[SGVLUG] [OT]Hybrids and trains (was fuel prices and the dollar)

[Christopher Smith]

Chris Louden wrote:
> This may be over my head. I not the sharpest tool in the shed. I would
> think regardless of energy consumed/spent that there are other
> factors, such as the byproduct to be accounted for. Grated at some
> level of consumption of energy the byproduct of producing that energy
> may out way what the cars emit. Basically even if the cars only
> release water if the energy needed to make the cars get them into use
> was in excess of gas cars put out then we really didn't fix anything.
> We just changed the source of where the bad stuff comes from.
>   
Yes, there was an article along these lines posted a couple of years 
ago, which suggested a Hummer, over its lifetime, was more energy 
efficient than a Prius because of the high energy costs of building a 
Prius. Now, the article's findings were flawed in several ways, but that 
is one of the problems with relatively small production run energy 
efficient vehicles using sophisticated technology/processes (in 
particular the killer for the Prius was all the shipping back and forth 
of specialized parts from all over the world). Of course, once you get 
up to major production numbers, you'll find that manufacturing processes 
will become more efficient.

That said, simply shifting back to the kinds of cars we were all driving 
in the early 1980's would probably avert most of the current energy 
crisis, and that undoubtedly requires less sophisticated manufacturing.

--Chris