Rant #4 Drilling for oil.
Drilling for more oil off our coast will not lower gas prices. It will be 8 to 10 years before any of the oil that is being prospected for off our coastline ever makes it into the system. Yet both of our presidential candidates have stated their support for it as a means of lowering the price of gas knowing this. In 8 to 10 years we could have alternative fuel derived from grains, grasses, and other means that uses our surpluses and wastes, using most of the current infrastructure we already have.
Gasoline cars can run off alcohol based fuel with very little modification. Not just a few, but all of them. You need to change the fuel tank and fuel lines to be stainless steel or plastic based (no rubber in the fuel system), That’s it. There will be a drop in power output, but only 15%. Yes there are formaldehydes put into the air instead of CO, but this is about supply, not environment. In fact, GM and Ford have already been producing cars that run only on alcohol for several years for the Brazilian market and doing quite well at it.
Diesel engines actually run more effecient than gasoline powered cars. More torque, better miles per gallon. Better yet, corn oil will work as a dielel fuel with no modifications to current engines. In fact, the inventor for which this fuel is named (Rudolf Diesel) originally designed his engine to run off vegetable oil.
With all of these alternatives, why do we keep pushing for petroleum? The only people who win in this are the big oil companies. That is short term at best.