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Car Mileage:
1908 Ford Model T - 25 MPG
2004 EPA Average All Cars - 21 MPG
"Consumers
and regulators are putting more pressure on the auto industry to enhance fuel
economy, which was stagnant at an average 20.8 miles per gallon among all
2004 models and below the 1988 high of 22.1 mpg." --
Detroit
News, 4/11/05
"The Prius
is the first significant departure from the combustion engine to make any
major inroads in the auto industry since Henry Ford invented the Model T in
1908." --
Newsweek,
9/20/04
"Ford's
Model T, which went 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline, was more fuel efficient
than the current Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle -- which manages just
16 miles per gallon."
-- Detroit
News, 6/4/03
Dear friends,
What happens
when we compare technological advances in various fields over the last 50
to 100 years? In communications, we've gone from the basic telephone of
50 years ago to answering machines, faxes, instant messaging, and wireless
cell phones packed with cameras, GPS, and more. Just 50 years ago computers
were huge, multi-million dollar monsters capable of only rudimentary mathematical
problems. Today, the laptop on which I'm typing can perform functions literally
millions of times faster and more complex than its ancestors, and connect
me instantly to anyone in the world with Internet access.
In engineering
and materials science, we have gone from basic woods and metals to sophisticated
plastics, teflon, fiber optics, and other manmade materials which perform
all kinds of functions which would have been considered miraculous 100 years
ago. Television, movies, microwave ovens, air conditioning, radar, and
gameboys didn't even exist in 1905. In astronomy, biology, medicine, agriculture,
genetics, electronics, and most any other field you can think of, we are light
years ahead in both knowledge and applications of what was available 100,
or even 50 years ago.
Now consider
the areas of energy and transportation, and the oil and automobile industries
in particular. Technological progress in these sectors has moved at
a snail's pace compared to the fields mentioned above. Automobiles still
use the same internal combustion engine on which the Model T depended almost
100 years ago. And while the Model
T boasted 25 MPG in 1908, average car mileage for 2004 according to the
EPA was only 20.8 MPG! The Detroit
News admits that even this EPA figure is inflated, as "most drivers
achieve only about 75 percent of the [EPA mileage] figures."
And when
it comes to energy, most of the world still depends largely on huge, polluting
coal and oil generation plants not much more efficient than those of 100 years
ago. How can it be that we've had such dramatic, almost miraculous advances
in so many fields, while the energy and transportation sectors have had so
little progress? Could it be that greed and the desire for economic and
political control have kept the profit-rich energy and transportation sectors
from developing as rapidly as they might have in a more open climate, where
big money did not suppress technological breakthroughs?
Genius
inventors for the past 100 years have made remarkable discoveries of new,
more efficient energy sources, only to find their inventions either suppressed
or not given the attention and funding needed to break us free of our dependence
on archaic oil-based technologies. Consider Nobel Prize winner Nikola
Tesla, the genius inventor of AC current, fluorescent light, and laser
beams, who has over 700 patents to his name. Tesla proved in 1900 that the
Earth itself could be used as a very cheap conductor of electricity. He successfully
lighted 200 lamps without
wires from a distance of 25 miles.
Why wasn't
Tesla's wireless electricity developed and spread around the world? His main
financial supporter, banking tycoon J.P. Morgan, withdrew funding with the
classic comment, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the
meter?" For more on Tesla and his amazing inventions, see PBS's voluminous
tribute at http://www.pbs.org/tesla/index.html
or the Tesla Society website at http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm
A Google search will turn up lots more. Hundreds
of other inventions and inventors (including a personal friend of mine)
have suffered a similar or worse fate.
Below
are short excerpts from a number of major media articles which suggest manipulation
of technological advances in the fields of energy and transportation.
For an excellent two-page summary of this vital topic, see http://www.WantToKnow.info/newenergysources
You can also find a wealth of reliable, verifiable information at our
New Energy Information
Center. By educating ourselves and our friends and colleagues on this
crucial topic, we can build a critical mass of informed citizens who will
demand the release of suppressed inventions and technologies that will pave
the way for a brighter, healthier future for us, for our children, and for
our planet. Thanks for caring, and you have a good day.
With best
wishes,
Former Presidential
Interpreter Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info
team
Note: To learn how to convert a Toyota Prius to get 100 mpg, click here. Why isn't this being highly promoted by Toyota and the media? And for two excellent articles which provide additional information on this topic,
including a fascinating list of suppressed inventions which improved
gasoline mileage and were reported in respected magazines, click here
and here.
Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car
February 17, 2006, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/17/eveningnews/main1329941.shtml
The star at last week's Philadelphia Auto Show wasn't a sports car or an economy car. It was a sports-economy car — one that combines performance and practicality under one hood.
