Horror for car drivers - beware, worrying picture content
 

http://www.welt.de/multimedia/archiv...r_1363642p.jpg





:D


No joke, though. In Germany, due to the controversial introduction of socalled E10-gasoline, and due tp the prohibition of truck traffic over the Easter weekend, there have been regions where nortmal "super" gas has run out of supply. In the area of Stuttgart, where the picture has been taken, 1 in 5 gas stations should have been out of super gas on Monday. In the night, customers oversaw the price tags, says this article, took 10 and 20 liters, and called the police when being told they had to pay 100, and 200 Euros. They had to pay nevertheless, since the prices wehre not set up by the station keeprs, but the oil company's HQ.

E10 is another one of those prestige projects by which politicians try to shine, no matter the price, it is gasoline with a 5 or 10% share of ethanol. The introduction is mandatory for all suppliers who are threatened with penalties if they do not reach certain sale quotas for it. There problem is - stubborn stupid to-be-ordered Germans simply do not want to buy it, and almost boycot it, due to fears and research-founded concerns that the motors of their cars could suffer from it. There is also heavy criticism - which meets deaf ears on side of politicians, how could it be any different - that the growing share of oil-roduction in general agriculture increasdes food prices both in Germany and the eU, as well as in the third world.

I personally think that ethanol-basded gas only makes sense in some countries like Brazil and Sweden. In a country like Germany, or central europe in general, it is almost obscene to reserve agricultural capacities for oil production.

Another example of failed attempt to micro-manage all and everything for opportunistic reasons. Instead of penalising the non-offering of E10, Germany should massively raise taxes on cars not being ecology-friendly, finally introduce a speed limit on Autobahnen, and limit the horsepowers of motors or make speed-limiters mandatory. Since this would mean war with the German car-makers who excel in producing especially luxury cars and fast cars, no politician dares to do this.

Wow...

Welcome to the future. Might be time to start looking around for a good horse. :D

In the long run, yes.

I'll get a bike. :DL

That would be fun.

http://www.blog.designsquish.com/ima...ar-5_thumb.jpg


OR THIS
http://centraleasteurope.com/blog/wp...nt10-full1.jpg

Lots of Sunshine and Water and, that might grow into a real car someday. :haha:

What's that got under the hood? A squirrel and a wheel? :haha:

http://mindprod.com/image/jgloss/squirrelcagewheel.jpg

I'm still not giving up my high compression ratio catless big block!

Just need a car I can mount it in... lol

Nothing like how, in a world fraught with hunger, the environmental political movements gain so much power that we are forced to consume our food as fuel, whilst vast supplies of more efficient energy lay untapped.

Not to mention it drives up the cost of basic food staples to the point where we end up with rioting in the third world because they can't afford them anymore.

But hey, it's all about 'going green' so all the added starvation, misery and suffering doesn't amount to a hill of beans... :O:

Of course misery means nothing. Remember the massive malaria outbreaks after banning DDT? I'm not suggesting that efficiet albeit somewhat environmentally-unfriendly products are necessarily the end-all, be-all. However, what I AM suggesting is that the environmental movement is so politicized that it DANGEROUSLY and irresponsibly rushes towards any alternative with little thought for unintended consequences (although, the conspiracy part of my brain often muses that there are probably a few extremists that covet nothing more than wiping out the third world).

After the excellent Top Gear review, you will want one of these:
http://www.smallestintheworld.co.uk/...08/10/peel.jpg
The Peel P50.

You're absolutely right. The Greeners have always been long on judgment and short on reflection.

It's all - it's always been - about maximizing profit. Period.

Got extra corn? There's no profit in feeding anyone with it, but if you can pour that corn out of a gas pump, you're golden. Being Green has nothing to do with it, other than the fact that the green movement is another profit-taking vehicle for industry - latch onto buzzwords, promote yourself and your product as green, and bingo - mo' money.

The green movement today is no different than was the lead-free fuel movement forty years ago: "This one is bad, this one is good, use this instead of this, and you'll be a good person" (while, sotto voce in the background, the company is saying, "And you'll pay a little more, but you'll feel good doing it, so we'll use that motivation to make a little more money.") It's been that way all along - the emergence of a green movement doesn't change the dynamic, it just reinforces it.

I actually think it's more ideologically driven than that. Perhaps its a tad chicken/egg. Indeed, farmers have been a key lobbying force behind ethanol mandates. Of course, who wins when corn prices skyrocket? The farmers.

On the other hand, what I'm specifically referring to is the political backdrop of environmentalism behind the justification of the product in the first place. The ethanol lobby, which only really represents a TINY fraction of political forces, would have had no chance to succeed without an alliance from the more broad and subjective green movement.

So yes, while profit is certainly a motivation in the case of ethanol, I tend to believe that there would be zero chance of ethanol mandates without overwhelming environmentalist support. And when there are mandates, one almost automatically knows you have a free-market failure.