ODB

what type of technology do you think will finally move us from fossil fuels?? or will we continue to use it in conjunction with new technologies??

I think a combo of electric and fuel will be the best bet...battery technology is getting better everyday...small form factor with non proprietary cells will be the best way IMO....theory behind non proprietary cells gives opportunity for battery manufactures to keep up with new innovative cells with a competitive market..I hear Chevy is pushing a new car called the Volt...

feel free to iniput....

let's not talk about oil issues in this thread..

Volt---->>> YouTube - Chevrolet Volt Concept

PS..I am still getting 24 MPG in my Vette..

Duceanahalf

i think it will be a combination of several technologies. i dont think that anything would be able to completly replace fossil fuels on its own in the near future

ODB

werd up...same here...better fuel mixtures....hybrid petro/electric is what I think will be prodominate.

Graves

i love arab oil

JDL1000

I tried the acetone in my gas on my ranger. My mileage went from 26 to 13. Don't fall for that garbage.

blacksheep-1

Iraqi gas runs good in my car.
But seriously, I think it will be a combination of fuels. for one thing the infrastructure for oil based fuels is already there and in place, secondly, there's just not much out there that gives you a better BTU return than gasoline, or diesel.
One of the problems with bio fuels is that under current technology, it cannot be introduced to a pipeline carrying an oil based fuel. (they're working on it), so for right now, the bio fuel can't use the existing oil infrastructure to be shipped cheaply, so it has to be trucked or barged, which is expensive., The other problem is what is happening right now in the midwest, these floods are going to impact food and biofuel production for the next couple of years, which means the biofuel market is as potentially shakey as the oil market.
The problem with electric cars is twofold, first, the battery replacement issue, which has already been brought up, and in reality, the carbon footprint of a current hybrid is about the same as an H1 Hummer. It looks good on paper, but unless you own a fleet of cars, you won't be feeling the added cost of hybrids.
lastly, for electric only cars, you'll just transfer the pollution from the tailpipe to the electric company, so there's no net gain. the fact is, oil based cars are really well engineered and thought out, actually, they are pretty efficient.
What I would think is going to happen is that we will see a change to gas/bio fuels such as the GM multi fuel cars now in use. I think we need to become more oil self sufficient by opening up more area to drill, and start openiing more areas to mine coal because it can be turned into oil using a coal to oil process.
All that being said, there's no reason why we can't change power sources for some things. the environmental wackos like to talk about cars being big polluters, but if you ran cars on bio fuels, which would clean up tailpie emissions, and start building some dams and reactors to generate power for complete cities, it would be a much "cleaner" environment (at least air pollution wise, there's always nuclear waste, but it can be managed relatively easily).
The biggest block to progress in my opinion is the freakin' enviro-wacks, you can't drill, you can't build dams, you can't build nukes and we should all be riding bicycles, and these clowns are not open to compromise in any fashion because they think we all should be vegans living in caves.

OldMan

Honestly... I am trying to read as much as I can on hydrogen. I hear both good and bad, but I really wonder how much bad it is. I read that when it is used, it will significantly decrease carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and it can improve milage. I don't know enough yet to say anything really, but I am trying to read up what I can.

Ford DNA

Oldman, that sounds promising. I would hate to see us come up with some alternative fuel or energy source that just continues to pollute the atmosphere.

/no tree hugger.

OldMan

Yea, I'm no tree hugger either. But it's just such a flip-flop of information. I am not sure who to believe currently. If you check most the pro-research, it says that only oxygen and water come out the exhaust. I have also read Wikipedia and they say the opposite. However, I think that is because they are looking at it from the stand point of hydrogen as an energy source, not an energy carrier. I mean, I am no chemist, so what do I know.
I know this idea has been around for a long time and the original idea of using hydrogen as a source did not fly. It was expensive to generate and there were worse poultants in the generating of the hydrogen. However, now as a energy carrier, it seems like in conjunction with standard gas, we can increase the milage and decrease the overall emissions. I am still looking into it, may just purchase one of the on-line kits. After all, it won't be the first time I have purchased snake oil.....

Ford DNA

The problem with Wikipedia is that all the information is donated. You submit info, they post it. So it is not always accurate, nor is it always unbiased.

This is such a bad topic to try to research. Everyone has agendas.