Government the answer you say?

That's cool, I just look at things from a small business owners point of view. We don't have endless amounts of money to fund portions of our business that are not productive. Thus decisions are made on whether something is succeeding at it's intended purpose and are we getting a return on our investment. If we aren't, we don't and can't afford to hire more people and invest more money in doing it the same way. We have to stop doing it or we risk our entire livelihood.

The Department of Energy was formed under Jimmy Carter with the sole function and noble goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Now decades and Billions of dollars later we have more dependance on foreign oil than the day it started. Read: it has not succeeded in it's mission.

Even now it grows day by day to this overbloated over funded government department that employs thousands of workers so that they can put money into such great investments as Solyndra and Fisker....

....and knowing all this, some still say more government, more people will fix it....

PS: Yes I do feel that Mr Churchill was spot on about socialism. History has proven him correct time and again.

 

Well darn, looks like the US built Fisker Nina is not the next in line. According to Autoweek, the next Fisker built will be the Surf wagon based on the Karma and one would suppose built in good old Finland too!!!

We really do need a green 19mpg station wagon don't we?

...our tax dollars working hard for us!


PS: For the Fisker fans (it is a cool looking car), one can be seen residing in Charlie's old beach house garage on Two and a Half Men, as the Fisker is his replacements car of choice!

 

Went to our local Cadillac, Lotus dealer yesterday afternoon to show the wife a red Exige they have there! To my surprise, they are now a Fisker dealer too and a silver Karma adorned the showroom floor...tis a handsome car indeed.....

 

They were closed and the pics through glass didn't come out right. I'll go over and get a pic of me sitting in it this week...lol

 

The Fisker is out of my price range, but we were over there to look at a Volt which was right next door. It's about time for the wife to get a new car....

She was not impressed with the Volt though...just looking around for now.

 

Still think we are a couple breakthroughs away from electric to be truly green... When Solar becomes efficient enough and we have a much better storage cell than our present batteries it might be realized. Until then Oil is still the best and cheapest way to power an automobile..

Nathan on the green side you also must consider the impact on our environment if just 20% of the cars on the road were electric and we were having to dispose of all the used up batteries....

Much if my point in this whole thread is the misused funds, funds that would have been better spent funding research at places like MIT, to find those breakthroughs. When they do, we the taxpayers should also hold part of the patents on those technologies.

Do a bit of research into who actually owns the latest battery technology and you might be or not be surprised to find that oil companies hold the patents, because they are funding the companies doing the research.

 

Did you get down to who actually held the patents on the key technology?

 

Exactly Jim and that's why we need cost effective solar panels along with storage to produce the energy at home, ourselves. When we have that capability, electric will be trully viable.

PS: Another thing to consider is if we have to purchase the electricity from the power companies, how high will their rates go? Here in NC, Duke Energy is trying to get a huge rate increase as we speak, now what would happen if everyone was charging their cars too?

 

Yep I have even seen the solar garages! Cost is high though and the return if nothing breaks is long in coming. That said, this is the right direction but me thinks only a temporary one....

When we can have cost efficient solar power production for our homes and the ability to again, cost effectively store the energy, we can then charge our cars directly from that system... Investing the money in one system.

As Trump said the other day the cost recovery time at present is simply too long. He said that he had looked extensively at solar systems for his buildings and at present time, its takes 32 years to recover the initial cost through the savings, and that is if nothing has to be replaced in those 32 years. Do you know of anything with a 32 year functioning life without repairs and replacements, not to mention obsolescence?

It's coming but it's just not here yet, even with the huge federal tax subsidies. Here if you install a system on your home you are eligible for up to a $15,000.00 Fed tax break and local companies are even offering free heat pumps with the purchase. Expensive? Heck yeah.

Same holds for the cars. Looked at a Volt, actually a pretty nice car with some great technology for today! But it cost $45,000.00. Now to try and get me to buy it, the government will give me $7,500.00 of your tax dollars in the form of a deduction. I'm still left paying $37,500 for a car that should be closer to $30,000.00 and technology that could be obsoleted in the blink of an eye. Then consider the cost of replacing the batteries down the road and well...... Then consider the Leaf, a very expensive...golf cart.

PS: The purchaser of each new $97,000.00 Fisker Karma is also eligible to receive $7,500.00 from the taxpayers in addition to the $592million they already have invested!!