<font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style>BILK said, "I have always found that it is much easier to make decisions when you are faced with no alternative. I have the feeling that is what our politicians are waiting for."</font><div>
<font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style><br></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style>We've had numerous technologies that would save us lots of fuel, but there's not only no political interest in doing so, but the OPEC countries actively engage in "dumping" to ruin our alternative-fuel industry.</font></div>
<div><span style="line-height:18px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></span></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:18px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0.5em;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0.5em;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-weight:inherit;font-style:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">
A few years ago, an American consulting firm admitted to advising Saudi Arabian oil ministers that if they randomly dropped the price of oil every few years, for six months, that they'd completely disrupt the alternative energy startups, and cut off all investor funding to them (which relies on stable, high oil prices, for their projections). This seems to be the case, and most VC funds won't touch alternative energy companies for this reason (unpredictable prices). The only way around this was proposed a few years ago by a 3rd-party presidential candidate (I don't remember who) that we should impose a high enough tax on oil to keep the price stable, regardless of the market price. </p>
<div><span style><br></span></div></span><span style><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">In Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan suggests that the indu</span>strial food chain primarily benefits agricultural corporations like Cargill and ADM because they are able to buy corn at a consistently cheap price and then process the cheap corn into “value added” products. He points out that corn is production is inextricably tied into hydrocarbons, both directly (fertilizers) and indirectly (fuel for the tractors, combines, etc.). </span></font></div>
<div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style><br></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style>Quote from <a href="http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2009-08/electric-hummer-challenges-hybrid-volt-fuel-economy-claims" target="_blank">2009 Popular Science article</a>: <span style="line-height:18px">An electric Humvee may still sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to environmentalists, but the company developing a plug-in Hummer H3e claims its green version can get 100 mpg on average. And what's a little boasting without taking a shot at the competition?</span><span style="line-height:18px">$5/gallon adjusted price at the pump would be added to an alternative fuels fund. Raser Technologies calls its revamped Hummer a "Prius-Stomping Green Machine," based on an E-REV powertrain that supposedly enables large vehicles to drive the first 40 miles in all-electric mode. The company calculates that a typical driver who goes 65 miles per day would average about 100 mpg, and that driving over 200 miles per day would still get about double the fuel economy of a regular Hummer." </span></font></div>
<div><span style="line-height:18px"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></span></div><div><span style="line-height:18px"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.hlineconversion.com/" target="_blank">Johnathan Goodwin</a> has been profiled by <a href="http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2010-04/diy-auto-industry" target="_blank">several magazines</a>, for his ability to double the gas milage of nearly any vehicle, including Gov. Schwarzenagger's '89 Jeep Wagoneer, by converting them to biodiesel. He uses nothing that Detroit couldn't use, but don't.</font></span></div>
<div><span style="line-height:18px"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></span></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style>If you don't start getting a conspiratorial view of what goes on regarding alternative energy, then you don't see the whole picture... IMHO.</font></div>
<div><span style="line-height:23px"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></span></div><div><span style="line-height:23px"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Best regards,</font></span></div>
<div><span style="line-height:23px"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">James</font></span><div><br></div></div>