Thoughts on Anwr?

[BrutalB83]

if u didn't have seniority and i didn't have any respect... I would tell you "Chinga tu madre, cabron!"
but im a nice guy

I was just kidding mang, chillax!

 

[BrutalB83]

The problem for ANWR is this: it won't help us NOW. It would take several years to get the infrastructure in place and start drilling. That's not even starting to get the juice from the ground. We'll still be feeling the burn, even more so if we have to share the burden at the pump to pay for said infrastructure.

Billie didn't allow it because at the time we had 99 cent gas. Supply wasn't a problem then. Right now the only thing ANWR would do is give the Co's another reason to bump the price.

If we could start seeing the crude from ANWR within a single year, I'd be out there building the things myself. But there's no possible way that will happen, not even in a Hummer owner's wet dream.

Classic example of hindsight being 20/20.

Right, yeah, good point. I still think we need "band-aids" for right now though. We just aren't at the point to completely convert on a national scale to some other primary energy source...

 

[Celerity]

Chinese Proverb: Too late to dig the well when you're already thirsty.

 

[Sabz5150]

Right, yeah, good point. I still think we need "band-aids" for right now though. We just aren't at the point to completely convert on a national scale to some other primary energy source...

I agree wholeheartedly that we are not in a position to convert at that level. We as Americans (that means ALL OF US) are going to have to realize that tough times are going to be here for a while and the only real solution to this problem is tightening the belt a notch or two. We need to conserve and be more conscious about our energy usage. The days of wastefulness are OVER. Either we change or we fall, there is no in-between.

 

[Swap fan]

Right, yeah, good point. I still think we need "band-aids" for right now though. We just aren't at the point to completely convert on a national scale to some other primary energy source...

100% agreed.
as a nation we need time to change.

 

[Briansol]

@ the whole it won't help us now thing...

Clinton veto'ed this in 1995, for the same reasons.... it would take 10-12 years to do anything.

guess what, it's 10-12 years later, and we could HAVE that crude as we speak.

 

[efhondakid]

Im just waitng for the revolution/great depression to happen before things really start to change. I say in about 2-3 years shit is going to get ugly if things keep going the way they do. *Pictures scenes from The Road Warrior* That and the zombie threat on the rise. Ill be ready for both.

 

[Capt. Orygun]

@ the whole it won't help us now thing...

Clinton veto'ed this in 1995, for the same reasons.... it would take 10-12 years to do anything.

guess what, it's 10-12 years later, and we could HAVE that crude as we speak.

+1, and I don't want to say it again in another 10 years

 

[nootrac22]

regan killed it in the 80's also. not anwar but the coal to oil and such.

 

[Sabz5150]

Fine, put a hole in the bastard. I honestly must side with Silver... we don't wanna say "in ten years" any longer. If it does get worse within 10 years, we've at least got that.

 

[Capt. Orygun]

I honestly must side with Silver...

RIIISE, Lord Vader...

 

[cheese9988]

Staistically what are the chances that drilling up there will have a major impact on the environment? And I'm not talking a liberal/democrat/republican/media hype opinion. Are we killing every animal in a 100 mile radius?

Also, one would think, as a resouce that it not renewable, that this would just be a temporary fix, and ten years after the oil is tapped we would run into the same problem again?

 

[Capt. Orygun]

Also, one would think, as a resouce that it not renewable, that this would just be a temporary fix, and ten years after the oil is tapped we would run into the same problem again?

Absolutely true, it's to lower energy costs to keep our economy lucrative enough to quickly develop next gen energies. With oil at $140+/barrel we can hardly keep the economy moving, let alone develop new techonlogy.

begin rant

I think the real solution is in energy recycling. The idea being that we waste to much of the energy we can get for free, or already expend.

Take gyms for example. Treadmills, recumbent bikes, ellipticals all plugged into the wall, why? The wheels those peddles are turning would make an excellent generator. not only is there enough energy expended to power the machine, but there would be enough leftover to power a 28" LCD TV for the duration of your workout. Not only should these machines power themselves they should supply energy to the grid, which can be purchased by the city at an advantageous rate under the condition that 10% of the profit must be used to lower membership fee's. This befits the business owner (he's not making any money off of it now), it bennefits the energy company with cheap green energy, and it bennefits the members of the gym with lower rates. Finally, everybody can say they're helping fix the problem and nobody really has to do anything more then they already are.

Now imagine every gym in LA was outfitted to do this, and every gym in New York City, now imagine every major city or gym with over 20 pieces of cardio equipment in the nation was outfitted for this. How much energy could we make daily during the 5-7:30 workout rush?

end rant

I have a bunch of ideas, we need to not only change the type of energy we use, we need to change the way we think about harvesting energy.

 

[efhondakid]

Absolutely true, it's to lower energy costs to keep our economy lucrative enough to quickly develop next gen energies. With oil at $140+/barrel we can hardly keep the economy moving, let alone develop new techonlogy.

begin rant

I think the real solution is in energy recycling. The idea being that we waste to much of the energy we can get for free, or already expend.

