Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Alexander Wants Electric Cars - Hydrogen SUV's
As technologies catch up to consumer needs, and gasoline prices soar daily to record highs, Alexander says it is important that we make an intelligent transition, manufacturing electric vehicles for daily commuting and hydrogen engines to power larger vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUV’s.
Alexander Wants Electric Cars – Hydrogen SUV’s
Stewart A. Alexander
2006 Candidate
California Lieutenant Governor
Peace and Freedom Party
The crusader against ramping up gasoline prices, Stewart Alexander, has proposed manufacturing electric cars in California to clean the environment and to cut Americans dependency on oil. Now the Lieutenant governor candidate wants pickup trucks and SUV’s manufactured with clean burning hydrogen engines.
Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed a plan, to produce hydrogen powered vehicles, that Alexander says will not solve California’s transportation needs for two decades and will be too costly. California needs a plan that can be executed in a relatively short time period with the least financial burden on consumers.
The technology of hydrogen power has been in existence for years, now with skyrocketing gasoline prices and global warming, Americans are open to new technologies that will reduce the nation’s oil dependency.
As technologies catch up to consumer needs, Alexander says it is important that we make an intelligent transition, manufacturing electric vehicles for daily commuting and hydrogen engines to power larger vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUV’s.
This plan would require some state and federal funding; however private investor, realizing the future for cleaning burning vehicles in America, will make Alexander’s hydrogen vehicles a reality.
Alexander says he believes it is possible to have 90 percent of all gasoline powered vehicles off the roads by the year 2020; “Even 15 years is still too long to wait.”
Alexander says, “California needs an 8 year plan to cut petroleum consumption by 70 percent. The nation needs to make similar cut backs to protect our environment and our planet.”
Recently Alexander proposed a California - Automobile Industry Partnership to revive the struggling American automobile industry, with the production of electric cars. During the month of April Alexander proposed building an elevated rail system in Riverside and Orange Counties to take 100’s of thousands of commuters off the 91 freeway parking lot and to derail an ongoing plan to drill three 45 foot diameter holes deep in the Cleveland National Forest and the Santa Ana Mountains.
Stewart Alexander is running as a candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party and has worked as a national activist on environmental issues. As a leader in the Peace and Freedom Party he says, “It is time to protect consumers against corporate greed and stop consuming their black gold.”
For more information, search the web for Stewart A. Alexander for Lieutenant Governor.
http://www.salt-g.com
Stewart A. Alexander
2006 Candidate
California Lieutenant Governor
Peace and Freedom Party
The crusader against ramping up gasoline prices, Stewart Alexander, has proposed manufacturing electric cars in California to clean the environment and to cut Americans dependency on oil. Now the Lieutenant governor candidate wants pickup trucks and SUV’s manufactured with clean burning hydrogen engines.
Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed a plan, to produce hydrogen powered vehicles, that Alexander says will not solve California’s transportation needs for two decades and will be too costly. California needs a plan that can be executed in a relatively short time period with the least financial burden on consumers.
The technology of hydrogen power has been in existence for years, now with skyrocketing gasoline prices and global warming, Americans are open to new technologies that will reduce the nation’s oil dependency.
As technologies catch up to consumer needs, Alexander says it is important that we make an intelligent transition, manufacturing electric vehicles for daily commuting and hydrogen engines to power larger vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUV’s.
This plan would require some state and federal funding; however private investor, realizing the future for cleaning burning vehicles in America, will make Alexander’s hydrogen vehicles a reality.
Alexander says he believes it is possible to have 90 percent of all gasoline powered vehicles off the roads by the year 2020; “Even 15 years is still too long to wait.”
Alexander says, “California needs an 8 year plan to cut petroleum consumption by 70 percent. The nation needs to make similar cut backs to protect our environment and our planet.”
Recently Alexander proposed a California - Automobile Industry Partnership to revive the struggling American automobile industry, with the production of electric cars. During the month of April Alexander proposed building an elevated rail system in Riverside and Orange Counties to take 100’s of thousands of commuters off the 91 freeway parking lot and to derail an ongoing plan to drill three 45 foot diameter holes deep in the Cleveland National Forest and the Santa Ana Mountains.
Stewart Alexander is running as a candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party and has worked as a national activist on environmental issues. As a leader in the Peace and Freedom Party he says, “It is time to protect consumers against corporate greed and stop consuming their black gold.”
