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Ok, what gives with TBoone, I have seen his commercials stating he will be coming out with a plan in the coming weeks to deal with our current "crisis". I must say I am curious and a bit suspicious. My guess is he is either positioning himself for veep of either party or he has a major investment in some kind of wind or solar technology . There is just something a little rossperot like about the whole affair that raises my suspicions. Anybody know more?
It will be interesting to see how this all play's out. I have said that when it is profitable the alternatives will start to materialize. No federal mandates, no federal tax dollars!
T. Boone has NO interest in being anyone's VP....trust me on that. He is a very savy man who has always been ahead of the curve. It has made him very rich and may very well benefit the country too this time.
My guess is a farm that produces energy that can be used in conjunction with other alternate fuel methods.
I am not saying this will work, or that it is practical, just giving an example as to what wind might be useful for in terms of vehicles.
We have the ability to make hydrogen vehicles, that was never the issue with the developers. They can make it small enough to work for a vehicle, but the problem has often been the practical application of creating Hydrogen (among others, there are some other issues as well). That is, it takes more energy to make it than it provides.
So we still have to use traditional fuel sources to provide this new fuel and if the creation process is impractical, there is no reason to implement it.
With wind power, they can produce the energy from a source that providing it is placed in the correct location and has a good efficiency, they will be able to produce hydrogen outside of traditional means. That is, if their infrastructure can handle the production and demand (which would also be detail to strongly consider) we could technically move to 100% hydrogen vehicles.
There are a lot of issues with even that, but that is one aspect of its implementation. Also, if he starts it, invests heavily and it becomes a success, he will be not only the "big oil guy", but also the "big wind guy".
like I said though, there are a LOT of issues to solve aside from just the production of hydrogen, but its a start. Is it practical? Will it work? Is this the right direction? Who knows, but he seems to think so as he is dumping a lot of money into it.
Wind is smart and I am glad Pickens is getting into the business. Texas actually has a lot of investment in wind power which is good to see.
As far as subsidies, I am also glad the government is subsidizing these investments, especially in the early stages of the industry. Wind generated electricity is beneficial not only because of what it produces (i.e. electricity) but also what it doesn't (i.e. air pollution). This is beneficial to society as a whole which, at least in my mind, means that the government is justified in encouraging this type of investment. We do the same thing with investment in the medical field, housing industry, etc.
And frankly, since we continue to subsidize oil investment and exploration, even given the current price of oil and the obvious negative externalities involved, I find the whining about subsidizes for green energy a little ridicules.
There are also tidal power generators that could be used. I read about them years ago used by Norway or sweden with some measure of success.
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