Can so simple an answer as that of Dr. Robert Zubrin,
solve so much of the complex of national and world
problems which seem about to overwhelm us? It took 91
minutes to view his Utube presentation at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLRuGUPkyh4, but the
payoff in new insights made that an apparent wow! I
would like to hear contrary arguments and evidence, if
any. Please relay these to me backchannel - i.e., at
wwenger101%40aol.com">wwenger101
aol.com - so as not to try the patience of
several here who feel that discussion of national and
world problems and issues is off-topic. (It IS
off-topic in the sense that his appears to be a
surprisingly workable solution which was arrived at
without use of our methods of problem-solving.)
Zubrin's thesis in brief: oil prices, food prices, our
problems with international terrorism, and our loss of
power to oil-heavy governments who don't necessarily
have our best interests in mind, will only get worse,
not better, so long as oil is the main fuel and that
is controlled by the cartel. Most remaining oil is in
those countries. His solution cuts through the tangle
like Alexander's sword through the Gordian Knot:
mandate that starting three years from now, all cars
sold in the USA be flexfuel. On that scale, this would
add very little to the actual cost of these cars (a
small change in programming in the controls of fuel
mixture, plus anti-corrosive fuel lines). Some of our
cars already are flexfuel, and hardly anyone knows it.
Zubrin argues that immediately this mandate is passed,
investment interests would pour into technology,
manufacturing, and distribution of methanol and
ethanol as ALTERNATIVES TO gasoline, a very different
proposition from marketing these as additives TO
gasoline sold together as a unit. He claims the cost
would run about 50 cents for energy at the pump
equivalent to that from a gallon of gasoline and by
being alternatives sold separately, this will
(1) force the cost of gasoline back down a long ways,
and
(2) win the world, not only the USA, freedom from the
oil tyranny which we now face.
There's much more there than I can represent here.
Even should Zubrin's proposition stumble for some
reason, this stimulus should help us generate some
much-needed new ideas and perspectives. And at the
moment, there appears to be a fair chance that he is
right and that there is a practical way out of the
mess we are now in.
If you care to, review Zubrin's lecture at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLRuGUPkyh4 and give me
your own views and thoughts on the matter, pro and
con. I expect to publish the outcome in the
"Solutions" section of my reasonably well-attended
website, http://www.winwenger.com/solution.htm Thank
you. ...win
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