Salt Water Fuel powers a Stirling engine

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Now think of ways on how we can reduce the overall amount of energy used in the total system. Mass transit, better city planning, and stricter regulations on the minimum MPG for cars will all help our society become much more energy efficient. Of these, the first two are the best long term goals.

Reducing the amount of sub-urban sprawl and converting it into smart-growth with good mass transit (buses, rail, monorail) options are our best long term goals for reducing the amount of energy our country uses. (Besides, mass transit easily run off electricity, and investing in renewable energy sources can make these 100%-complete zero emission solutions.)

That's all good and well to say, but what's going to make it happen?

I note from your profile that you live in S Meriden, CT. A bedroom community, I presume, from it's location. Would you and your family be willing to move into a high-rise in Hartford or NYC to save energy? Would you be willing to spend an additional $3000, $5000 or $10000 on your new car, so that you could maybe save $500 of gasoline per year? How much are people willing to pay to achieve energy independence? That's the big question this country has to answer. Just telling people what they "should" do won't make them do it. Telling people what they "must" do won't be politically acceptable in this country. How do you get people to change their lifestyles?

The only true way to get people to conserve energy, or any other commodity, is to allow or make the price rise to the point where they won't pay it any more. Even with $3.00+ gasoline, most families are spending a smaller portion of their income on fuel than they did in the past. The tremendous price increases have only just begun to catch up with inflation over the past decades.

So how do we do it? Heavily tax gasoline or any carbon fuel so that people have an incentive to conserve? Try getting that through Congress.

I don't have any answers. But you can't rely on just telling people they should do something. The biggest and best hope we have for the future is to make photo-electric generation viable for cost and capacity. We have an incredible amount of sunlight energy that hits this planet every second. We just have to find a cost-effective way of capturing it.