And boost plugin hybrids!

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/03/the_need_for_bo.html#comment-62022288

The "conventional wisdom" (an oxymoron)that you cite Kit, and that Greg corrected, is the reason the true picture on batteries needs to be publicized.

With the quick charge nano-tech batteries in production right now a plugin hybrid could average over 200 mpg, with a battery pack that costs under 2k (for an economy car)and at the same weight and performance as a comparable vehicle powered by a gasoline engine.

How is this possible? The average daily trip is around 23 miles. So if a plugin hybrid has a battery large enough to cover that average trip, without using any gas, most driven miles will be on electric power. Of course any trip over that distance, without stopping to recharge, will use gas.

These nano-tech batteries have 15 minute recharge, so recharging at work or in a parking lot is also feasible. Overall mileage will be very high and as the plugin hybrid drivetrain takes over from ICEs it will reduce gasoline use.

Average mileage now is around 20 mpg, boost that over 200 mpg and 90% of gasoline use can be curtailed. That would lower demand and stabilize gasoline prices. Without higher prices ethanol and other farmed fuels cannot compete with gasoline.

That would destroy those investments in ethanol refineries and additional corn acreage. And render taxpayer funded subsidies useless.

With tax dollars to invest in anything in these troubled financial times all borrowed from nations like China, it is imperative that government target any subsidies wisely.

And with the looming GHG climate crisis and still more wars over oil and nuclear proliferation on the horizon, only plugin hybrids can cure all of these ills simultaneously.

The fact is that with the huge US government debt and deficit, the only way to remain a super power is an unprecedented economic boom. High gasoline and energy prices will not allow that. And now fuel farming is boosting food and even beer prices!

This inflation is dangerous. The recent stock "correction" (crash) was actually caused by the largest downward revision in economic growth figures in 10 years. Inflation plus stagnation? "Stagflation", a problem the fed cannot easily correct. Lower rates, inflation worsens, raise rates stagnation worsens.

Only productivity increases will pull US out of this mess. And the move to plugin hybrids and renewables can provide that increase.

As the inevitable end of oil wars (we simply can't afford them in terms of debt and troops)nears, the middle east will fight a huge battle over the oil fields. Oil producing nations will need to maximize production of oil to buy munitions and in the case of Saudi arabia, mercenaries too (without US soldiers to fight their battles for them).

That maximized production of oil will break the back of OPEC. if the leader of OPEC, Saudi Arabia, cheats on quotas, the rest of OPEC will too. If plugin hybrid efficiencies coincide with that increased production a serious drop in oil prices will result. Investments in fuel fartming will tank with cheap gas.

Fuel farming using corn, soy, sugar cane, or cellulose can't compete with cheap gas. And it destroys
conservation reserve land that sequesters carbon.

15 to 30% of current US CO2 emission is sequestered by conservation land.

Liquid biofuel from algae grown in solar collectors can eventually replace oil as the source of that 90% reduced liquid fuel use. But meanwhile oil reserves will last a lot longer, and even domestic oil production will last for over a decade, long enough to get both much better batteries (maybe ultracapacitors)and algae biofuel solar collector systems into mass production and installation.

Skip fuel farming altogether, it's a financial and environmental disaster, now in the process of happening. Stop it now, cut off all subsidies. It's a very bad investment of very scarce capital.