kuwait has shut down alot of its oil feilds so what happened in 91 doesnt happen again. Add to that the crisis in Venezula and yeah gas prices are high, but adjust for inflation they are still alot cheaper than they were during Desert Storm.

 

[etech]

Originally posted by: LordRaiden
They're not urban legends at all. I know of a number of them I've discovered.

The advanced carborator system. Developed by a detroit gentleman. 1 week after he announced his design he was sitting phat in the bank and his invention was sold to an unnamed buyer and "vanished", never to be heard from again.

These gentleman here invented a self powering generator that very convinently after several months "disappeared" and the designers are living much better off.

There was another guy featured back about 5-6 years ago who had come up with a white pasty looking motor fuel that was supposed to be way cheaper and require a fraction of the petrolium to make and would require cars to burn about 1/4th the amount of fuel for the same power. 2 weeks after he made his announcement an "anonymous" buyer bought the creation. It has not been heard from since.

Those are the ones off the top of my head. There are lots more. Search google for alternative energy sources and you'll find a lot of these cases.

Another that comes to mind that wasn't the oil companies this time. In fact it was Ma Electric. Don't remember the electric company that did this, but they did much the same thing. What happened was a company had invented a type of solar power system that would allow factories and other buildings to go 100% self sufficient with zero need to be on grid for any kind of power, and it was a very low cost solution. The electric company came in, bought out the company and destroyed all designs, patents, etc. to this solar cell system to prevent others from using it and maybe cutting into their profits.

There's lots of companies out there that have crushed various innovations across the board all over the place. But my primary focus right now is on the oil companies. For as cheap as electric is right now, I won't rip them until they start gouging me like the oil giants are.

Funny, but I don't see any proof to any of what you said. I'm going to keep considering them just urban ledgends until someone demostrates that 100 mpg carburator that runs on water.

In other words, you want me to believe that there has been a world wide conspriacy that has manged to keep all of those inventions quiet. That not one inventor has managed to put his invention on the market. That every car company in the world has turned down the profits of a high milage vehicle because of the oil companies. That during the oil crisis of the 70's that all of that was still hidden.

Sorry, I just don't believe it.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: LordRaiden
They're not urban legends at all. I know of a number of them I've discovered.

The advanced carborator system. Developed by a detroit gentleman. 1 week after he announced his design he was sitting phat in the bank and his invention was sold to an unnamed buyer and "vanished", never to be heard from again.

These gentleman here invented a self powering generator that very convinently after several months "disappeared" and the designers are living much better off.

There was another guy featured back about 5-6 years ago who had come up with a white pasty looking motor fuel that was supposed to be way cheaper and require a fraction of the petrolium to make and would require cars to burn about 1/4th the amount of fuel for the same power. 2 weeks after he made his announcement an "anonymous" buyer bought the creation. It has not been heard from since.

Those are the ones off the top of my head. There are lots more. Search google for alternative energy sources and you'll find a lot of these cases.

Another that comes to mind that wasn't the oil companies this time. In fact it was Ma Electric. Don't remember the electric company that did this, but they did much the same thing. What happened was a company had invented a type of solar power system that would allow factories and other buildings to go 100% self sufficient with zero need to be on grid for any kind of power, and it was a very low cost solution. The electric company came in, bought out the company and destroyed all designs, patents, etc. to this solar cell system to prevent others from using it and maybe cutting into their profits.

There's lots of companies out there that have crushed various innovations across the board all over the place. But my primary focus right now is on the oil companies. For as cheap as electric is right now, I won't rip them until they start gouging me like the oil giants are.

Before you start stroking yourself click here.

 

[charliebrown]

The car manufacturers have discontinued their electric cars. GM and Toyota have announced a major push into hybrids and hope to sell several hundred thousand in 3-4 years.

The future is in fuel cell vehicles that are powered by hydrogen and have zero pollution. Prototype fuel cell cars and buses on the road now - and the technology is there to manufacture them. Problem is cost is too high and there is no infrastructure to deliver hydrogen. Bush Admin is putting $1B toward developing cost efficient fuel cell cars. Look for them to be on the market in about 8-10 years. I'll be the first in line to buy one.

 

[Freejack2]

Originally posted by: charliebrown
The car manufacturers have discontinued their electric cars. GM and Toyota have announced a major push into hybrids and hope to sell several hundred thousand in 3-4 years.

