Electric cars vs. biofuels: The presidential energy debate heats up

Electric and biofuel need not compete.

We need both along with a whole lot more to gain energy independance.

There is not one answer to our problem just like there is not one car for everyone.

We have always chosen our vehicle based on shape or body type now we have to add another factor to our process... efficency.

multi fuel systems...Its really that simple

All electric cars are the way to go, but it probably will not happen. Think of it, solar power at $1 a watt, within 2-3 years, on the roof of your abode, your little electric car and no middle man to tell you what the price is going to be. Would be a whole paradigm change, socially and economically. No the more than likely outcome will be, " going to a filling station to get whatever fuel has been decided on, at the price they want, more than likely oil".

biofuels encompasses other fuels too, people.

Biodiesel has none of the problems than ethanol faces:

-ships in pipelines without corroding them
-made from waste streams OR virgin oils (crops)
-Works in every diesel engine made from 1900 - 2007
-can be implemented now.

The new diesels are coming from Honda and others. Do not wait around for the electrics and keep buying gas. Buy a diesel, go with biodiesel (B50 -- a 50/50 mix of petrol diesel and biodiesel -- or better) and start enjoying 500-800 mile tanks and knowing your fuel came from waste chicken fat, soy bean farmers, or the little thai place down the street...

NOTE: I do not advocate straight vegetable oil systems, biodiesel is a chemically modified vegetable oil that is not human consumable, tho it is entirely nontoxic and its only waste stream can be used to make soap or cosmetics.

ALL THAT SAID... a diesel-electric hybrid = beez kneez.

Anything powered by gasoline is a bad idea.

talk is cheap...

Be careful of your immediate environment. That goes for driving an electric car. Purchase an EMF meter and make sure you and your passengers are safe from EMFs which cause cancer - especially the children. You are riding on top of or beside a high volt line. The electric car fields that I have monitored have been close to off scale throughout the car (depends on the model). if you do use electric, make sure you are plugging into renewable energy and not coal or nuclear.

McCain is just throwing out there anything and everything to get elected. His straight talk express left the station a long time ago.

they need to find a way to make them more attractive yet cost affective. there are a lot of really nice looking electric cars that are way to expensive. i hope it happens soon because i doubt a majority of the public are going to buy ugly cars. image is everything after all!

if u havent seen the movie " Who killed the electric car " i recomend it... The government literally took peoples electric cars away from their homes because of the influence that the oil companies placed over the car companies

Electric is the only modern 21st century choice.

The cars will be clean, zero pollution and you can charge them up right at your house (no more going to "fueling" stations and pumping -- always a plus).

BUT that doesn't mean we can't have several different types of cars.

There is a very small group of drivers who routinely drive 125 miles or more to work and back per day -- for those people we can make hydrogen cars or, hell, just leave it as gas I guess.

But for the other 99 percent of drivers who only drive 60 miles to work (round trip) per day or LESS -- an electric car that has a 200 mile charge radius makes absolutely perfect sense.

And for those retired people that don't work and don't drive much -- instead of driving around polluting engines they'd be very happy with an electric car or even the new air-powered cars that run on compressed air.

College students that just go to school and back -- electric is a good idea.

Right now it seems like if 99 people out of a hundred only drive 60 miles per day or less and just 1 driver averages 125 miles per day -- then we're building to the needs of that rare, rare long distance power-driver.

We can make cars for those drivers, but the mass produced models should be electric, chargable at home and powered by wind, solar, geothermal, hydro or, heck, even nuclear sense the are in use right now and we can't tear them down.

Hard to believe anything McCain or Obama promise or call for on the environment now in an attempt to one up one another since their ties to polluting industries were made known. Again, I'll believe it when I see it. When neither of them cater to nuclear, clean coal, offshore drilling, or any of the other pollutitng and toxic CO2 spewing energy sources along with these little giving a crumb initiatives then maybe it will mean something.

You can't call for electric cars if you are still going to call for coal companies to continue being able to spew their poisons for at least the next twenty years, or call for building 45 nuke plants that will cost billions and suck up water we need to survive in the process and look credible, or lobby ethanol like Obama does just to please Archer Daniels Midland.

