natural gas fuel truckstop / filling station

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by DubleDeuce on October 10, 2009 at 7:19am

<<Doesn't it seem like all bringers of new tech, ideas, or philosophies
would be -'saviors of mankind'--are often 'crucified' by their good intentions?>>

Thanks for the comments Shon, but I do NOT see myself as exactly as you portray above. Ideas are just that, ideas. My ideas are just as valuable (and fallible) as the next guy.

The one thing we as a society must guard against is the entrenched premise to "do anything, just as long as it is different from what we are doing."

Their logic falls into the category of movement, any movement, is better than stagnation. I agree with their logic but NOT their premise. We as a society ARE moving forward but just because we are able to crawl technologically does not mean that we adopt the latest and greatest technological observation.

The wind turbine is one of those technological observations. We have increased the efficiency of this devise many fold over the last 40 years. But it is NOT ready for prime time. This country GREW UP to adulthood (a super power) on cheap energy and we will either advance or shrink on it. The world and our production capabilities DEPEND on that marketing fact. NOWHERE is it stated that we will CONTINUE to have cheap energy, but our history is replete with the glory of it. Let us not be persuaded by the romantics siren song of (if we can put a man on the moon, why can't we do "this" or "that". It is a bogus logic upon which fools rest their future.

I have a great deal of confidence in the American brand of the free marketplace but if you look quick you will see its current and ongoing demise at the hands of the left wing politician. They have NOT replaced the free market and its bounty with ANOTHER more prolific method, but rather have hobbled the current system with regulations, fiat, and targeted taxes.

In the past, your observation of the << -'saviors of mankind'--are often 'crucified' by their good intentions? >> was mostly the victim of his own outrageous Rube Goldberg contraption, but today good ideas are being squandered by a society trying to get all types of technology into the pipeline NOW and let the market sort it out. I am for that approach, but a lot of "good sinners" will be sacrificed to the alter of a limited free marketplace while the special interests (those who HAVE the mineral rights) will foist upon us, a solution that will again, hobble us on the way to the next great idea.

We need to look at all of the schemes out there, analyze their "best case" scenario for solving our dilemma (cheap, clean, and high BTU content) and pick those 3-4 that are really WORTHY of our further review, investment, and efforts.

the ANSWER is NOT the politicians stock in trade response, "we need to look at all types of energy sources", which many people hear as "we'll throw tax money at anything", but rather, let's put resources into that technology that shows the most promise of meeting our energy needs in the short term (next 25 years) . If we DON'T do this approach, we as a country and a world power will wake up one morning to read the Chinese language newspaper (soon to be known as the "Chindle") to see that we are a second rate power, economically AND militarily.

The Deuceman

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by William Engwer on October 10, 2009 at 8:34am

I agree with what you say here, almost entirely. The throwing money at anything without any kind of carefully reasoned and integrated approach is wasting at least hundreds of millions of dollars in useless wheel-spinning, rather than taking quick and effective action to implement existing and near-term technology. But again, the energy policy makers are more concerned with the cover-your-ass game, and spread-the-blame organizational theory, so nobody steps up and says "we need to do this: 1), 2), 3) etc.". If the Wright Brothers had taken this approach, and if government had been involved, we'd surely still not have aircraft that actually fly. William Engwer

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Paul on October 10, 2009 at 11:42am

And now that the government owns GM I wonder if it will be able to produce cars that actually move?

The Free Market is like Mother Nature, it is efficient in that only the fittest survive and pass on their genes to the next generation. Sometimes the parasites are more voracious than the host; e.g. the financial sector & the US manufacturing economy, vs. bat white-nose fungus, and end up killing the healthy members of the host population weakening the species as a whole.

We've been parasitized -- the parasite is called Congress, and the strain is Liberalism.

The Light is Green!

▶ Reply to This

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last