<VV> Alternative Fuels

[Arjay Morgan]

I've noticed several threads on VV about alternative
ways to power our Corvairs.

I, for one, am feeling the pinch of $2.86/gallon
hightest which my 64 Monza gulps at a moderate rate.
In fact, I'm thinking of resetting the timing and
running 'regular,' however that may well be false
economy.

At any event, there is a great article in Sunday's New
York Times Magazine by Peter Maas on the oil problem
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/magazine/21OIL.html?oref=login

If it asks for a login simply use 'theamerican' as
your user name and 'reporter' as the password (leave
off the quotes.

Maas makes an interesting point when it comes to the
cost of alternative fuels...it seems 'cost' is a
relative term:

"When crude costs $10 a barrel or even $30 a barrel,
alternative fuels are prohibitively expensive. For
example, Canada has vast amounts of tar sands that can
be rendered into heavy oil, but the cost of doing so
is quite high. Yet those tar sands and other
alternatives, like bioethanol, hydrogen fuel cells and
liquid fuel from natural gas or coal, become
economically viable as the going rate for a barrel
rises past, say, $40 or more, especially if consuming
governments choose to offer their own incentives or
subsidies. 

"So even if high prices don't cause a recession, the
Saudis risk losing market share to rivals into whose
nonfundamentalist hands Americans would much prefer to
channel their energy dollars." 

If you read the whole article you'll get a good
insight to the world petroleum industry. It seems that
even using every technological trick in the book
we/they can only extract 60% of the oil in a
wellfield.

Now, what about running a Corvair on alcohol?

Arjay Morgan
64 Monza convert -- terminally thirsty


		
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