Ok, here comes the rant
In California, things are fucked up beyond all belief. We've got a power shortage, a water shortage, and now fuel prices are going higher and higher.
Well, for those of you who don't know, California has the highest EPA standards for gasoline emissions in automobiles. That means that the fuel we use to fill our cars is not the same fuel that people in Arizona use. ALL the fuel in California is RFG. Re-Formulated Gasoline. So, what does it mean? Its MORE expensive, cause the gas companies have to make it special just for us.
Los Angeles is a desert. We get most of our water from an aqueduct. Well lets be honest. We steal it. But we have been using this water supply for decades. This last year the US government decided to roll us back to limit that was set up. So we're really on our own now.
Finally, with deregulation of utility companies in California, most of our power is being bought by utilities that decided to sell their power plants. And now what? They're getting charged through the ass, so they are now trying to pass the cost onto the consumer.
I don't have the answers, but i can tell you one thing that i would do to be part of the solution. When i buy a house I WILL INSTALL a FUEL CELL. I have been looking for a long time now and i still have not found one that is residential. Well until now. This system is currently being tested in California, and it looks like it's a solution to at least one of the problems we're having.
The solution is much more elegant than the problem. We don't have water, we're short on power, and oil prices are going up. Do we really need all these things? Well, we do need the water, there's no question about that. I don't know exactly how efficient desalinization is, but it's a MAJOR option. Did anybody miss the fact that we've got a fuckin ocean running down one side of the state!?!? Ok, then the power issue. I'm ready to get a fuel cell as soon as one is available. I've even been looking at solar units for the roof of a house. They are expensive to install, but they actually will pay for themselves over their lifetime. And finally, we need to rely on an alternative power source to fuel our cars. There is a lot of fuel cell research going on right now, but we're still waiting for the major breakthrough. I am hoping it is soon. There would be nothing better than being able to travel efficiently where i need to go while knowing i am not polluting.
I know the breakthroughs will come. I am just waiting.
