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Hayabusa Update!, Oil Countdown, Repairing Spines, Toxic Dart Games, Trapping Anti-Matter, Carve the Rainbow, Drink For Your Health, Snot Cocoons, Sexy Schizophrenia, This Week in Pregnancy, And Much More…
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I'm the host of this little science show. 
Fear not the 100 year gap between the disappearance of oil and the next available substitute, because oil won’t disappear. It is not “fossile” fuel but abiotically produced regularly and daily by Mother Earth, and it will be around as long as the Earth is. The idea that dinosaurs and leaves sinking and degenerating caused the bazillions of gallons of oil that exist is absurd.
Holy cow, you really missed the “science” part when you were discussing how electricity is produced (in relation to electric cars).
Here’s an overview of about 40 scientific studies on the subject: http://www.sherryboschert.com/Downloads/Emissions.pdf.
Quick overview for those that don’t want to read them all: what the host claimed (that plugins are dirtier than gas because electricity is made with coal) is only true if the gas car is a Prius, AND the electricity is 100% produced by coal. The latter clause is true for less than 1% of the US population, and Prius in those areas are less than 1% of the available cars.
On the current US mix (45% coal and dropping), plugins are already much cleaner than gas cars. And things are only getting better, especially considering new EPA rules coming out that will apply to coal plants. Things are already better in most of the states that are getting early deliveries of most plug-in vehicles.
Plus, with electricity, you can choose your power supply. A very significant percentage of electric vehicle owners use solar panels on their house. I buy wind power. Can’t do that with gas.
And that’s just the “green” argument. There’s also the economic arguments. We send close to a billion dollar EVERY DAY out of the country to buy foreign oil. That’s 40% of our trade deficit. Wouldn’t it make more sense to spend less money, and keep it local? And strategic: why is our military and transportation completely dependent on governments in the Middle East?
We have to switch. Please do some research before calling plugins dirty. They are not perfect, but they are far better than anything else we can switch to today.
Michael Kennedy
Now we just have to wait millions of years for mother earth to do its thing. Cool.. Planktin btw is what creates oil.
When plankton die, they fall to the bottom of the sea.
The plankton are trapped under many layers of sand and mud. Over millions of years, the dead animals and plants got buried deeper and deeper. The heat and pressure gradually turned the mud into rock and the dead animals and plants into oil and gas.
Oil is formed over millions of years. It is held in tiny spaces in underground rock, like water in a sponge.
Some rocks have tiny spaces called pores. The rocks with these pores can hold the oil like a sponge.
The cap rock stops the oil from escaping.
Over millions of years, the rocks fold. Sometimes they form a dome shape that can catch the oil.
Oil can float up through the tiny spaces in the rock. We call these tiny spaces pores and we say that the rock is porous. This takes millions of years.
The oil can’t get through the cap rock and is trapped in the dome of rock underneath.
The cap rock stops the oil from escaping.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_oil_made_of#ixzz16n52Xdoz
^^^ LOL this guy. Lawyers know a lot about science, am I right?
oil is not renewable… is not viable for the long term… and may run out (in most of the world)before we find a suitable relacement…
In the end the actual ratio of coal vs. gas emissions will likely be close. I think the electric car will edge out gas with the mix of non coal plants and because gas has a global footprint (not to mention the financial and political costs) that require it to be shipped and processed. But even then its close, not a silver bullet.
(natural gas has a wosre impact than both when taken overall, but that’s another rant)
The other componant to consider is that in going electric, we use less oil. If we (the US) do this in significant numbers the price of oil will drop.
If the price drops other nations will take up our usage and burn it less efficiently.
This cheaper oil will also cause accelerated growth of economies in those nations that will fuel future demand.
The electric vehicle is a needed step for the long term plan, but the true technology will be on the energy production side. Until we produce the energy cleanly we can’t claim to use it cleanly. And the new technology wont come from an automobile, oil or coal company. It will come from science pursuing a lasting solution.
Another comment on the ‘dirty electric’ argument posed by on this episode: majority of the US power stations undergo a power dump every night. The time and energy it takes to restart turbines and generators is so great that many stations just keep cranking out the joules 24 hrs a day. This leads to a great imbalance in which they are producing too much electricity v the demand when usage drops off, as it does every night. So if electric car users charge their cars overnight (logically plausible), they would in fact be using the excess electricity that is going unused. Granted that this is only true until electric use outstrips what is being dumped every night, but until that happens electric car is FAR more efficient than gas. I am still puzzling out if this situation qualifies for an “infinite gas mileage” label or not. Any suggestions?
Anyone who uses the word “bazillion” after the year 1990 is out of touch.
I bet Michael Kennedy also thinks Jesus rode a Raptor in his day.