Economic Darwinism
I see that ExxonMobil reported huge profits recently. Does anyone else think it's odd that an energy company is making record profits while consumers are suffering at the pump? Remember, these are profits we're talking about here, not just revenue.
In the long run, though, this could be a good thing. By gouging consumers in a monopolistic fashion, the handful of energy companies that run the world will force people to conserve and maybe even cause alternative sources of energy to become cost effective. So, it could be a nice double play for the benefit of the world, and poetic justice, caused by the greed and shortsightedness of companies like ExxonMobil.
A smarter company wouldn't raise its prices so high that it turns off its own customers and harms its own market. But, hey, ExxonMobil, Shell, and the others may be gluttons, but no one ever said they were smart.
posted by Charles N. Geilich @ 7:54 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
The problem with alternative fuels as of present is that they are not only less cost efficient but they are less environmentaly sound.
Sure not burning fossil flues though gas in your vehicle sounds great on the surface, but there are some underling problems in the way alternative flues are generated.
Take Hydrogen Fuel cells for instance. They are touted as the next big thing in automotive technology, yet they fail to be less "Green Friendly" than plain old gasoline. Sure their "End product" is H2O, but many people do not understand how hydrogen is made.
In order to get enough hydrogen to power a single vehicle's cell three times as much emissions are created though the electricity use of powering the machine. Meaning that, in terms of Emission/product ratio if normal gas is 1:1, hydrogen is 3:1.
Hydrogen uses a ton of electricity to produce, and how exactly is most of that electricity supplied? Coal, a very dirty Fossil Fuel burned buy power plants. The only alternative to coal burning plants is nuclear power, yet plants have been on a steady decline since 1986's Chernobyl.
There is light at the end of the tunnel though. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 promises government support for energy suppliers that use alternative methods of electricity production. It has sparked renewed interest in Nuclear power plants, two of which are currently in planning.
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