Wind power, I somehow thought from your prior post that it was some form of new engine for cars & trucks. Wind is a good source of elec. power generation. There are some good sized wind farms on the US west coast and in some areas of the great plains states and the great lake states. As wind generation continues to grow it can supply a even larger portion of the US power needs. Geothermal, solar and hydro can all help as well.
Tidal and wave power generation are ones I'm not real well read on yet, but also very welcome. Oils and alcohols from grains already are helping a good deal.
All are renewable. But all taken together they can only supply a modest percentage of power needs at this time. But a decade ago they gave us much less.
BigBen has a point about, "give me a incentive and I'll buy........"
How about a much cleaner enviroment to live in Ben? That is a pretty strong plus right there, at least to me. As regulations require ever lower pollution standards for cars and trucks they will become increasingly expensive and the price gap will close. This in spite of Eco rollbacks of the Bush administration. In the next 12-15 years the higher costs due to fuel cost increases and those passed on to the consumer for lowering levels of pollutatants discharged by combustion engines, will raise the price beyond those of the newer "Eco" designs. And the "incentive" will be what it always has been price/performance.
There is just no way any goverment can underwrite "incentives" large enough to long sway usage. Foolish to even try, cleaner air and preservation of fosil fuels for other uses will have to drive this. Along with mandated standards for much lower pollutant discharge from cars/trucks. While these sources also have limits to how much they can provide they are at least self renewing.
And one question for you Ben, where would you suggest the goverment get the funds for those incentives?? You and I both know the answer to that, our taxes. Problem with that is that once the incentives gave what small push they could provide toward change, the goverment will find a reason to try to keep at least part of those incentive taxes in place. They always do.
"WAR NEVER CHANGES"
If you mean the motives for war, then I agree for the most part.
But war itself, and how they are fought, has changed dramaticly in the last century. And sadly warfare is one of the biggest driving forces in technological advancements. Most of all in the areas of flight, optics, electronics, creation of synthetics and I'm sure there are a large number of other areas that could be included in the list.
The new topic name does reflect the many areas this thread has touched on. Still a interesting, if a bit heated, thread at times.
|