[GreenerPeople]

I've see a lot of buzz about the Al Gore, Boone Pickens, Obama and the recently announce Google Energy Plan lately.

I'm just wondering what peoples opinions about these plans are and how they think the plans differ. What do you guys think? Will these plans work? Which one is best and why?

[mollyL]

I don't know alot about T Boone Pickens. Coming from southern Cali, I'm all for natural gas, as that was the home energy used most extensively. I've been on electric in the Northwest,it's much more expensive and don't like using it as much as natural gas.
But as to Mr Pickens, I know that he is enormously wealthy, and of the natural gas he's speaking of, he owns a sizable amount. I would want to see some kind of prospectus on how much/how many years of gas there is, how costly it would be to retrofit everything for gas and who pays for it, and how much money he stands to make from all of it. I want to be assured that this isn't some new kind of energy monopoly with Mr Pickens as the new Evil Emperor.
That being said, the guy is still for more oil drilling, and talks like a republican. I don't trust a one of them, no matter how populistically he may speak.

[tater03]

Sad to say I have not read the details of their plans. I have been so engrossed in this economic stuff that I haven't heard a lot of details on the plans. I will have to do a search and read up on them.

[GreenerPeople]

I think I need to take a closer look at the T Boone Pickens Plan and do a little research on him. He obviously has a lot to gain from this. I definitely don't want to see us switch from one addiction to another. I would be okay with switching our cars over to cleaner burning natural gas as a stop gap measure if at the same time we switched our electricity over to renewable green sources and invested heavily in electric cars.

[mollyL]

I'd like to find out how much this car conversion to natural gas would be costing us. As long as this isn't some really expensive thing out of the reach of everyday people, I can't imagine someone willing to pony up a few hundred for it. Also, who would be doing the mechanical work, how long we would have to do it, and a lot of other questions that aren't coming to me right now.

[ALF]

I've seen a gas injector plate put under the carb on a Chevy 350 in New Zealand back in 1988. I know we've come a long way since the carb. Fuel injection and all. Face it though as Oil is steamreformed into syngas, it becomes magnitudes more efficent at combustion. In Physics its sorta what they call a free energy reaction. Its not that there is more there than was, but that the new phase (now a gas) not a liquid is mixed with other combustibles and dispersed(remember entropy) into a more random state, a gas prior to combustion. efficency being the key word. The heat required induced cracking is the result of cogenerated heat recovery. Key word fugacity. A recently translated Russian text is available on the subject of, Fugacity, and may be one of the most recent/current sources readily available. Abova all, Gore will tell you, conservation leads the intelligent solutions. Picken has a good plan , sorta bioregional, Make wind energy where the creation potential is highest. Texas, and Michigan exposed on the Great Lakes as well as at terrestrial locations based on prevailing wind etc. . I like the horizontal style windmill Canada used to have, it was, one of the longest running in the world, until it was shutdown," while still generating".