For more information, search the web for Stewart A. Alexander for Lieutenant Governor.
http://www.salt-g.com
For more information:
http://www.salt-g.com
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
To have hydrogen vehicles replace gasoline vehicles on the road, is already inexpensively possible, and some conversions have been made, of cars already on the road. Every vehicle in the world can be converted for 2-5 thousand dollars apiece. Air Products has converted 30 Prius hybrids to
use hydrogen. Furthermore, coming on the market is a true hydrogen-from-water method by Alternative
Energy Corporation, http://www.cleanwatts.com. A certain unnamed [for patent reasons] metal is
put into the water, driving out 99.9% pure hydrogen, and producing a new metal compound that
is valuable on the world-wide market, thus making the hydrogen affordable right now. This
method would need followup with waste and landfill derived hydrogen (14% of our fuel need,
if done everywhere it is needed for hygeine reasons and protection of the oxygen producing
plants and microbes in the oceans that are being polluted. A third method is economical--wind
generated electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
There need not be extensive time spans for developing hydrogen trucks and SUV's. Consultation with BMW who have developed buses, sedans, and a race car, to be on sale by 2007, will make
the engineering very efficient. In fact to meet the needs of mass production, BMW wants to make partnerships with companies all over the world. The first vehicle they will introduce to the market is a dual tank liquid hydrogen, and gasoline tank sedan. in an internal combustion motored
vehicle. They have determined that when hydrogen alone can be used, the internal combustion
motor will have fuel efficiency and power gasoline or diesel could never produce. Before trying to reinvent the wheel, a thorough knowledge about BMW's work is in order. It is also in order to
know about the conversion kits for cars on the road. Those that use gaseous hydrogen have a shorter range and less efficiency than would those that use liquid hydrogen. Harry Braun of the Phoenix Project would know specifics about liquid hydrogen conversion kits. I am not certain that they are currently in production. It would take enterprise to start making them available I believe. But they are not complex.
For more information about hydrogen as an alternative fuel, see my book, GETTING THROUGH THE WILDERNESS: THE FUEL CRISIS, GLOBAL WARMING, AND THE HYDROGEN FRONTIER,
go to http://www.maryannsegalmd.com.
Bringing hydrogen aboard to replace fossil fuel is urgent. Just as urgent, in the meantime, is
to use gasoline only when necessary, so that the price goes down, the supply lasts longer and
offers a safety valve on overdemand and a price out of reach, till we have 100% of the fuel
we need in the form of hydrogen. That means using public transportation, car pooling, private
bus lines on long rural roads at work hours, one trip for groceries per week if possible, etc.
Not next year--right now. It will probably be a rough summer at the pump. Those who are not
backbroken by the price yet, should be contributing to the conservation, as well. We are
trying to avert a catastrophe of social and economic chaos with fuel that becomes so expensive
and limited that we become paralyzed before we've replaced fossil fuels with hydrogen.
Biofuels are not a healthy answer, unless it's already used frenchfry oil. To grow fuel, is to endanger the world's faltering grain supply. For four years, the world has eaten more grain than
was grown. There is more malnutrition than ever. And a whole rain forest in Indonesia was
torn down to plant palm trees for palm oil biodiesel. To make an ethanol requires a lot of fossil fuel, more than it would to use the fossil fuel directly in the car.
Mary Ann Segal, M.D.
use hydrogen. Furthermore, coming on the market is a true hydrogen-from-water method by Alternative
Energy Corporation, http://www.cleanwatts.com. A certain unnamed [for patent reasons] metal is
put into the water, driving out 99.9% pure hydrogen, and producing a new metal compound that
is valuable on the world-wide market, thus making the hydrogen affordable right now. This
method would need followup with waste and landfill derived hydrogen (14% of our fuel need,
if done everywhere it is needed for hygeine reasons and protection of the oxygen producing
plants and microbes in the oceans that are being polluted. A third method is economical--wind
generated electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
There need not be extensive time spans for developing hydrogen trucks and SUV's. Consultation with BMW who have developed buses, sedans, and a race car, to be on sale by 2007, will make
the engineering very efficient. In fact to meet the needs of mass production, BMW wants to make partnerships with companies all over the world. The first vehicle they will introduce to the market is a dual tank liquid hydrogen, and gasoline tank sedan. in an internal combustion motored
vehicle. They have determined that when hydrogen alone can be used, the internal combustion
motor will have fuel efficiency and power gasoline or diesel could never produce. Before trying to reinvent the wheel, a thorough knowledge about BMW's work is in order. It is also in order to
know about the conversion kits for cars on the road. Those that use gaseous hydrogen have a shorter range and less efficiency than would those that use liquid hydrogen. Harry Braun of the Phoenix Project would know specifics about liquid hydrogen conversion kits. I am not certain that they are currently in production. It would take enterprise to start making them available I believe. But they are not complex.
