$5 gas by 2012 ?

I know that in Pittsburgh area a natural gas co. has most of their vans & equipment converted over, never got a chance to talk to a driver or see one up close to see how large the fuel tanks are. From the outside everything looks stock.

What I cant figure out is why the hell haven't we developed a steam powered vehicle that runs on coal, just like the old trains, but a much smaller scale?? Technology has come a ways since then. Make the trunk a hopper for a stoker system, and the gas tank where you store the water for steam. Yeah it takes a little longer to get coal fired up, but you mean to tell me we cant put some sort of super hot coil run by a car battery that will get so hot it lights the coal in a few seconds?? They make systems in kitchens that pull the oxygen out of a room to stop a fire in it's tracks. Why cant we do that to shut the car down in seconds also?? I mean, the other thing too is if I were to get into an accident with it, I'd much rather get pegged in the head with a few chunks of rice coal than to blow up with my on-board tanks of natural gas. It just boggles my mind. Here we are talking doom and gloom and history is knocking on our door saying "Hey stupid! Remember me? Yeah, maybe your grandfather was on to something, huh? Maybe I'm not so bad after all! You spoiled bastards were worried about a little dust and ash and left me for the oil. That "black gold" ain't looking too lustrus anymore, huh? Well I'm your answer! Combine old steam engine technology with stoker and clean coal technology, and voil la! No more oil price worries, no more supporting terrorism, no more economy crash!" What the hell is wrong with this country?

this can all be done, and there has been the technology for total electric vehicles since the 50s, as well as hydrogen powered vehicles, but none of it will happen until all the oil is gone, the oil companies grease the politicians pockets heavily to see it that way. sorry, try again. better luck in the next life.

stokersmoker wrote:What I cant figure out is why the hell haven't we developed a steam powered vehicle that runs on coal, just like the old trains, but a much smaller scale?? Technology has come a ways since then. Make the trunk a hopper for a stoker system, and the gas tank where you store the water for steam. Yeah it takes a little longer to get coal fired up, but you mean to tell me we cant put some sort of super hot coil run by a car battery that will get so hot it lights the coal in a few seconds?? They make systems in kitchens that pull the oxygen out of a room to stop a fire in it's tracks. Why cant we do that to shut the car down in seconds also?? I mean, the other thing too is if I were to get into an accident with it, I'd much rather get pegged in the head with a few chunks of rice coal than to blow up with my on-board tanks of natural gas. It just boggles my mind. Here we are talking doom and gloom and history is knocking on our door saying "Hey stupid! Remember me? Yeah, maybe your grandfather was on to something, huh? Maybe I'm not so bad after all! You spoiled bastards were worried about a little dust and ash and left me for the oil. That "black gold" ain't looking too lustrus anymore, huh? Well I'm your answer! Combine old steam engine technology with stoker and clean coal technology, and voil la! No more oil price worries, no more supporting terrorism, no more economy crash!" What the hell is wrong with this country?

Did anyone else see where they ( Govt.) sat down w/ big oil co. CEO's & talked about cutting a lot of tax breaks the Govt. gives them---& what I heard was that if that were to happen--the companies would go elsewhere---or was that just some older age thing that popped into my head

I didn`t hear so much that they would go elsewhere, they are already headquartered on the Islands for the most part. They eluded to the price going up, they not only don`t want to pay any tax but then want subsidized & want the same amoult of profit. The one sopposely said that lowering the corp. tax rate wouldn`t do anything. I guess hes right since they don`t pay now so whats the difference if its 5% or 50%?

Yep, I think subsidized things are what they were talking about--I don't know--most all this stuff just befuddles me anyway--the only thing I do know is that--as usual--we working stiffs are the ones that get screwed

samhill wrote:I didn`t hear so much that they would go elsewhere, they are already headquartered on the Islands for the most part. They eluded to the price going up, they not only don`t want to pay any tax but then want subsidized & want the same amoult of profit. The one sopposely said that lowering the corp. tax rate wouldn`t do anything. I guess hes right since they don`t pay now so whats the difference if its 5% or 50%?

just fired up the old Camaro, it gets 8mpg. Whenever i fill it at the pump, i usually slop some on the ground because of the poor venting system, but who cares.

At least it runs on pump gas...

The local news channeljust last night had a segment on ethanol fuel.They had interviews with folks that would go distances to avoid putting the E fuel into their cars and small utility engines especially.They claimed loss of mileage and drop in power output.I was one of them. Now my two stations that had it available no longer do.Zero left in my area.They showed a list of stations in Pa.that were carrying it up until a short time ago and it mostly filled a page.Then he showed the current list and it amounted to only about a dozen left in the entire state of Penna.They brought out the fact that for every gallon of Ethanol the oil people "blend"into the gasoline the Obama people provide a $.45 subsidy.Greatly larger percentages of Ethanol are coming our way.Looks to me like we are the only ones in the scenario that get to pay BOTH ways,at the pump and at the tax man. BOHICA Mike

Mike, that subsidy has been there for a long time, at least now it seems there is a slim chance of it being eliminated by of all things both parties bucking for it. http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-new ... 13614.html
Another interesting article of bi-partisnship, they are held together by a common thread GREED.http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/01 ... -foes.html

I sometimes buy a 55gal drum of Torco race gas... its about $7/gal now, or Run 100 octane AV gas for $5/gal,,, the car loves it.

Ethanol is on a ticking clock. I heard that there was an ethanol plant somewhere (Texas, maybe) that had to shut down because the price of corn was too high. Ethanol is driving up the price of corn, and now it's too expensive even for them. Histerical! That's the visious cycle for ethanol. Nice try boys! Try again.

i know one thing, more then 40% of all refuse class 8 trucks will run on NG within a year or two.

Horses for sale or rent,rooms to rent fifty cent

... I'm a man by no means...... KIng of the Road

Roger Whitaker

Nice one Fred.

Oh, BTW, I think with Europe under the skids we enter a deflationary environment and gas goes down, or at least does not go up any more. So that is not the cause of the depression that is coming? What we are doing is about to blame China for our ills and they will fight back and bingo 1930s all over again as the US goes into isolation. So we have just finished a study that shows China takes away jobs (Bloomberg today). I wonder how much that study of the obvious cost us. Of course, the same argument can be made if we import a coconut from Tuvalu. Watch the Senate with this China bill as we shoot ourselves in the foot, the announcement of the study was a prelude to more stupidity.