I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but so many questions pop into my mind as I see these inventors and their inventions. Please note, I work for a National Laboratory (hence the US governemnt) and I am very familiar with research & development and the timeframes that coincide with such.

I have to ask these general questions?

Why after 50 solid years of vehicle production are we still using gasoline motors and our gas mileage isn't any better than it was in the 1950's when the shoe box cars weighed nearly 50% (or more in some cases) more.

Why is the largest portion of our electricity produced by fossil fuels when there are a myriad of ways to do this a much greener fashion?

Why does it seem that some "new" green technology pops up constantly, but never makes it to fruition?

Why are we considered the greatest country in the world, yet every other first-world country seems to be at least 10 to 20 years ahead of us in green technology?

We really have to ask ourselves is our government a part of the problem or a part of the solution? Do large corporations squash these technologies by a variety of methods?

Just some thoughts...

quote:

gasoline motors and our gas mileage isn't any better than it was in the 1950's when the shoe box cars weighed nearly 50% (or more in some cases) more.

This is simple: There are 66 billion reasons why we don’t have more efficient vehicles. The average American spends $220.00 in gas taxes each year; multiply that by the American populist (300,000) and you got a nice chunk of change. Sure you can find other ways make up the loss and collect that money from the tax payers but that would require our politician’s to do some work. And let’s not forget that half of them are in the pockets of the oil company’s.
Think this a conspiracy theory? Did you know that the Toyota Prius can get up to 100 miles per gallon in Europe? Look it up. There is a little blank area in the dash where a button can go in the Prius, this button is there in the Prius’s in Europe. This button allows you to change the ratio of gas to electric used in the car. Sure, if you use this function you can get up to 100 miles on a gallon but your battery will be completely drained and will need 10 hours to completely recharge, but is you drive less than 100 miles a day, this is a great feature. They also put a smaller battery in the US models. There is a whole host of sites out there for Prius owners that show you how to re-enable that feature and tells you how to get the better batteries. Here is one of MANY places to go. http://www.autospies.com/news/Let-ZAP-convert-your-Priu...nd-get-120mpg-27383/

In short; the oil companies, the Israelis, the unions and power companies all have something to lose if we had more efficient cars. Who do you think owns our government?
-end rant-

i agree that america 'seems' to be lagging behind green technology...

and i agree that there 'seems' to be a strange american obsession with oil...

there are some observations i have noticed:

first is that european gas prices are on average 2.3x higher than american prices.
http://goeurope.about.com/od/transportation/a/gas_prices.htm

where i live, regular is about $3.50/gal. this makes european prices $8.05/gal on average.

'if' and when gas prices get this high here, i too would want to find the cheapest way for transportation via motor vehicle.

gas taxes here, according to the article is 17%. but what do some of the taxes cover? how about roads...the things that our vehicles drive on. repair and construction of them.

according to the article, american taxes are not that high when compared to europe, like france with a 70% tax on the gas price.

the interesting thing about the 'zap' car is the cost of $24k to $36k. that is amazingly high...to save some gas.

if we took the median conversion price of $30k, it would still take over 8500 gallons of gas at $3.50/gal to just break even on the conversion.

and another estimate of 100mpg and multiply it by gallons used...that would be over 85,000 miles. one needs to remember wear and tear on the car, esp at those high mileages, that require somewhat expensive part repair and replacement as a normal course of maintenance.

though some of you may not have known, here in california anyway, there was a 'test' run of plug in cars about ten years ago. the program failed miserably. lazy americans were not willing (at that time) to have to plug their car in every time. how prevalent was this program? the local costco had two special parking spots for these cars with electrical plugs (dont know if it was free or not) and still no one used them.

another factor not mentioned?

the increased cost of household electricity when using it to recharge your car.

here in socal, the cost of electricity is one of the highest in the nation. thus, would it even be economically practical to use household electricity to recharge a car?

additionally, the majority of the electricity generated in the united states is first by coal, followed by natural gas. renewable sources are still a very sadly small percentage.

so, to recharge your car, one is most likely using electricity produced from a CO2 source.

Afterburn,

I have actually stumbled across the Prius sites before and have read about some of the things backyard tinkerers have done with them.

I know it all comes down to money and greed. It just really urks me and the millions of others who think that we can always do more and would like to see the country/world do better than what we ourselves can gain. I'm not Mr. Tree-hugging hippy, but I do care about the environment, the future, and our resources. I just hate the fact that so many of the pople in power are so greedy and corrupt.

Thanks for the reponse.

Jason,

As an engineer, one thing that I always keep in mind is redundency. One must always build a system that can support itself even if other systems fail, etc.

In the way of the power grid and future energy technologies. I see a multitude of different systems which power our grid. Solar Molten Salt towers, waste gasification, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, nuclear, new technologies we haven't even thought of, and therein is where the answer lies. No system is perfect. Each has their pros/cons and hence the tradeoff. But there is no reason with our knowledge, technology, and resources we shouldn't be able to rid ourselves of dirty, toxic, and non-renewable fossil fuels.

In the end, it's all about the money.

Thanks for the response...