For more information about hydrogen as an alternative fuel, see my book, GETTING THROUGH THE WILDERNESS: THE FUEL CRISIS, GLOBAL WARMING, AND THE HYDROGEN FRONTIER,
go to http://www.maryannsegalmd.com.
Bringing hydrogen aboard to replace fossil fuel is urgent. Just as urgent, in the meantime, is
to use gasoline only when necessary, so that the price goes down, the supply lasts longer and
offers a safety valve on overdemand and a price out of reach, till we have 100% of the fuel
we need in the form of hydrogen. That means using public transportation, car pooling, private
bus lines on long rural roads at work hours, one trip for groceries per week if possible, etc.
Not next year--right now. It will probably be a rough summer at the pump. Those who are not
backbroken by the price yet, should be contributing to the conservation, as well. We are
trying to avert a catastrophe of social and economic chaos with fuel that becomes so expensive
and limited that we become paralyzed before we've replaced fossil fuels with hydrogen.
Biofuels are not a healthy answer, unless it's already used frenchfry oil. To grow fuel, is to endanger the world's faltering grain supply. For four years, the world has eaten more grain than
was grown. There is more malnutrition than ever. And a whole rain forest in Indonesia was
torn down to plant palm trees for palm oil biodiesel. To make an ethanol requires a lot of fossil fuel, more than it would to use the fossil fuel directly in the car.
Mary Ann Segal, M.D.
For more information:
http://www.maryannsegalmd.com
Uh, hydrogen is not an energy SOURCE, stupid people. Like ethanol, it's merely an energy SINK. To produce ethanol or hydrogen as fuel will require getting energy from somewhere else and CONVERTING it into these forms (at an energetic loss, of course), so it would make more sense to just use the initial form of energy as fuel. Converting electricity into hydrogen does make lots of sense as an auto fuel, but for this to be "green" the electricity has to come from wind turbines, photovoltaics, etc. SO YOU NEED TO SPECIFY THIS. What do you want to bet the governator has new nuke plants in mind as the electricity source for hydrogen production? Also, you have to have the PV or whatever IN PLACE. Also, only a true asshole like Schwarzenegger would even mention a "hydrogen SUV." This is insane.
Before people go off on their little techno-fix jerkoff sprees "solving" the energy problem, they need to first solve the abysmal technical ignorance problem between their ears. To get an idea of what Schwarzenegger, Mary Segal M.D., and Stewart Alexander are playing you for, you should read C. M. Kornbuth's "The Marching Morons." No really, Kornbluth was the George Orwell of techno-bullshit. He just keeps getting more prophetic as the years roll by
Before people go off on their little techno-fix jerkoff sprees "solving" the energy problem, they need to first solve the abysmal technical ignorance problem between their ears. To get an idea of what Schwarzenegger, Mary Segal M.D., and Stewart Alexander are playing you for, you should read C. M. Kornbuth's "The Marching Morons." No really, Kornbluth was the George Orwell of techno-bullshit. He just keeps getting more prophetic as the years roll by
>to be "green" the electricity has to come from wind turbines, photovoltaics, etc.
That's old technology. The future of hydrogen production is biological, not mechanical:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70273-0.html?tw=wn_index_19
Mutant Algae Is Hydrogen Factory
By Sam Jaffe
12:00 PM Feb, 23, 2006 EST
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have engineered a strain of pond scum that could, with further refinements, produce vast amounts of hydrogen through photosynthesis.
The work, led by plant physiologist Tasios Melis, is so far unpublished. But if it proves correct, it would mean a major breakthrough in using algae as an industrial factory, not only for hydrogen, but for a wide range of products, from biodiesel to cosmetics.
The new strain of algae, known as C. reinhardtii, has truncated chlorophyll antennae within the chloroplasts of the cells, which serves to increase the organism's energy efficiency. In addition, it makes the algae a lighter shade of green, which in turn allows more sunlight deeper into an algal culture and therefore allows more cells to photosynthesize.
"An increase in solar conversion efficiency to 10 percent ... is thought to be enough to make the mass culture of algae viable," says Juergen Polle, a former student of Melis’ who now does research on algae at the City University of New York, Brooklyn.
Polle points out that Melis has probably already reached that 10 percent threshold. But further refinements are still required before C. reinhardtii farms would be efficient enough to produce the world’s hydrogen, which is Melis’ eventual goal.
