OT oil shortage

Sorry for continuing this thread but I couldn't let this one pass! At 03:00 PM 7/8/01 -0400, Chad wrote: I think you need to do your home work. The oil companies have been shutting down refineries. They've shutdown almost 30% of the refineries in this country in the last ten years. That's very true but the problems with the electrical power industry are due to a shortage of generating stations (particularly in California) and has NOTHING to do with oil refinery capacity or any supposed oil shortage. Horseshit! They're closing down wells everyday and have been for years! Take a drive through Lousianna sometime! I was in Alaska a couple of years ago and toured nearly the full length of the Alaskan pipeline. Even it's only running at about 40% of it's capacity. The only reason that they want to drill in ANWAR and GOM is because the oil companies want a CHEAPER source of oil so they can increase their already record profits! That's the same reason that the US continues to import oil from the middle east. Even with their price increases it's still cheaper to buy their oil than it is to produce our own. If the government is serious about a "long range solutions" then they should mandate that ALL cars achive 30mpg by say 2006, then raise it to 35mpg by 2011, then 40 mpg by 2016, etc until we achive the best practicle mileage. 50 mpg is very possible, a number of standard production cars have already achived it. That's only one step, there are hundreds if not thousands of other practicle solutions. Another solution would be to mandate solar hot water heaters in all homes. I have one in my home and it's been my only source of hot water for over 15 years and I've never run out of hot water. Sure, because they all want to be independent of foreign sources and because it's a huge source of revenue. Yes, the engineering is impressive but again that has nothing to do with the "nessesicity" for drilling in ANWAR or GOM. I know a good bit about alcohol powered vehicles, I've been experimenting with them since the late 60s. Alcohol is not nearly as powerfull, cost effective or as efficient as gasoline. Alcohol also has major incompatibilities with the components of automotive fuel systems. A number of companies have tried selling gasoline with alcohol added but AFIK they're all dropped it due to the cost, performance and other problems. That would cure the population problem! Nearly all of the alcohol sold in this country, including that used in fuel, is either nearly pure methyl alcohol or has methyl alcohol, formaldahyde or other poisons added to it to "de-nature" it. "De-natured" is a polite way of saying that it's poisonous! The government requires that expressly so that people won't be able to drink it. Let's burn gasoline in our cars (at least till something better comes along) and save the grain alcohol for drinking! Joe