Angry About High Gas Prices? Blame Shuttered Oil Refineries

CrazyPaul said:
That's one of the reasons why President Obama and ex-President Bush talked about HYBRID, HYBRID and HYBRID to avoid depending on gas too much. In the future, we will have alot of new hybrid vehicles than before. Just wait and see. Time changes, thus things change. That's part of our life.
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And then where are you going to get the electricity to charge up all those vehicles, especially all the full-electrics? You still have to have oil to run the power plants to supply electricity.
 
deafdrummer said:
And then where are you going to get the electricity to charge up all those vehicles, especially all the full-electrics? You still have to have oil to run the power plants to supply electricity.
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Not always. In Pacific Northwest most of the electricity comes from water power, aka hydroelectric. Around 80% of the electricity in Washington state comes from dams.
 
sequoias said:
Not always. In Pacific Northwest most of the electricity comes from water power, aka hydroelectric. Around 80% of the electricity in Washington state comes from dams.
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I'm aware of hydroelectric dams, but that's not where most of the electricity comes from for most of us. Think large-scale.
 
sequoias said:
Not always. In Pacific Northwest most of the electricity comes from water power, aka hydroelectric. Around 80% of the electricity in Washington state comes from dams.
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deafdrummer said:
I'm aware of hydroelectric dams, but that's not where most of the electricity comes from for most of us. Think large-scale.
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That's correct but southeast states got electricity from coal and nuclear power plant.
 
Foxrac said:
That's correct but southeast states got electricity from coal and nuclear power plant.
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What about wind and solar power? They got lots of that in California and Arizona.
 
I think about 15-20% of the electricity comes from wind generation in Iowa, majority of them come from natural gas/coal plants.
 
sequoias said:
What about wind and solar power? They got lots of that in California and Arizona.
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When charts and other current data can do a better job on answering your question.

Institute for Energy Research | New Mexico

Percent of Electric Power Generated from Renewable Sources | Arizona Indicators


California now gets about 5 percent of its electricity from wind power, according to data released Tuesday by the California Wind Energy Association.

The majority of California's electricity -- 42 percent -- comes from natural gas, followed by nuclear power and hydropower. According to 2010 figures from the California Energy Commission, wind made up 4.7 percent of the state's electricity mix and solar was 0.3 percent.
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Wind energy milestone: California now gets about 5 percent of its electricity from wind power - San Jose Mercury News
 
He is the one who started the spending for NASA to do space exploration instead of research and development of solar and alternate energy (I'll admit those who came after him did not try to stop this snowball). NASA has wasted over $50 billion dollars that could be used for the purpose of making every house/business/mall/etc. run off of solar and/or alternate energy.

BTW: I'm not saying space exploration has no benefits......only that you take care of your own home first.
 
rolling7 said:
He is the one who started the spending for NASA to do space exploration instead of research and development of solar and alternate energy (I'll admit those who came after him did not try to stop this snowball). NASA has wasted over $50 billion dollars that could be used for the purpose of making every house/business/mall/etc. run off of solar and/or alternate energy.

BTW: I'm not saying space exploration has no benefits......only that you take care of your own home first.
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but.... didn't you read what Gingrich said about funding NASA?

and you know that NASA's toys are solar-powered, right? if it works for them, then it would work for us too. we have benefited a lot from NASA's technological and scientific advancement. this adds a healthy competition with corporations otherwise we'd be at their mercy because of monopoly and high cost.

if we're not going to allocate $50 billion to NASA... guess where it'll go to.... it'll be either defense budget or politicians' pockets.
 
I'll agree with you on Grigrich but the only reason that NASA toys are solar powered is because there is no other energy out there.

JFK could and should have begin with a way to harness the power of the sun into usable energy here on earth and I'll agree that this would have benefit individual corporations. Once the research and development was done, NASA could turn it over to the public (after all they paid for it). Then NASA could go on to the next step.

However, JFK's ego was soooo big that he had to get into a space race to put a man into space and to reach the moon before the Russians. Now that is little boys playing with toys ON OUR DIME!!

Could you imagine every house in America having a very thin film on the roof that would collect solar energy and also have an effecient way to store that energy? America would not be dependent on foreign oil and not owe so much debt to foreign nations today. JFK (and those who followed) had his head up his ass.
 
rolling7 said:
I'll agree with you on Grigrich but the only reason that NASA toys are solar powered is because there is no other energy out there.
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you know it's also nuclear-powered as well.....

rolling7 said:
JFK could and should have begin with a way to harness the power of the sun into usable energy here on earth and I'll agree that this would have benefit individual corporations. Once the research and development was done, NASA could turn it over to the public (after all they paid for it). Then NASA could go on to the next step.
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actually no. it would be a political and financial disaster to do this because we did not have technology and resource at that time to make viable solar technology. It would be like Solyndra x 10. How can they achieve it if they were barely in computer age powered by vacuum tubes?

rolling7 said:
However, JFK's ego was soooo big that he had to get into a space race to put a man into space and to reach the moon before the Russians. Now that is little boys playing with toys ON OUR DIME!!
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I'm glad JFK did this. Because of this, we're USA #1!!!!!! You forget that entire America supported this.

rolling7 said:
Could you imagine every house in America having a very thin film on the roof that would collect solar energy and also have an effecient way to store that energy?
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no I cannot imagine it at all. It's just like trying to imagine if we spend money first in computer, then every car would be equipped with GPS, bluetooth, airbags, etc. in 1980's.

rolling7 said:
America would not be dependent on foreign oil and not owe so much debt to foreign nations today. JFK (and those who followed) had his head up his ass.
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very simple - take a bus. or ride bike.
 
I guess you can not be bothered with my "research and devlopment of solar and alternate energy" because back then (early 60's) that is what it would have took. Yes, you are right that the American people got caught up in a space race just like they are stupid enough to get caught up in plenty of other races. Does not make it right nor $$$$-worthy. JFK was suppose to be the leader of this country and make serious decisions but he was such an egotist (and womanizer) that he totally mis-led America. We Americans are still today paying for our mistake for electing him in the first place.

BTW: thank him that you still have a light bill and $5.00 gas
 
rolling7 said:
I guess you can not be bothered with my "research and devlopment of solar and alternate energy" because back then (early 60's) that is what it would have took. Yes, you are right that the American people got caught up in a space race just like they are stupid enough to get caught up in plenty of other races. Does not make it right nor $$$$-worthy. JFK was suppose to be the leader of this country and make serious decisions but he was such an egotist (and womanizer) that he totally mis-led America. We Americans are still today paying for our mistake for electing him in the first place.

BTW: thank him that you still have a light bill and $5.00 gas
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wow. such a misguided anger.
 
Things change overtime. Iowa's wind energy production continues to increase, though. Still minisule like Jiro says. I think most of the hydroelectric infrastructure in the West were built in early 1900's to 1960's or so. Not much new ones were developed, probably due to lots of environmentalist red flags.
 
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