The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Does (or rather, did) California ever use MTBE in their gas mixes? Arizona used to. What was supposed to be a huge step forward in clearer air was found to be a huge step backward in polution in the water table.

Sure did - some of the dug up gas stations (to remove leaky underground tanks) have yet to come back in service

[Alex]

What's interesting is how politics changes things. Do you recall back in the 2000 election how several of the Democratic primary candidates were lauded as brave visionaries for standing up to the corn lobby and calling ethanol a boondoggle?

I think a revolution in portable power is well on its way to coming (hybrids, fuel cells, hydrogen, biodiesel, etc.). The big problem I see is that we're not yet undergoing the painful process of redesigning our fixed power grid. I'm all for increases in wind and solar but really think we need to convert a significant portion of our power grid over to nuclear.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

I think a revolution in portable power is well on its way to coming (hybrids, fuel cells, hydrogen, biodiesel, etc.). The big problem I see is that we're not yet undergoing the painful process of redesigning our fixed power grid. I'm all for increases in wind and solar but really think we need to convert a significant portion of our power grid over to nuclear.

Agreed.

One other problem is refeuling stations for cars. CNG (compressed natural gas) isn't a bad alternative to normal gas, and conversion of cars to CNG isn't that difficult or expensive (though the gas tank must be significantly larger). Phoenix had a huge push on this, including massive tax rebates related to the purchase price of CNG vehicles.

With all of that, though, the entire metro Phoenix area has exactly four CNG refueling stations.