Re: [Amc-list] Hydrogen power (any complaints?)

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

I always wondered why electricity was so (comparatively) cheap in South Carolina. Well, the main producer is the state! Several dams and at least two nuclear power plants are all owned and run by the state. Local Co-ops handle local distribution and service, but all buy from the state and prices they charge are state regulated. CA deregulated some years ago with disastrous results! My dad and older brother were in big construction and worked at one of the nuclear plants when it was being built in the late 70s while I was still in high school. A big problem was changes in design requirements from the federal government always coming down that were retroactive. The company would build something, get it inspected, start on the next section of the project, then get word down that the art already inspected and approved had a design change that must be done because someone changed their minds about how it should be. Previous work had to be modified and sometimes removed completely 
 and re-accomplished. IIRC they were 2-3 years and many millions over projections when it was finally declared done and ready for operation. That's why even publicly held utilities aren't real enthusiastic about nuclear power plants. The French get most of their electric power from nuclear sources, so they are one-up on us there! 

Necessities simply need to be regulated by the government when industry proves it can't properly regulate itself. There's enough competition in markets like food that there seems to be no need for regulation. The oil market is apparently small enough for the "good ol' boys" to stick together and stick it to us. Regulation is the only way to keep prices from fluctuating as wildly as they have been. Even semi-regulation would be better than none! By that I mean something like a law preventing more than a certain percentage price hike in the wake of a natural disaster. Oil companies showed their true colors in the wake of hurricane Katrina. It takes one heartless SOB to hike prices way up when most of the country is in shock from a natural disaster like that. There was no fuel down there for a while, so it wasn't like more was being used, and people that literally lost nearly everything they had needed gas to power generators and such just to survive. Then to post record profits
  for the quarter?? They are quick to raise prices but very slow to lower them back. Wouldn't have been so bad had they dropped nearly as fast once the extent of the damage to production facilities and gulf rigs were evaluated (minimal -- some were total losses, but overall damage was light). 
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IF ANYONE HAS A PROBLEM with these energy related discussions on the list please send a message to Tom and I (NOT TO THE LIST) and we'll stop them. Not directly AMC related, but since fuels do impact our hobby, I'm not going to say anything unless we get complaints. 

--------------
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:36:00 -0700
From: Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>

On Monday 10 September 2007 20:19:26 Clarence Milstead wrote:


> > Hydrogen power is a boondoggle as are some of the other alternative fuels.
> > The real answer is electricity and nuclear power, which are already proven,
> > available, and ready for use if the politicians will get out of the way and
> > let a lot of nuclear plants be built. They have pandered to the anti-nukes
> > for too long and we are way behind since it takes a long time to build a
> > nuclear plant.
>   
I agree with your partly -- the problem with nuclear power is only 
partly the crappy technology but mainly because it's run commerically at 
lowest possible cost, and they always fine tune short-term costs 
downward, puttin of future problems for... the future. It's not as 
simple as pandering to a special interests, that's an over 
simplification. The commercial energy people have long demonstrated an 
inability to do things right -- which requires thinking of the future in 
a way that needs to disregard their own trival profit concerns. Clean up 
the crappy technology (of which I know a fair amount) and I'd be good to 
go. But I agree we may end up with those bozos running the ship if we 
really get backed into a corner.

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)


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