But as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America, the car that buyers have been waiting decades [for] comes from an unexpected source and runs on soybean bio-diesel fuel to boot. A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No — just...five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School.
Blame the feds for fuel economy figures that don't match real world
May 19,
2004, Detroit News
http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosconsumer/0405/19/g01-156905.htm
Honda
Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Co. are probably wishing they’d never put those
fun fuel economy monitors in their gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.
The displays are causing angst among some owners who aren’t getting the miles-per-gallon
performance posted on their window sticker. Frustrated consumers are asking
dealerships to “fix” their vehicles. Pete Blackshaw of Cincinnati is chronicling
his dismay publicly in his own Internet blog. He says Honda is ignoring his
claim that he’s never gotten more than 33 mpg in his Civic Hybrid. The combined
city/highway rating from the car’s window sticker is 47.
Don’t blame
Honda. Blame consumers’ driving habits and, more importantly, the federal
government. It’s the government that for decades has required carmakers to
publish fuel economy ratings derived not from real world driving, but from
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emission testing procedures. The numbers
— displayed prominently on every vehicle’s window sticker — have always been
a fraud of sorts, a quick-and-easy way to help car and truck buyers comparison
shop on fuel economy. Most drivers achieve only about 75 percent
of the laboratory-generated figures.
Eco-car
more efficient than light bulb
July 5,
2005, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/07/04/eco.car
An eco-car
that can travel the world using a fraction of the electricity it takes to power
a light bulb has been unveiled by its British creators. The hydrogen-powered
Ech2o needs just 25 Watts -- the equivalent of less than two gallons of petrol
-- to complete the 25,000-mile global trip, while emitting nothing more hazardous
than water. But with a top speed of 30mph, the journey would take more than
a month to complete. On Thursday Ech2o, built by British gas firm BOC, will
bid to smash the world fuel efficiency record of over 10,000 miles per gallon
at the Shell Eco Marathon. The record is currently....5,385 km/per liter [12,900
mpg!]. John Carolin, BOC global director sustainable energy: "It sounds
unbelievable how little power is used to keep the BOC Ech2o moving, but it demonstrates
the impact of careful design and is a valuable lesson for car makers in the
future. [If these test cars are getting over 10,000 miles per gallon, why
aren't all new cars getting at least 100 mpg?]
100 MPG
Car Heralded by London Times in 2002 - Where is it now?
December
2 , 2004, WantToKnow.info/London Times
http://www.WantToKnow.info/carmileage
- WantToKnow.info
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,588-451038,00.html
- London Times
The Toyota
Eco Spirit was the talk of the fuel economy car industry in 2002. At over
100 MPG and with the lowest exhaust emissions and a very reasonable sticker
price, the Eco Spirit's debut was widely anticipated (see London Times
article). Now, over two years later, what happened to it? If you do an Internet
search, you will find that Toyota decided not to be move forward with it. Why
in these times of soaring oil prices would they not rush this car into mass
production?
Solar Challenge Finishes in Calgary
July 28, 2005, Open Source Energy Network
http://pesn.com/2005/07/28/9600141_Solar_Challenge_results/
http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0507/28/01-262474.htm
- Detroit News
http://wwmt.com/engine.pl?station=wwmt&id=18269&template=breakout_local.html
- CBS affiliate
U of Michigan
takes prize, finishing the 2500-mile course in 54 hours. Fourteen of the twenty
entrants completed the race. The last to cross the finish line (Kansas State
U) came in 12.5 hours after the winner. The ten-day solar car race from Austin
to Calgary came to a successful finish yesterday. The University of Michigan's
Momentum placed first, completing a few seconds under 54 hours. They also set
a record by averaging 46.2 mph in this, the world's longest solar car race.
The University of Minnesota's Borealis III came in second, trailing by 12 minutes.
MIT's Tesseract came in third. Canada's leading team, the University of Waterloo,
came in fifth with their Midnight Sun. Fourteen cars went all the way to the
finish line, with the last to cross being Kansas State University's Paragon
on its maiden race, at 87.5 hours, a little over 12 hours after the winner.
Note:
A solar powered car averaged 46.2 mph in over a 2,500 mile course! Why isn't
this making mainstream news headlines? I invite you to do a Google news search
on "Solar Challenge" (the annual solar car race). You will find that
almost no major media covered this event at all. The few who did (see two links
above) somehow fail to mention anything about the speeds attained by these cars.
Why is the media not covering these incredible breakthroughs?
Freezing
gas prices
May 25
, 2005, NBC Oklahoma City
http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?s=3390503
There is a
man who fills up his tank once every two months. One tank of gas, literally,
lasts him two months. He is freezing the price of gas by freezing something
else. David Hutchison is a Cryogenics expert. He built this Cryo-Process himself.
