Thread: The scoop on gas.

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Personally, I want to see oil at $500 a barrel. That's the only thing that will stop this insane dependence on the worst scourge ever to plague mankind. I would call it Black Death, but that has already been taken.

In the 140 odd years we have been in this headlong rush to use more and more of the liquid poison called petroleum, millions upon millions of people have perished or been rendered incapable of normal function due to the inhalation of the byproducts of combustion of this horrible slime. Many more will die as a result of the changes being cast upon the environment by the burning of this deadly chemical in all its forms.

The higher and higher cost of oil will usher in a new era of engineers, designers, thinkers and seat-of-the-pants mechanics who will design and develop new methods of creating energy on this planet. That's what it takes. When the cost of oil becomes excessive and out of reach, alternatives will begin showing up due to bright people exercising their minds toward a cheaper, cleaner energy source.

When solar was first being investigated (at least when I first became aware of it on a commercial scale in the 70's), the cost of producing a watt of electricity was about $4.00. I read recently of a developer who has a new solar technology that will allow power generation for pennies per watt in a few years. Then there is the wind. In this country, there is a corridor that runs the length of the country just east of the Rockies where the wind blows all the time. This area can and will be dotted with windmills to produce power.

I foresee a time, around the world, where individual families will produce their own energy needs with no dependency on a power grid.

I hope all of you have read about the air motor car being produced abroad. This is the answer to providing transportation without the need to burn anything at all or convert hydrogen to electricity by running it through a catalyst at all. A solar array could generate current to power a compressor to pressurize air storage tanks attached to the vehicle. Currently, with three high-pressure air bottles aboard, the range is 200 miles at 60 mph, but you can bet that as the price of oil increases, so will the range of these air motor cars. I can foresee the car built with a solar array positioned as the entire roof of the car. Anywhere you park it in the sun, the bottles are being refilled. Just think, a completely pollution-free mode of transportation, driven by air and recharged by the sun.