Just Venting............ (China: pollution, transportation, car)

[hadleyzoo]

Most of our oil does not even come from the Middle East.

Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries

[TXtrkgrl]

Originally Posted by SanAntoQT

The problem I have with carpooling is you have to rely on someone else or they have to rely on you to get to and from work or wherever. If you end up with an emergency in the middle of the day and don't have your vehicle, you're SOL. I just don't like being tied down.

I hear ya girl. I would have a tough time myself. My husband carpools with two other guys (was just him and one guy until last month when another one joined them). I am surprised at how good it works out. Of course, he has an excuse now NOT to stop at HEB on the way home to pick up stuff for me .

[ryneone]

Originally Posted by TXtrkgrl

I hear ya girl. I would have a tough time myself. My husband carpools with two other guys (was just him and one guy until last month when another one joined them). I am surprised at how good it works out. Of course, he has an excuse now NOT to stop at HEB on the way home to pick up stuff for me .

Haha I wish I could car poll. But I live 4 miles form work. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes on Babcock when their is traffic. Or every time it rains the light at Medical like to go out~

[scuba steve]

Originally Posted by Midorigreen

How much research have you done on it, Scuba Steve? My husband keeps finding info on it and talking about it. One of our cars is a Prius - and it's great - but we'd love more info on how to convert our SUV. More than anything - dh would love to talk to other people who know a bit about it and do some brainstorming. He's pretty handy and has SO much information on it but just hasn't had much time to do anything about it - yet.....

PS. We moved here from Anacortes, WA just last year (you're from Seattle area, right?)

Anacortes... that's way out! But yeah I moved from Seattle just a couple of weeks ago.

From what I've found out about doing a conversion though, an SUV would be hard if only because of the weight factor. And a lot of the newer ones were only available with an automatic transmission. I originally imagined a smaller car, like an old Civic or something but that wouldn't work well because there isn't much space to put the batteries and their extra weight would require suspension upgrades. I think the best of both worlds (lightweight and space for batteries) would be an old S-10 type truck. That's using the lead-acid type that most converters seem to use these days. With newer battery technologies becoming more affordable that could really change the picture.

I did the financial analysis, and driving 40 miles / day for 5 days/week at a total conversion cost of $8,500 has a break-even point of around 3.75 years. Given that gas averages $4.00/gallon during that time period. If gas here hits $5 I may have to start looking for an old dead small truck to haul home to the garage to start working on...

For now I'll stick to hypermiling. I think I said it before, but I average 40mpg per fillup with my 2000 Celica which should be pretty close to hybrid numbers.

Originally Posted by ryneone

Haha I wish I could car poll. But I live 4 miles form work. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes on Babcock when their is traffic. Or every time it rains the light at Medical like to go out~

I'd start looking into biking, or maybe you'd get lucky and find a bus route that goes pretty much from A to B.

[CreekKnoll]

The US has an Oil shale reserve larger than the entire Middle East crude oil reserve. Problem was, it was more expensive to refine oil shale when the price of crude was going for less the 60 bucks a barrel. I think we're sitting back, waiting for peak production on foreign oil, and when a barrel hits 200 dollars, Shell and whoever else will cash in.

I want one of those air powered cars from France!

[svg210]

Fuel doesnt affect me, I only fill my tanks up once a month! Diesel on the other hand is another story but my company pays for 32% so it doesnt hurt that much

if you want to conserve gas just look up an HHO system. theres a bunch of "how to" videos on youtube.com and all you need is basic electronic skills, and knowlege of your engines vaccum system.

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by SanAntoQT

I heard that was a good documentary...an eye-opener. I'll have to watch it myself.

Absolutely. My son watched it in school (10th grade) and came home and made ME watch it. Awesome. And sad.

[fierce_flawless]

Okay, I will admit that I know NOTHING about all this. So if my post sounds dumb, forgive me.

I used to have oil royalties / mineral rights / whatever on some land out in Aspermont, TX (kinda close to Abilene). I inherited these mineral rights from my father... .1/5th of 1/3 since it was originally my Grandma who left it to her 3 kids (my Dad, aunt, and uncle) who then left it to the five of us (he has 3 kids from his 1st marriage)...

Anyway, I just did not see the huge increases so I don't know if whatever they were drilling in Aspermont has anything to do with what we're paying for oil/gas. I kept waiting and watching the prices at the pump and never saw a correlation with my monthly checks.

So, last year I sold my share to some guy I found on the internet, and used the money to go towards the down payment on my house. Much to my family's horror. My brother still has his, I'll have to ask him if his checks are any higher than they were last year. So what's the deal with oil in Texas in relation to oil prices and gas prices?

See, I told ya I was dumb about it all. One of the reasons I sold my share...I couldn't figure it all out and had no idea if I was ever being paid fairly or whatever!?

[SilverCreek78250]

Those fellers in Dubai aren't getting rich off the folks in San Antonio, they are getting rich of the new oil addicts in China and India.

Here in Texas, we could have all the oil we want, but if we don't have the capacity to refine it (thanks Congress and the EPA), it still isn't going to get to the pump any cheaper.

[1StarRanch]

We need to drill here and drill now.

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