A New Vehicle...

Well, I got the new SUV over the weekend - a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. It runs on a batteries and a gasoline engine. It was a game all weekend to drive it so that the engine did not kick in. You can drive to about 35 miles an hour w/o the engine coming on. For every gallon of gas I don’t burn I am preventing 19lbs of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

As a nation, we have got to end our dependence on oil. It’s not good for the earth and it’s not good for our position in the world to be an oil junkie wondering where we are going to get our next fix.

Our addiction drives our foreign policy. We eyeballed those burning wells at the end of Gulf War I and thought – “If there was a government in Iraq that was beholden to us – say for removing their dictator and setting them up - maybe we could get access to all those reserves!”

As things stand we have succeeded in establishing a government who is already taking its cues from Iran the most conservative, fundamentalist Muslim country in the world. And chances are slim that the impending chaos of civil war is going to allow us to control their oil fields.

Besides all that – China is quickly becoming the most industrialized country on earth and its demand for oil will soon exceed our own. What’s going to happen as the oil reserves continue to shrink while the US and China compete for the same oil? The price will only go higher.

All the more reason to develop alternative energy sources like Biodiesel. Biodiesel is vegetable oil!! Corn and Soybeans! We are the biggest producer of corn and soybeans in the world!!

Biodiesel contains no petroleum. It can be used in compression ignition (diesel) engines with no major modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

All the more reason to continue to develop alternative fuel vehicles.

All the more reason to own them.