So I will believe it when I see these incentives seriously in a climate bill one of them sign along with a global treaty next year (since unfortunately, the way this political system is set up it has to be one of them because no one else is allowed to win) because after next year we are surely going to be running out of time to continue to just banter about this.

Electric cars are not slow! Chevy made the EV1 in the 90's and it was very fast. The Tesla is an electric sports car that rivals our current ones.

The technology is here, our automakers just keep bowing down to big oil.

And as for John McCain's or Obama's plans for alternative fuels/power, they are also coupling those great "incentives" and plans for alternatives with opening up more offshore drilling and continuing to subsidize the not so efficient fuels while builiding power plants in everyone's back yards. Once again giving in to this notion that as long as you promise one thing in exchange for another it won't matter as long as we have our conveniences as a top priority.

In order for any of the things everyone is talking about to work is if we get off our collectively fat asses (those of us living in this country at least) and realize in order to get anywhere productive in the future concerning global warming and alternative options to gasoline, we would need to enact not only changes in our driving habits but our need to have the ability to drive our own cars 700+ (or unlimitied miles with refueling) miles a trip. Most people don't even have the money for a fuel efficient vehicle, much less the money to travel anywhere over 500 miles away.

I realize it would be an inconvenience for us to have to give up the ability to pick up and leave in our vehicle wherever we please, but come on, why not invest in zero emissions mass transit while the car companies argue about fuel alternatives, and then we can give up cars for a while (maybe a year) and then the car companies & government would realize we were serious enough to warrant any real change. They (car companies and the government) continue to make money off not so very fuel efficient vehicles and neglecting viable options because they assume most consumers would rather continue the trend of gasoline powered vehicles for their own conveniences of being able to drive from one part of the country to another.

Some might say, "what about those people who travel daily for work more than 100 miles, or those of us who vacation often, or etc, etc, etc". Like I said people, sacrifice to make a point! If we acted together instead of complain together, things would be moving a little faster, no pun intended. And for those of you who hate the fact that electric cars only travel 40 mph top speed (although there are several electric options that go 80 mph and over 100 miles range), most Americans drive like shit with a speed limit of 60 in most areas, it's not like slowing down would kill anymore people (literally) than upping the speed limit (at least in local areas).

We keep getting told these ridiculous notions by people (the "experts" in this country) that a lower speed limit wouldn't mean safer roads because we wouldn't be able to effectively enforce such a speed because most people would want and need to get to places quicker than a lower speed limit would allow. Maybe that's the fucking problem, everyone is always in a fucking rush. Let's slow down and enjoy life, rather than living in a fucking rat race.

What if we lived in a world of electricity. A world where everything ran off of electricity, and There wasn't one source of power, but a broad assortment between solar, wind, geo-thermal, and hydro. Where the cars wouldn't need batteries, because electricity would be broad casted though radio waves everywhere, anywhere for free. Thats the world I see, and it works wonderfully.

Look at you'll comments!!! Full consumerist and still haven't learned anything, have you?

You want a big car, a fast car and bulky car. Well, it ain't going to happen.

Bio-Fuels do not work unless it's water which then, we should use Salty water (it would then vaporize and might become sweet_normal_ water) So in other words, use sea water.

Or then, make Electric Cars which could be charged with the Solar Panels installed on your Roof.

What about a combination of electric, solar power and hybrid?

Why not both?

You could buy an electric car for daily driving, commuting, and running errands. For that a range of 100 mi. should be sufficient.

Then you could buy or rent a generator trailer to extend the range. The generator could run on any fuel you chose. You don't have to lug it around all of the time. If you change you're mind about the fuel you want to use, you don't have to change you're car

For those of you who want to know about electric vehicles, here is a link to the wikipedia article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle

electric cars are still pretty slow, so either get more powerful or find a better way to power our vehicles...

Until we can get a quick charge 500 mile range electric car, I think hybrids are the way to go.