safristi wrote:
"..these ALT FUELS ideas are sick.."
I agree. It is only making Iowa farmers rich and evrybody else, especially those tortilla-eating Mexicans and soy bean-eating Japanese, hungry.
jww wrote:
"I am simply suggesting that the hybrid phenomenon, has become over-hyped and I that I, for one, would simply like to see at more diesel options than what we currently have, that's all."
The “new” diesel is also being hyped now. VW, MB and other European manufacturers have spent enormous amount of money in R&D to clean up inherently dirtier diesel. That’s because economy-minded European consumers want to keep using the “subsidized” fuel. The European manufacturers know that government won’t be able to equalize the fuel tax (if anything diesel should be taxed more because of its higher content of combustible material per volume). Even a hint of increasing the tax by the government will result in revolt of farmers and consumers. And the French is know for revolting.
So, VW, MB et al want to bring their diesel automobiles here to amortize their R&D investment as much as possible, thence the diesel hype. Fossil or bio, diesel is dirtier than gas. NOx is NOx regardless of where the fuel comes from. The industry still does not know how to meet the new, stricter California emission regulation. The carbon particulate colleted by the filter must be burned off by using platinum catalyser (read: expensive and scarce) emitting CO2 into the atmosphere.