Suggested Answers - First Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO THE SHORT QUIZ - "GENERAL MOTORS AND THE EPA PERPETRATING FRAUD RE THE CHEVROLET VOLT"

Question 1

If you were going to mow a lawn and you had two lawnmowers of equal power, would you choose the electric lawnmower or the gasoline-engine lawnmower??? Why???

Answer 1

The gasoline-powered mower because the electrical-powered mower will produce 4 times the amount of greenhouse gases and many more times that for other pollutants (on average 7 times more sulfuric acid – think “acid rain”) than the gasoline-powered mower would have produced.

Question 2

What is the source of power for virtually all additional electrical generation in America???

Answer 2

Coal-fired electrical plants (though there are some natural gas-fired electrical plants which, of course, are just as bad since natural gas is also a hydrocarbon). There have been no new dams built for producing hydroelectric power for many decades.

Question 3

What percentage of the British Thermal Units (BTU's) of the coal or natural gas are expended (polite term) or squandered (more accurate description) in creating the electricity???

Answer 3

75%.

Question 4

Since 75% of the BTU's of the coal or natural gas are squandered by the coal-fired or natural gas-fired electrical plants, would Al Gore tell you that it makes any difference where the plants are located geographically in terms of the electrical lawnmower being FOUR TIMES THE DISASTER FROM A GLOBAL-WARMING VIEWPOINT that a gasoline-engine lawnmower would have been???

Answer 4

Al Gore would say (and has said on numerous occasions and in numerous articles) that it makes no difference where, geographically, the greenhouse gases are emitted into the earth’s atmosphere.

Question 5

Then why does the State of California require that all additional electrical consumption within its borders come from new electrical-generation plants OUTSIDE OF (READ "DOWN WIND" FROM) California???

Answer 5

Because California wants all of the other pollutants (for example, sulfuric acid – think “acid rain”) to be released in “downwind” states!!!

Question 6

If the objective of California's law is to at least export other forms of pollution to down-wind neighboring states, are other types of pollution (such as sulfur - think "acid rain") only four times as much with electrical power because of the squandering of 75% of BTU's in the electrical-generation process, or is the disaster significantly worse???

Answer 6

They are typically significantly worse. For example, the average amount of sulfuric acid created by a coal-fired electrical generation plant to produce electricity is 7 times the amount of sulfuric acid generated from a gasoline-powered engine generating the same amount of power as the electricity contains.

Question 7

Does "carbon sequestration" hold any promise for reducing the environmental disaster that is a coal-fired electrical plant???

Answer 7

No. Currently-available technology, which has been around for a long time in Europe, is only capable of reducing the 4-times-more greenhouse gases to about 2.5-more-times more greenhouse gases.

Question 8

Even if "carbon sequestration" improves beyond reducing the 4 times more greenhouse gas disaster to the current 2.5 times more greenhouse gas disaster achievable with the most expensive carbon-sequestration technology currently available, does the removal of large quantities of oxygen from the atmosphere (after all, it is carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide that are being removed and buried in the earth) create another "time bomb"??? In this regard, is there a growing school of thought that dinosaurs became extinct because of changes in the composition of the earth's atmosphere???

Answer 8

Q&A 16 from our discussion of “All About Oil” in July 2008 (15 months ago) said:

“Burning hydrocarbons as fuel uses oxygen and produces carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide (most commonly 6(O2) + C6H12O6 > 6(C02) + 6(H2O)).

“Taking out of the atmosphere the oxygen that has combined with the carbon and sequestering it in underground caverns will gradually lower the percentage of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere.

“Currently, the earth's atmosphere comprises approximately 21% oxygen. However, minor reductions in this level can spell disaster for humans and other animals.

“This is the subject of an article entitled ‘Decreased Oxygen Content in the Atmosphere - An Ecological Disaster Imperceptibly Sneaking Up?’ at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7550172.”

This article, which is still available on the web site of the U.S. Government’s National Institute of Health, warns about the effects of removing oxygen from the earth’s atmosphere after it has been combined with carbon from fuels obtained from below the earth’s surface – detailing how only a minor reduction of the 21% oxygen content of the earth’s atmosphere will spell disaster for humans and how only a minor reduction in the slightly higher percentage of oxygen content then prevailing in the earth’s atmosphere spelled disaster for the dinosaurs.

Question 9

What sources of energy to create electricity are truly clean???

Answer 9

Nuclear, wind and solar.

Question 10

Are the clean sources of energy for electricity generation currently economic??? Politically feasible???

Answer 10

Only nuclear is economic. At the time of our July 2008 discussion 15 months ago, the world price of crude oil was $145/bbl. At that level, wind and solar were barely economic. We discussed whether the federal government should guarantee such a level of crude oil prices to investors in wind and solar projects. The price of crude oil subsequently dropped to nearly $30/bbl. and has recently been hovering in the $70/bbl. range.

Nuclear would only be politically feasible in the U.S. if American politicians showed the same amount of leadership as French politicians (please see the next Q&A).

Question 11

Has France for many decades generated more than 100% of its electricity from nuclear plants??? Does France export the excess to the rest of Europe???

Answer 11

Yes. Yes.

Question 12

Is a hybrid car the same environmental disaster as a 100%-electrical vehicle???

Answer 12

No. A hybrid car does not obtain its electricity from burning on-board the car either coal or natural gas. Instead, it is converting the excess power normally produced by a car’s regular gasoline engine under certain driving conditions to generate electricity that can then be used to power the car under other driving conditions.