The future is in fuel cell vehicles that are powered by hydrogen and have zero pollution. Prototype fuel cell cars and buses on the road now - and the technology is there to manufacture them. Problem is cost is too high and there is no infrastructure to deliver hydrogen. Bush Admin is putting $1B toward developing cost efficient fuel cell cars. Look for them to be on the market in about 8-10 years. I'll be the first in line to buy one.

I'll be in line right behind you.

As for conspiracys, I expect that while many of them aren't true, it wouldn't suprise me for some innovative inventions to have dissapeared because of some big corporation buying it up and destroying it, or shelving it in some room somewhere.

 

[LordRaiden]

Before you start stroking yourself click here.

Now THAT legend is false. That much is true. The one I heard doesn't run on "water" like you said and get "200 miles to the gallon". The one I heard does a mere 70-80mpg and is nowhere near the design that they're talking about. The one I found creates pure petrolium vaper by using a large vortex fan to atomize the gas into a pure petrolium vapor which burns completely in the chamber thus boosting your gas millage. What kills gas millage is when gas isn't burned because of the fact that it remains in liquid suspension or there is too much in the chamber to burn.

You were right about that one particular urban legend. Thing is, that one spun off the real thing. Trust me. Behind every legend is a grain of truth.

 

[LordRaiden]

Originally posted by: charliebrown
The car manufacturers have discontinued their electric cars. GM and Toyota have announced a major push into hybrids and hope to sell several hundred thousand in 3-4 years.

The future is in fuel cell vehicles that are powered by hydrogen and have zero pollution. Prototype fuel cell cars and buses on the road now - and the technology is there to manufacture them. Problem is cost is too high and there is no infrastructure to deliver hydrogen. Bush Admin is putting $1B toward developing cost efficient fuel cell cars. Look for them to be on the market in about 8-10 years. I'll be the first in line to buy one.

Yep, I'll be the first to buy a hydrogen car myself. But here's the thing. The reason car manufacturers (and they're just as guilty of this as the oil companies) don't want people to have vehicles that do 200mpg or that run on anything but gas is because if your car gets 200mpg and is able to last 20 years, you very likely won't buy a new vehicle anytime soon. They're designing cars these days with a 5 year life expectancy. They WANT the car's performance and body and other parts to die after 5 years forcing you to buy a new car from them. If worse came to worse, they'd love to have you buy a new car every 6 months.

So I guess I can't lay all the blame on big oil. The auto companies are partially to blame here too.

 

[etech]

Originally posted by: LordRaiden

Before you start stroking yourself click here.

Now THAT legend is false. That much is true. The one I heard doesn't run on "water" like you said and get "200 miles to the gallon". The one I heard does a mere 70-80mpg and is nowhere near the design that they're talking about. The one I found creates pure petrolium vaper by using a large vortex fan to atomize the gas into a pure petrolium vapor which burns completely in the chamber thus boosting your gas millage. What kills gas millage is when gas isn't burned because of the fact that it remains in liquid suspension or there is too much in the chamber to burn.

You were right about that one particular urban legend. Thing is, that one spun off the real thing. Trust me. Behind every legend is a grain of truth.

Have you ever seen the readings of an exhaust emission test? One of things that is checked is hydrocarbons emissions or in other words, unburned gasoline. The reading to pass on the HCs is so low that it is impossible to have enough unburned hydrocarbons to seriously affect gas mileage.

 

[XZeroII]

You realize that electric cars require ELECTRICITY, which comes from power plants burning petrolium (thanks to people who hate nuclear power ). If everyone started using electric cars, electricity costs would skyrocket and pollution would dramatically increase.

 

[Hector13]

If you guys think $2 per gallon is expensive, you got no clue what the real (social) cost of gas is. Just look at europe, their gas costs are double what we pay here.

I would be 100% in favor of adding a $1 tax (per gallon) to gasoline. This would push more car companies to make more effecient cars, lead to more research in alternative fuel, and lower the US's overall reliance on gas (as demand would hopefully go down). The tax could be used to fund things like public transportation and such as well...

Also, don't "fuel cell" cars require oil/gasoline right now anyways?

 

[SgtBuddy]

 

[StageLeft]

I know we can be doing better. I can't wait until hyrbids and then fuel cells are more readily available at good prices. As hybrid stands now it's still not quite competitive pricewise.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Hector13
If you guys think $2 per gallon is expensive, you got no clue what the real (social) cost of gas is. Just look at europe, their gas costs are double what we pay here.

I would be 100% in favor of adding a $1 tax (per gallon) to gasoline. This would push more car companies to make more effecient cars, lead to more research in alternative fuel, and lower the US's overall reliance on gas (as demand would hopefully go down). The tax could be used to fund things like public transportation and such as well...

