Why should all cars be powered on alternative fuels?
What are the alternative fuels availabe?
Why should we change?
Would the effects on the economy be positive or negative?
How much would it cost?
I have to write a debate for my speech class on this and I affirm the reolustion.
If you know any good sources or information, please tell me.
The leading alternative fuels right now are bio fuels (mainly bio diesel and ethanol), hydrogen (both fuel cell and combustion), electric and CNG/LPG. However, Compressed Natural Gas and Liquid Propane Gas are not much better than oil because they are still fossil fuels.
We should change because oil is severely flawed. Like all fossil fuels, oil is only available in a limited, rapidly depleting supply. Because the carbon in fossil fuels has been out of the Carbon Cycle for millions of years, the Cycle has adjusted. Then, when the carbon is released into the environment, it causes many problems like global warming, acid rain and pollution in general.
The American economy would generally benefit. Most (if not all) of the alternative fuels would be readily available in the US. They would keep money from leaving our country, the fuel costs would stay lower and more stable and jobs would be created.
The cost would really depend on the fuel. The technology and infrastructure already exist in some capacity for bio fuels. Bio fuels operate on the same concept of internal combustion as oil (but cleaner and renewable), so there would not be much transition. In fact, most regular cars and trucks could easily be converted to run on either ethanol (for gasoline engines) or bio diesel (in diesel engines).
Hydrogen and electric would cost noticeably more because the technology is not as advanced yet and the infastructure is still in its infancy.
Ecogeeks.com is a good source for this kind of thing.
they shouldn’t .we should use renewable energy and whats available. fossil fuels don’t pollute like they tell you they do. its a lie. the technology is good for today our new engines burn so clean it blows the motors from the 80ts away. when alternative fuels come online yeah great use them. but the technology is not there yet. so use fossil fuel we have plenty of it. maybe in 10 more years they will come up with hydrogen power,(water) great but were not there yet. natural gas cool ,propane cool ,but right now petroleum is KING.
supply and demand
resources are limited
desire is high
higher demand with lower supply = higher prices
OPEC too much foreign reliance
alternative fuels also = more economic opportunities
and competition = innovation in all alternative fuels
Don’t forget the patriotism side – the global oil market is dominated by countries that are unstable or unfriendly to the U.S. and feed some of their wealth to Al Qaeda and other terrorists. Why keep our country’s economy dependent on such 3rd world countries?
That patriotic buyer of some huge American SUV is actually funding both sides of the war in Iraq. I’d rather send my money to Japan than to OPEC. (Some might say we don’t get much oil from OPEC, and they’d be right since most of it comes from Canada and Mexico, but it’s a global commodity and buying it anywhere props up the global price).
Cheap oil is a thing of the past. $50/barrel is not the long-term price, just a reaction to the recent collapse in the stock market. There is plenty of oil in the world, but it is becoming much harder to find and produce in the quantities we are used to, therefore the prices will continue to increase. The sooner we leave this addiction, the better prepared we will be for the economy of the future. If we don’t adapt, our economy will permanently collapse, and it will take a good decade to replace most of the cars on the road, longer to update tractors in agriculture, fertilizer sources, jet fuel, and other major uses of petroleum.