Pickens plan is flawed! Electric cars are the answer!
Any energy plan that does not include Plug IN Electric Cars as its centerpiece is faulty and misguided. The survival of the world depends on the end of the use of oil as soon as possible. Natural gas while cleaner than oil is still a potntial menace to uor environment. Plug in electric cars are the answer. They can be recharged with a domestic solar or wind energy energy system and recharging stations which would only require a simple 110 or 220 outlet. Converting to natural gas is a waste of time and resources. Natural gas still puts pollutants into the air.The electrical grid is the easiest way to get power to cars. Lets put an end to oil. I would rather see the oil industry become extinct than the polar bear. How does Mr Pickens feel about that?
Why has Mr Pickens failed to mention electric cars in the plan?
Why has Mr Pickens failed to mention electric cars in the plan?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JS Geare on -
He has failed to include them because he is a reasonable man. That's a pretty picture of some solar panels or a windmill to make electricity, but it would be a rare case to have sun or wind at the specific moment you needed them. Thus, batteries are required not just for the car itself but to store the free energy from nature. I'll ssume for the moment that the big storage battery in the garage would be used to recharge all the storage batteries in the car. But those batteries require energy to produce and are no small thing to dispose of when drained. For the sake or argument, though , let's assume that everyone who CAN use solar or wind DOES use it, and that it contributes 25% to the total current needed to keep all the electric cars running. So, how many electric owners, then, COULD use the natural energy? I don't know, but what I do know is that the millions of apartment dwellers and those who live in dense urban neighborhoods are not likely to be among them -and that's a lot of people. Furthermore, for those who have wind mills and panels, they only have them at home -they'll need to plug into the AC when they are elsewhere and low on power.
Which means that all such people will be increasing demand on the power grid, requiring the combustion of more hydrocarbons -and, well, you get the idea. That's not to say those who can do what you say should not do so -they should, and when I get my electric car, I shall. But it is not an approach that can applied uniformly across the population and therefore would be better understood in the context of a more comprehensive approach.
The Picken's Plan is by no means a cure and is not proposed as one. It is, as TB himself says, a "bridge" to the future when more sustainable and less enviromentally obstructive technologies may be put to work. And building that bridge will free up about 200 billion a year, TB claims, which can then be used to find those solutions, I suppose. The plan makes sense: take a widely available fuel (natural gas) and use it instead of oil. And take wind and use it instead of coal, oil or gas to make power. Now, you've saved a few bucks and weaned yourself away from imported oil. The beauty is that this is very "do-able." And the enhanced supply of power -without the pollution- is there to run those electric cars you're talking about. Put another way, if we all were required to switch to electric cars tomorrow, the power would need to come from somewhere; it is a good idea to have the wind providing it rather than the coal. The mandate for electric vehicles carries its own pollution problem - all those batteries -the energy deficit and pollution exposure simply moves from the car to somewhere else. No free lunch. So, as long as we must pay for lunch, lets make it the least cost we can.
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Permalink Reply by Matt Sager on -
Cars can be converted to run on CNG. That is why he is suggesting CNG and E85. You can't, simply, convert a car to run completely on electricity. America will still use diesel and gasonline as there are still many application to where CNG and electricity simply won't supplant these. Our electric grid can't handle every American plugging their car in. The Chevy Volt will be the next step in the right direction when it comes to transportation.
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Permalink Reply by Berry Chaney on -
I think pickens plan is just the start of his ideas if you listen to him in congress. His main idea is WIND power in the midwest. He has plans to start billion dollar wind farms. Natural Gas is a great idea to start since the pipe lines are already in the major cities makes it easy to connect for supply also if you have ever traveled to Europe or England they use gas cars along with electric vehicles. Not one thing is going to be the answer for the USA I do think electric power cars must go further than 100- 200 miles per charge their must be a backup in case your not near a plug to recharge
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Permalink Reply by Rick Archer on -
When fuel cell technology catches up we'll have electric cars to go with the natural gas ones.
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Permalink Reply by Mitchell Andrus on -
Until apartment complexes, comdo, office, shopping ctrs, etc. install plug in stations, plug-in elecs are gonna remain a dream. I agree that elecs are the way to go, but it'll take EVERONE to give a great big push to make it happen. Gas is at $10.00/gal in some parts of Europe - have been nearly that for a long time. See anything being installed over there yet?
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Permalink Reply by Al Cummins on -
Electric cars are a part of the solution, however we need to get an infrastructure in place first. Right now, we would be trading gas in the car for Coal, Natural gas to create the electricily for the car. Natural gas is also a finite resource, even though we don't necessarily know where the end of the supply may be.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Smoley on -
To Rex V. Phelps, Won't work. Most modern cars are fuel injected, not carbureted. You would have to replace most of the top of the engine.
To Brock Eastman, there are electric cars that will keep up with a Porsche, but cost even more.
We need some sanity in our car companies. The most fuel efficient vehicles today are diesel electric. I would love to have an American company start producing a diesel/nat. gas electric vehicle. I e-mailed to John Deere (they are big on diesels in their tractors) but never got an answer. Don't you think John Deere could sell a practical van or pickup in the US?
Years ago I designed/invented an external combustion Wankel conversion, that would get about 40 to 60 mpg, but couldn't get a response from any auto makers. I even saw a running Wankel diesel. Anyone want to start a new car company? No yearly model changes, just fuel efficient, practical vehicles for the US? We need a new version of the model T. Simple, fuel efficient, practical and able to take aftermarket customization (Americans like to be individuals). Mr. Pickens, are you listening?
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Permalink Reply by Dan Jessen on -
Good luck with that polar bear thing, I cant even believe you would say that. I hope you can go hunting to feed your family with that polar bear. They call it a food chain for a reason. I believe that most people are environmentally conscious, but there is a level of common sense. And, you better get your facts straight how oil effects the polar bear to start with. We have had one oil spill in how many years, about 80.....thats just a fact of life, and what is the percentage of area that drilling up there would cover one one hundreth of a percent.....nobody is saying we dont need alternative energy sources, but we have to do something right now too.
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Permalink Reply by david on -
this is a start not a tottal solution and natural gas cars are easily made buy a few upgrades to the fule system, in other words the infrastructure is in place and we can add electric cars. also his plan is a good start but not all the answers are going to be found in one place.
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Permalink Reply by Raj on -
The Compressed air fuel idea may be possible lot sooner than the electric cars, as the Compressed air technology is far ahead of the Battery technology. I believe the Compressed air cars may be produced soon in India by Tata Motors. That is another area that can be included with the Pickens plan.
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Permalink Reply by Bob Peterson on -
I would argue electric cars are AN answer rather than THE answer. Having driven one, I rather liked it. As a practical matter, though, it seems more practical for short distances until the energy storage issues can be resolved. It seems clear many folks have little appreciation for the energy density of hydrogen, methane, and higher hydrocarbons. The heat of combustion for gasoline is approximately 43 MJ/kg (33.7 kW-hr/gallon), making the electrical energy storage needs for a 5 gallon tank to be 169 kW-hr, a sizeable number.
This seems to be one of the more sensible post threads. It is encouraging to see the acceptance of electrics for personal transportation with the recognition of from whence the energy flows for charging those plugins. I had a most dismaying conversation with one of my brothers who was hot to trade in his 2007 Prius for the 2010 just because it was a plugin. I reminded him his trade-in idea only made carbon-sense if he was going to use PV panels for the energy source (personal wind not being much of an option in surburbia).
In any case, I am definitely in favor of an sensible imperfect plan that accomplishes something rather than waiting a really long time for the perfect one.
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