Also, don't "fuel cell" cars require oil/gasoline right now anyways?

If it's running on a fuel cell, it doesen't have an engine.. and doesen't require gasoline and lubricating oil.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
You realize that electric cars require ELECTRICITY, which comes from power plants burning petrolium (thanks to people who hate nuclear power ). If everyone started using electric cars, electricity costs would skyrocket and pollution would dramatically increase.

Batteries suck. There will never be a mainstream rechargable battery powered car.

Fuel Cells are the way we are going to go.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: XZeroII
You realize that electric cars require ELECTRICITY, which comes from power plants burning petrolium (thanks to people who hate nuclear power ). If everyone started using electric cars, electricity costs would skyrocket and pollution would dramatically increase.

Batteries suck. There will never be a mainstream rechargable battery powered car.

Fuel Cells are the way we are going to go.

Unless nuclear power becomes more prevalent (I like it personally) and we use that to make our electricity! But people are too hung up on an accident here and there and instead would rather continue to pollute the world just to save the possibility of another chernobyl.

I think I'm gonna cover my car in solar panels

 

[Double Trouble]

I don't believe in some massive conspiracy of oil companies buying up inventions all over the place and making them vanish without a trace.... but it stands to reason that the companies that make billions from oil spend a LOT of money on R&D in "alternative energy" technology, so that they can patent new technologies and keep them out of the marketplace until they feel they can generate enough revenue to offset the lost revenue of oil. After all, if you were Exxon, wouldn't you invest a whole lot of money in alternative energy so you could make sure to keep your current lifeline (oil) alive for as long as possible, and then be on the forefront of other new technologies??? It makes sense.

 

[etech]

Originally posted by: tagej
I don't believe in some massive conspiracy of oil companies buying up inventions all over the place and making them vanish without a trace.... but it stands to reason that the companies that make billions from oil spend a LOT of money on R&D in "alternative energy" technology, so that they can patent new technologies and keep them out of the marketplace until they feel they can generate enough revenue to offset the lost revenue of oil. After all, if you were Exxon, wouldn't you invest a whole lot of money in alternative energy so you could make sure to keep your current lifeline (oil) alive for as long as possible, and then be on the forefront of other new technologies??? It makes sense.

No, it doesn't stand to reason at all.

If the new technology was economically viable they would put it on the market and take the income from it. It takes a lot of money to produce oil. Having a new technology that would produce profits without those costs would not be stuck on a shelf somewhere. Also putting an invention on the shelf until the patent runs out also does not make "sense".
Your contention though would be quite easy to prove. Look through the patent filings of the major oil companies. See how many pantents they have that fulfil your statement.

Take you foil hats off guys, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. If it was as easy as you indicate it would have already been done.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Hector13
If you guys think $2 per gallon is expensive, you got no clue what the real (social) cost of gas is. Just look at europe, their gas costs are double what we pay here.

I would be 100% in favor of adding a $1 tax (per gallon) to gasoline. This would push more car companies to make more effecient cars, lead to more research in alternative fuel, and lower the US's overall reliance on gas (as demand would hopefully go down). The tax could be used to fund things like public transportation and such as well...

Also, don't "fuel cell" cars require oil/gasoline right now anyways?

If it's running on a fuel cell, it doesen't have an engine.. and doesen't require gasoline and lubricating oil.

Its been a while since I have heard anything on the topic and I am by no means an expert, but I don't think its possible to store hydrogen (in its needed for) easily/safely/cheaply on board cars. I think most of these vehicles exctract the needed hydrogen from gas (or methane or some other hydrocarbons).

 

[Rastus]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
You realize that electric cars require ELECTRICITY, which comes from power plants burning petrolium (thanks to people who hate nuclear power ). If everyone started using electric cars, electricity costs would skyrocket and pollution would dramatically increase.

Electricity is massed produced in huge powerplants while gasoline is burned on site. If electric cars were practical (battery technology is the bottleneck) the energy will be cheaper and cleaner. The laws of supply and demand will drive the price down.

 

[T2T III]

Have you noticed how gas prices are going up, up, up, with little sign of them going back down?

$.05 cents more a gallon where I live as of yesterday. And come to think of it, I just purchased another vehicle a few weeks earlier that gets 5 M.P.G. less (average) than my previous vehicle. However, the 5 M.P.G. hit is a small price to pay since the car features about 23 more cubic feet of interior room, a 6-disc CD changer within premium sound, leather interior, moon-roof, 200 H.P. engine vs. 135 H.P. engine and 800 more pounds of vehicle weight.