Guys...
This IS an interesting thread...but perhaps we've stretched
it a tad much, eh? A couple of observations:
1) A fuel cell IS a battery, or a storage device like one.
You have to look at the cost of generating the energy, and the
relative efficiencies of each step of the process.
Life-cycle costing for all options MUST be explored. The
pollution budget for the sum of all steps must also be factored in.
The only advantage of a fuel cell (right now) is localization of energy
generation, such that pollution might be better controlled.
Reality: Efficiency matters. Ability to manage and control effluent
matters. Hybrids don't cut it, yet.
2) Auto racing, CAFE standards and vehicle safety:
I spent a part of yesterday counselling a guy whose wife
was killed Saturday in a single vehicle Ford Explorer accident, at 40mph.
1 year old vehicle. Clear day, dry road. Observers say steering became
unstable, vehicle wobbled, and it flipped over. Both occupants wearing
seatbelts. Both seatbelts parted from the chassis. One killed, one
seriously
injured, 4 month old fetus died with the mother.
Sorry...all CAFE standards have done is drive people to SUV's which
are 'trucks' and exempt. Great example of public policy gone awry. Great
example of public safety in peril. One husband and two small boys adrift.
3) Can we get back to skewering the power industry now?
4) Or, here's another off-topic thread you might want to ponder:
How many airplane flights are there, daily? How many metric-tons of
SO, SO2, NO, NO2, and CO/CO2 do we direct inject into the upper atmosphere
every day? What we do at the earth's surface takes an awfully long time
to get to the ionosphere, where it can affect ozone levels. Not so with
jet aircraft.
There's a master's thesis in that, at the minimum, so let's
not get into it here.
N2EA
jimjarvis@ieee.org
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