A few years ago he began an experiment on his hybrid Honda, freezing the engine
components. The results were a fuel-efficiency dream. A hybrid Honda typically
gets really great gas mileage anyway, around 50 miles to the gallon, but David
Hutchison's cryogenically tempered engine has been known to get close to 120
miles a gallon. Racers have picked up on David's trick of cryogenically
freezing car parts. It is now widely accepted among NASCAR and Indy-car racers.
[Why isn't this front-page headlines with rapid development for use by us
all?]
Enron Schemes
Caught On Tape
February
9, 2005, WantToKnow.info/CBS
http://www.WantToKnow.info/050209energyscandals
- WantToKnow.info
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/03/eveningnews/main671618.shtml -
CBS
For a revealing two-minute video clip on CBS, click "Enron Schemers on
Tape" at link below:
http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2005/02/03/national/videoarchive671581.shtml
The new tapes
confirm that Enron secretly shut power plants down so they could cause, and
then cash in on, the crisis. The CBS article gives the text of tape recordings
of Enron traders laughing at the misery they caused in California. The public
was convinced that there was a severe power shortage in California, all the
while Enron insiders were arranging to shut down a major plant and ship desperately
needed energy out of the state, so that they could rake in massive profits.
ABC also recently posted a long, revealing AP
article with the subtitle "New Evidence Shows Enron's Power Scams Began
Years Before 2000-01 West Coast Energy Crunch."
Video clip
excerpts:
"Newly released evidence shows years before the crisis, Enron schemed to
manipulate markets."
"Plant operators were coached on how to lie to officials."
"Enron also pulled power out of states like California, causing emergency
conditions to worsen."
"The shutdowns and pullouts triggered sky-high power prices."
"We're just making money hand over fist."
Refiners
Maintain a Firm but Legal Grip on Supplies
June 18,
2005, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calgas18jun18,0,7589520.story?coll=la-home-headlines
California
refiners are simply cashing in on a system that allows a handful of players
to keep prices high by carefully controlling supplies. The result is a kind
of miracle market in which profits abound, outsiders can't compete and a dwindling
cadre of gas station operators has little choice but go along. Refiners "not
only control how much supply is in the marketplace, they control who gets it
and at what price," said Dennis DeCota, executive director of the California
Service Station and Automotive Repair Assn. The recent history of California's
fuel industry is a textbook case of how a once-competitive business can become
skewed to the advantage of a few, all with the federal government's blessing.
Refiners acknowledge their California businesses have become the most profitable
in the nation. The rest of the country isn't far behind. Characteristics once
unique to California — specialty fuels, a refinery shortage, the growing dominance
of a few companies — have begun to plague other gasoline markets.
Sierra Club
ads may dim Ford party
June 4,
2003, Detroit News
http://www.detnews.com/2003/autosinsider/0306/08/c01-183231.htm
The Washington,
D.C.-based Sierra Club is the latest environmental group to use Ford Motor Co.'s
high-profile centennial party next week to pressure the automaker to boost the
fuel economy of its cars and trucks. Once a fan of Ford Chairman and CEO Bill
Ford Jr., the Sierra Club said Tuesday it will place ads in the New York Times
and BusinessWeek magazine slamming the company's environmental record. The ads
-- being published to coincide with Ford's 100th anniversary June 16 -- say
Ford has failed to improve the fuel efficiency of its vehicles. After depicting
technological advances in other industries, the ad says that Ford's
Model T, which went 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline, was more fuel efficient
than the current Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle -- which manages just 16
miles per gallon.
Note:
To understand why all of this isn't being reported in headline news around the
country, see:
http://www.WantToKnow.info/mediacover-up
Brazil's alcohol cars hit 2m mark
August 18, 2006, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5263384.stm
Brazil's new generation of cars and trucks adapted to run on alcohol has just hit the two-million mark. "Flex-fuel" vehicles, which run on any combination of ethanol and petrol, now make up 77% of the Brazilian market. Brazil has pioneered the use of ethanol derived from sugar-cane as motor fuel. Ethanol-driven cars have been on sale there for 25 years, but they have been enjoying a revival since flex-fuel models first appeared in March 2003. Just 48,200 flex-fuel cars were sold in Brazil in 2003, but the total had reached 1.2 million by the end of last year and had since topped two million, the Brazilian motor manufacturers' association Anfavea said.
Note: With sky-high gasoline prices and the fear of depletion of global oil suppolies, why don't such cars exist in the U.S.? And why are the trains of almost every other developed nation far advanced from trains in the U.S.? For possible answers, www.WantToKnow.info/newenergyinformation. The excellent movie "Who Killed the Electric Car" is also incredibly revealing: http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar
Final Note:
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