Cars

[reldnahkram]

Talked at dinner with think_too_much over global energy concerns. Mentioned my crackpot ideas, including launching nuclear waste into the sun and the Sahara solar farm. Also discussed when the oil will run out, and whether war will result.

Driving home from Swat on the Blue Route, was doing 75 (55 zone) and a car comes up very close behind me. I pull into the RH lane to let it pass. It was a state trooper! It passes me.

The Sunoco around the corner is at $2.15 a gallon. Yes, that place tends to be a bit higher (this being the main line, and there being a Ferrari dealer next door). but still. Will the insanity ever stop?

Comments

[ilanala]

Gas is around $2.50 for the cheapest stuff here. Don't complain.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the general public tends not to like that line of thinking. I agree, but getting Joe American to agree with you, especially the ones who live nearby, is more difficult.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

The problem with launching nuclear waste into the sun is the whole "launching" part. Launch failures are much too common for it to be worth the risk, since with some reasonable precautions we can contain it pretty well down here, and not have to worry about it ending up somewhere we don't intend (like spread over a large area).

It's becoming less and less clear that the oil will run out, too (sadly) -- they keep finding new deposits, or finding that reservoirs that they thought were exhausted seem to be filling up again.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

I know, I know, but it may be a better solution than wrestling with the NIMBYs. Then again, as abstractart said above, it's not _that_ big a deal, so it's not worth worrying about.

I think it's farily likely that the oil supply isn't infinte, so it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. That being said, there are better ways to generate power than burning oil or oil products, the trick is convincing people of this. This is sort of how nuclear fission came up in the conversation. There's only been one major disaster regarding nuclear fission, and that could have been avoided with proper dilligence. So the only problem is disposing of the waste, and we know where that conversation went.

[crystalpyramid]

$2.15 a gallon? God, the last time I drove must've been long ago. When did it start breaking $2?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

It's a fairly recent developement. I paid $1.999 on Monday when I was down helping people move, but that was a different gas station. I'm commenting more on the rapid rise in prices, more than the fact that it's this high - it's been working it's way up for a while.