Currently, the algae cells cycle between photosynthesis and hydrogen production because the hydrogenase enzyme which makes the hydrogen can’t function in the presence of oxygen. Researchers hope to further boost hydrogen production by using genetic engineering to close up pores that oxygen seeps through.
Melis got involved in this research when he and Michael Seibert, a scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, figured out how to get hydrogen out of green algae by restricting sulfur from their diet. The plant cells flicked a long-dormant genetic switch to produce hydrogen instead of carbon dioxide. But the quantities of hydrogen they produced were nowhere near enough to scale up the process commercially and profitably.
"When we discovered the sulfur switch, we increased hydrogen production by a factor of 100,000," says Seibert. "But to make it a commercial technology, we still had to increase the efficiency of the process by another factor of 100."
Melis’ truncated antennae mutants are a big step in that direction. Now Seibert and others (including James Lee at Oak Ridge National Laboratories and J. Craig Venter at the Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland) are trying to adjust the hydrogen-producing pathway so that it can produce hydrogen 100 percent of the time.
A bigger challenge, and one that’s further down the road to solving, is improving the efficiency of the hydrogenase itself.
"Right now the electron chain that goes into the system should produce a lot more hydrogen than comes out, and we don’t know what’s causing the bottleneck," says Seibert. "More basic research is needed to better understand exactly what’s happening in there." Seibert also points out that there are plenty of naturally occurring hydrogenases in microbes, most of which haven’t been studied and some of which might be much more efficient than the one used by C. reinhardtii.
Whether or not scientists can find solutions for those two problems will have a lot to do with realizing the vision of a hydrogen-powered economy based on algae farms in desert areas.
But algae can do a lot more than produce hydrogen. They are already used widely in the cosmetics industry to produce key chemicals used in make-up and perfume. And pharmaceutical companies have long viewed algae as a potential way to produce drugs in a cheap and environmentally friendly manner.
Some algae are also viewed as an ideal source for biodiesel because they can produce oils at a much higher rate than other plants (which can then be converted into vehicle fuel without adding any carbon dioxide to the environment).
For all these applications, Melis’ antenna-truncated algae should be a major breakthrough, allowing higher rates of production and thus making the end product more cheaply.
That's old technology. The future of hydrogen production is biological, not mechanical:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70273-0.html?tw=wn_index_19
Mutant Algae Is Hydrogen Factory
By Sam Jaffe
12:00 PM Feb, 23, 2006 EST
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have engineered a strain of pond scum that could, with further refinements, produce vast amounts of hydrogen through photosynthesis.
The work, led by plant physiologist Tasios Melis, is so far unpublished. But if it proves correct, it would mean a major breakthrough in using algae as an industrial factory, not only for hydrogen, but for a wide range of products, from biodiesel to cosmetics.
The new strain of algae, known as C. reinhardtii, has truncated chlorophyll antennae within the chloroplasts of the cells, which serves to increase the organism's energy efficiency. In addition, it makes the algae a lighter shade of green, which in turn allows more sunlight deeper into an algal culture and therefore allows more cells to photosynthesize.
"An increase in solar conversion efficiency to 10 percent ... is thought to be enough to make the mass culture of algae viable," says Juergen Polle, a former student of Melis’ who now does research on algae at the City University of New York, Brooklyn.
Polle points out that Melis has probably already reached that 10 percent threshold. But further refinements are still required before C. reinhardtii farms would be efficient enough to produce the world’s hydrogen, which is Melis’ eventual goal.
Currently, the algae cells cycle between photosynthesis and hydrogen production because the hydrogenase enzyme which makes the hydrogen can’t function in the presence of oxygen. Researchers hope to further boost hydrogen production by using genetic engineering to close up pores that oxygen seeps through.
Melis got involved in this research when he and Michael Seibert, a scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, figured out how to get hydrogen out of green algae by restricting sulfur from their diet. The plant cells flicked a long-dormant genetic switch to produce hydrogen instead of carbon dioxide. But the quantities of hydrogen they produced were nowhere near enough to scale up the process commercially and profitably.
"When we discovered the sulfur switch, we increased hydrogen production by a factor of 100,000," says Seibert. "But to make it a commercial technology, we still had to increase the efficiency of the process by another factor of 100."
Melis’ truncated antennae mutants are a big step in that direction. Now Seibert and others (including James Lee at Oak Ridge National Laboratories and J. Craig Venter at the Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland) are trying to adjust the hydrogen-producing pathway so that it can produce hydrogen 100 percent of the time.
