Here Comes The Sun. I Say, "It's All Right."

Caleb and I were talking at the party about moonshine, which led to ethanol fuel: I told him, "man, I'm done with biodeisel and ethenol and all that archaic internal combustion craptrap. If it's not an electric engine, I don't want to hear about it."
And Caleb beamed: "Do you get it now? Ya get it? OK. Now we can start going somewhere."

Richard Rapier is an energy engineer with a blog called R-Squared. He went to Texas A&M and now consults for a North Sea petroleum company out of Scotland. Yesterday's post was about an article in Mother Earth, entitled "The Future is Solar." Heh. I'm sure Mr. Rapier isn't stereotypable, but I can't get this picture out of my head: roughneck on drill site break, smeared with axle grease and sweet crude, nodding approvingly at an article in the hippiest mainstream rag in America.

But check this out:

"Electric Vehicles & Plug-in Hybrids: Electric vehicle drivetrains are inherently five to 10 times more efficient than internal combustion engines and they produce no greenhouse gases at the tailpipe. Even if powered by fossil-fuel electricity, emissions at the power plant are much lower per mile traveled than with internal combustion engines. In addition, electric vehicles can be charged directly from renewable sources, thereby eliminating emissions altogether."

Steve Heckeroth does a bang-up job breaking it all down. Highly recommended.

"Yes, I know - solar panels are still too expensive for many of us. But 10 years ago, nobody gave hybrid cars a chance of succeeding. Today, the Toyota Prius is the hottest thing going. Plug-in hybrids and all-electric options should be available soon. If we all work together and demand that our government set a wise energy policy and use taxes to support the right renewable energy options, I predict we can put the brakes on climate change and enjoy clean, true-green energy."

Electric engines + CO2-removing machines = fast, cheap, and clean way to pull of of this global warming skid. Here we go, somewhere.