Take gyms for example. Treadmills, recumbent bikes, ellipticals all plugged into the wall, why? The wheels those peddles are turning would make an excellent generator. not only is there enough energy expended to power the machine, but there would be enough leftover to power a 28" LCD TV for the duration of your workout. Not only should these machines power themselves they should supply energy to the grid, which can be purchased by the city at an advantageous rate under the condition that 10% of the profit must be used to lower membership fee's. This befits the business owner (he's not making any money off of it now), it bennefits the energy company with cheap green energy, and it bennefits the members of the gym with lower rates. Finally, everybody can say they're helping fix the problem and nobody really has to do anything more then they already are.

Now imagine every gym in LA was outfitted to do this, and every gym in New York City, now imagine every major city or gym with over 20 pieces of cardio equipment in the nation was outfitted for this. How much energy could we make daily during the 5-7:30 workout rush?

end rant

I have a bunch of ideas, we need to not only change the type of energy we use, we need to change the way we think about harvesting energy.

*Nominates Silverchild for the Nobel Prize*

 

[Briansol]

not much.

30 min on the elipitcal machine burns about 300 callories.

1 watt = 859.845227859 calories per hour.

so, basically, for those 30 min you've made about 1/3 of a watt.

not going to power much.... maybe a christmass light for a split second...

 

[klyph]

I guess, I have a geographic bias to this particular situation, but it is indicative to a larger problem. America's infrastructure has steadily been degrading over the Bush administration. The trillions wasted in Iraq could and should have been applied to America's development of natural resources, manufacturing facilities, scientific research, transportation innovations, i.e. "infrastructure".

We are miserably failing the future of the nation.

 

[Z6CRX]

Absolutely true, it's to lower energy costs to keep our economy lucrative enough to quickly develop next gen energies. With oil at $140+/barrel we can hardly keep the economy moving, let alone develop new techonlogy.

begin rant

I think the real solution is in energy recycling. The idea being that we waste to much of the energy we can get for free, or already expend.

Take gyms for example. Treadmills, recumbent bikes, ellipticals all plugged into the wall, why? The wheels those peddles are turning would make an excellent generator. not only is there enough energy expended to power the machine, but there would be enough leftover to power a 28" LCD TV for the duration of your workout. Not only should these machines power themselves they should supply energy to the grid, which can be purchased by the city at an advantageous rate under the condition that 10% of the profit must be used to lower membership fee's. This befits the business owner (he's not making any money off of it now), it bennefits the energy company with cheap green energy, and it bennefits the members of the gym with lower rates. Finally, everybody can say they're helping fix the problem and nobody really has to do anything more then they already are.

Now imagine every gym in LA was outfitted to do this, and every gym in New York City, now imagine every major city or gym with over 20 pieces of cardio equipment in the nation was outfitted for this. How much energy could we make daily during the 5-7:30 workout rush?

end rant

People like me are lazy and don't workout, unfortunately a lot of people that go to the gym around here drive over there in their Escalade and go to Starsmucks afterwards. It sounds like a hamster powerplant.

Best shot is to just conserve, and change habits using oil as you stated. I changed over to an electric car and downsized to a motorcycle for out of town travel. Now trying to find a cheap welder to put together a recumbent trike out of old bikes I got for free. Even at this point considering building a VAWT (vertical axis wind turbine) or HAWT (horizontal axis wind turbine) into the house I in am now just because I can.

 

[Sabz5150]

RIIISE, Lord Vader...

:laughbounce2:

BUT. (And you knew there'd be one.) America as a whole needs to realize that just because we're drilling for our own oil, it doesn't mean "Come on kids, let's go get the SUV back!" We need to curb our consumption otherwise what's in ANWR won't even cover the growth we make in the time period it takes to get set up and pumping.

That's why I am on the fence over the entire gas situation. Yes, it hurts. But this is a lesson America needs to learn and I don't think she can be taught any other way.

 

[Capt. Orygun]

not much.

30 min on the elipitcal machine burns about 300 callories.

1 watt = 859.845227859 calories per hour.

so, basically, for those 30 min you've made about 1/3 of a watt.

not going to power much.... maybe a christmass light for a split second...

so then explain to me the recumbent bike they used to make that had a TV built into them, you peddle, tv comes on

 

[BrutalB83]

Staistically what are the chances that drilling up there will have a major impact on the environment? And I'm not talking a liberal/democrat/republican/media hype opinion. Are we killing every animal in a 100 mile radius?

The actual area that they want to is known as the coastal plane. It comprises a very small part of ANWR's total area. Now don't get me wrong, a large part of ANWR is very pristine and does contain a lot of wildlife, but the actual coastal plane area is pretty desolate. It's completely frozen for a good part of the year (like below zero frozen), and then, for the short period that it thaws out it's a mosquito-filled swamp. So if they do actually set up drilling operations there, it's not going to effect much in terms of wildlife.

They would however have to set up pipelines to get the oil out of ANWR, and that may interfere with wildlife some, although any new oil pipelines they build at this point would certainly be elevated off the ground to allow animals to walk underneath...