A bigger challenge, and one that’s further down the road to solving, is improving the efficiency of the hydrogenase itself.
"Right now the electron chain that goes into the system should produce a lot more hydrogen than comes out, and we don’t know what’s causing the bottleneck," says Seibert. "More basic research is needed to better understand exactly what’s happening in there." Seibert also points out that there are plenty of naturally occurring hydrogenases in microbes, most of which haven’t been studied and some of which might be much more efficient than the one used by C. reinhardtii.
Whether or not scientists can find solutions for those two problems will have a lot to do with realizing the vision of a hydrogen-powered economy based on algae farms in desert areas.
But algae can do a lot more than produce hydrogen. They are already used widely in the cosmetics industry to produce key chemicals used in make-up and perfume. And pharmaceutical companies have long viewed algae as a potential way to produce drugs in a cheap and environmentally friendly manner.
Some algae are also viewed as an ideal source for biodiesel because they can produce oils at a much higher rate than other plants (which can then be converted into vehicle fuel without adding any carbon dioxide to the environment).
For all these applications, Melis’ antenna-truncated algae should be a major breakthrough, allowing higher rates of production and thus making the end product more cheaply.
I think the big "H" idea absolutely ROCKS. Sure, it'll be some work, but at the end of the day, if you think about it, what's better than energy independence, like more oil wars, more paying taxes to foreign countries, more pollution? I'll go with the hydrogen, and the challenges it poses.
This country's coming up on it's centennial of oil dependency. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to re-declare our independence, not only of Exxon, but also of OPEC? Maybe if we got really smart about making our own energy right out of seawater, we could like, spend our money on something besides bombers etc. If you read about things like boat maintenance, you discover that salt-water electrolysis is already a happenin' thing, a little natural 'help' for the whole Grand Chemistry Experiment that is modern tech-life. Other countries are doing this stuff already, it'd sure be nice to see ours do some of that late-night homework to get caught up and stuff.
Problem: A body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force. The 'body' in motion in this problem is the american automotive world, which will pay 10 bucks a gallon before walking. They say there's something like 240 MILLION cars in america today, almost as many cars as there are people. Let's say there's 120 million drivers for these cars, give or take, and say that every driver, if they tried, could save a gallon of gas per day. Think of what would happen to the oil biz if everyone lifted their right foot about 1/8th inch. Why not 'mile a minute' as a national campaign?
As in: drive 60MPH, not 80. 'Mile a minute' is also a useful speed for time/distance calculations.
If you drive a distance of 60 miles, you'll arrive in 1 hour's time. Couple that with some stiffer anti-tailgating laws, and you'll have a workable stop-gap energy initiative that'll carry things 'til the day of hydrogen vehicles. Also, a Big Program to cut out recreational driving wouldn't hurt matters. They used to give out a 'wasting natural resources' ticket for speeding/hot-rodding. $100 fine for lead-footing would help, too, if you passed it in all 50 states. If you're out there acting like a jackass on the freeway, time to step up to the cash register, please...
This country's coming up on it's centennial of oil dependency. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to re-declare our independence, not only of Exxon, but also of OPEC? Maybe if we got really smart about making our own energy right out of seawater, we could like, spend our money on something besides bombers etc. If you read about things like boat maintenance, you discover that salt-water electrolysis is already a happenin' thing, a little natural 'help' for the whole Grand Chemistry Experiment that is modern tech-life. Other countries are doing this stuff already, it'd sure be nice to see ours do some of that late-night homework to get caught up and stuff.
Problem: A body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force. The 'body' in motion in this problem is the american automotive world, which will pay 10 bucks a gallon before walking. They say there's something like 240 MILLION cars in america today, almost as many cars as there are people. Let's say there's 120 million drivers for these cars, give or take, and say that every driver, if they tried, could save a gallon of gas per day. Think of what would happen to the oil biz if everyone lifted their right foot about 1/8th inch. Why not 'mile a minute' as a national campaign?
As in: drive 60MPH, not 80. 'Mile a minute' is also a useful speed for time/distance calculations.
If you drive a distance of 60 miles, you'll arrive in 1 hour's time. Couple that with some stiffer anti-tailgating laws, and you'll have a workable stop-gap energy initiative that'll carry things 'til the day of hydrogen vehicles. Also, a Big Program to cut out recreational driving wouldn't hurt matters. They used to give out a 'wasting natural resources' ticket for speeding/hot-rodding. $100 fine for lead-footing would help, too, if you passed it in all 50 states. If you're out there acting like a jackass on the freeway, time to step up to the cash register, please...
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$120.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network