PV Gap

Christian Said:

Do you support the implementation of high speed rail as an alternative to flying or driving?

We Answered:

Many factors to consider. If it close enough that it is faster to drive I will. If I want to go to Dallas from Oklahoma it is faster for me to drive because I do not have to go through the airport ( security, parking ) and I can go to my final destination. If the train ran at intervals that would allow me to arrive close to my required time and the price is reasonable I would use it. But consider if I needed to rent a car once I got there it might not be worth it.
I do not want HSR if it is like AMTRAK where it is a huge money loser.
I have been on the HSR in Shanghai China and it was pretty cool. But I got off the train very close to my destination. For the person concerned about the Chinese building it, they have good records both for safety and reliability although their experience is less than the Japanese and French. I would be more concerned with a French built train.

Daniel Said:

Congress Faces Gas, Energy Issues?

We Answered:

And your question is..............?

Harry Said:

Why doen't the US make oil from coal, South Africa's been doing this for years. Don't we have alot of coal ?

We Answered:

Oil form Coal or Coal gassification was very expensive compared to other fuels. (Not so much now). Coal is plentiful in the US, but the environmental costs of extracting it and using it are very high. Not only does it destroy the landscape and ground water, burning it pumps more carbon into the atmosphere.

So at present, it is still to costly to turn to more than we all ready do.

Leslie Said:

When even California wakes up to the lie of ethanol, can all of us drop that junk now?

We Answered:

You're right; but you left out the most important criticism of all.

The production of corn, its transportation and transformation into ethanol consumes close to 1.5 times the natural energy it replaces. It takes a lot of petroleum to make the fertilizer, run the tractors, harvesters, etc. And that's not counting the energy it takes to process the stuff.

Ethenol is a bad joke that we can lay at the doorstep of very powerful agri-business lobbyists in bed with environmentalists.

Indeed, politics REALLY DOES make strange bedfellows.

Lucy Said:

Why doen't the US begin using coal to produce oil? South Africa has been doing do for years!?

We Answered:

yeah, posting a massive article in the body where elaboration on the question is supposed to be... not the best idea.

it takes energy to turn coal into oil. you'd need local power stations (nuclear would be the most efficient and cleanest) to process it without transporting it (transportation would be inefficient and you'd have to have extra power generation without driving up power costs in the area that processing occured).

unfortunately, power plants don't build as fast as they do in simcity. any plants operating now would have had to have something magical known as "forward thinking". I don't think we have any of that here in the States.