2 Crude

Thanks for the great post!  Tesla motors did the same type of calculations for their “all electric” sports car and came up with 135mpg equivalent for using electricity.  I did not do a direct comparison of your calculations vs. theirs but I accept yours as valid for electricity from coal.

 If you read all the articles written about “peak oil” and its possible impact, you’ll find they will range from “business as usual” to “catastrophic collapse of civilization and die off of 90% of the world’s population”.  I’ve been reading as many of the articles as I can and a few of the books for the last three years trying to make up my mind as to which side is closer to being correct.  I’ve come to these conclusions:

1. “Peak oil” is real and it’s already occurred or is very close to occurring.
2. Major economic impact will occur unless the amount of fuel used for transportation can be drastically reduced over a short time table.  Alternative energy sources for transportation need to be developed and implemented quickly as well as design changes to cars and trucks  that will allow doubling of current fuel efficiency.  The Rocky Mountain institute put out a very detailed report a year or so ago that detailed how this could be done, given the proper capital investment.
3. Electrical energy from nuclear, geothermal, coal, wind and solar is the only type of energy  that is economically scalable to the magnitude necessary to meet projected energy demand.  The MIT report on geothermal was a real eye-opener and you have to ask why there has been so little research done on implementing this technology, that according to MIT would be cheap and pollution free.
4. All electric vehicles like the Tesla Roadster and hybrid vehicles like the Chevy Volt are close to full scale production.  If you don’t have fuel to buy and need to get to work, the Chevy volt may get you there, even if the electricity comes from coal.

We were dangerously close to running out of gasoline this past summer.  The inventory figures reported by the Government each week include all the gasoline that is in the process of being transported in the US. If it is being transported it is not available for sale. The actual inventory of gasoline available for sale dipped to perhaps as low as one or two days supply.  Some parts of the country did run out. Can you imagine the run on gas stations if the shortage occurred in major metropolitan centers?  Emergency rationing would probably be implemented almost overnight.  What impact would this have on the stock market and the economy?  I personally hope that all electric vehicles are rapidly brought to the mainstream, not for saving trees but for offering an alternative to gasoline!