Waiting for Freedom from Gasoline: An Almost Daily Blog
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By Bob Gordon and Marc Rauch
Co-Founders of The Auto Channel
October 7, 2009 - Day 429
AP Story on New Energy Echoes The Auto Channel
Jordan Robertson, writing for the Associated Press, published a story today titled Where's the next boom? - Energy breakthroughs could be the next big thing...The position and underlying thinking of the story is quite correct, we believe, and it's what we've been saying for several years: The next big gold-rush and solution to the world's economic woes (not to mention environmental concerns) is alternative fuels and technologies. And as one person in the AP story states, "The opportunities are staggering."
Now if we could just get our President and Congress to actually do something and to stop taking bribes
(or whatever politically correct way they describe it) from the gasoline companies, we might make it happen.
Marc Rauch
October 4, 2009 - Day 426
Helping America become a nation of alcoholics (not in a MADD way)
No, we here at The Auto Channel are not tree hungers (why is that a bad thing?) or do-gooders or teeny-tiny car promoters; we are car guys who believe it's not the size of a car that should matter but what that vehicle uses as fuel. We want the generations that come after us to have a choice of size and power in their vehicle...In fact back in May, we published "Cars with Choice of Fuel, Not Small Cars Without Choice, Is What's Good for America". Hey, America is a big country with big people with large vehicle needs, so why shouldn't we have them?
Now here we are three years later, still blinded by the light of so many choices; Hydrogen, Electric, Compressed Air, CNG, Methane, Diesel, Hybrids, etc., albeit good choices, in fact, so credible are those choices that what is, and should be our number one solution has been allowed to be mishandled, mismanaged and bad mouthed to death by the status quo'ers who are gleefully raking in the profits while our country sinks deeper into a morass of bad air and a crappy economy that is played like a puppet by the oil guys...enough is enough!
A quick easy, inexpensive and (very) local solution to our country’s 100 year addiction to oil based fuel for transportation has been right in front of our faces forever.
Alcohol. No exotic rocket science solution, a fuel for Internal Combustion Engines that is “so easy to “make that even a cave man can do it” (and has made it for eons). A fuel that may end up the manna of our time, put here by nature for man's use and gathering …
Complete Editorial
Bob Gordon
September 30, 2009 - Day 422
Whether it was out of stupidity or some kind of co-conspiratorial effort to give ethanol a black-eye, the Detroit News published a story this past Monday that is remarkable for amount of misinformation it contains.
Bob Gordon initially jumped on the story and made some follow up and fact-checking calls to his contacts and then I made calls to two of the primary entities involved in the story, the Baltimore Police Department and IsoBunkers (City of Baltimore's fuel vendor).
Our findings and response to the Detroit News story can be found on TheAutoChannel.com at
http://www.theautochannel.com/F/news/2009/09/30/479695.html
Marc Rauch
September 25, 2009 - Day 417
Well I just finished up an edit of our Amsterdam Bureau Chief, Henny Hemmes', "First Drive" of the new 40+ MPG 2010 BMW 1 xDrive20d, a diesel powered small crossover, which reportedly WON'T BE AVAILABLE IN NORTH AMERICA.
I am continually amazed (and pissed) at just how short changed North American drivers have been and continue to be, when it comes to fuel economy...It's not like we don't have diesel fuel available here.
Hmmm, maybe the European and Asian car makers have made deals with the scary oil lords, that allow them to make their new high mileage vehicles available
only to their own populations by keeping a "they can afford gasoline" status quo in North America…what else could it be???
Bob Gordon
September 24, 2009 - Day 416
On August 4, 2008 Barak Obama made what I consider to be the most important speech of his presidential campaign. To me it was the seminal moment that changed by opinion as to whether he could be elected President (although it did not change my personal voting decision, which was not for him). On this day, Obama gave his “New Energy for America” speech (see Barak Obama Calls for Sweeping Energy Overhaul, Perhaps Ensuring His Election for complete coverage).
In the speech, Obama incorporated virtually all energy alternatives as being open for acceptance to his administration, including the two worst options, by Democrat standards, new nuclear power plants and new off-shore oil drilling. As I wrote at the time, that speech was the most important policy statement given by any 2008 Presidential candidate so far, and that it may very well put him in the White House. It did, at least I believe that it played a large role in helping to get Obama elected.
To date, 244 days after being inaugurated, President Barak Obama has done absolutely nothing to address or solve our energy problem (which happens to be THE ONLY way for America and the world to dig itself out of the economic depression that we are in) that began in earnest in 2000 as a result of the dotcom implosion.
Universal medical coverage is not the number one issue, and it can’t even be properly addressed until the economy is back on its feet. For every day that the Administration and Congress wastes on trying to create a national medical plan, we delay building new factories, creating new in-demand products and technologies, putting people back to work, and becoming prosperous again. Universal medical coverage will do none of these and will only drain additional dollars from the pockets and bank accounts of tax-paying citizens.
Now, if you’re an astute blog reader, you’ll notice that this entry, the first entry, begins at Day 416, not Day 1. This isn’t because we didn’t have anything to say on the subject, it’s just because we’ve been busy watching and waiting, and writing longer, more detailed editorials/stories about alternative fuels and technologies. However, Bob and I have become fed up with the lack of action and just decided to start the blog and chart the course until America and the majority of the world frees itself from the tyranny of OPEC and the gasoline companies. The most difficult decision we had to face was dating; when should the countdown commence? After reviewing all the options, August 4, 2008 seemed the best.
According to “Internet Custom” web-logs are short, extemporaneous random ramblings, and not a long structured diatribe, as this is turning out to be. And, of course, we have the whole rest of TheAutoChannel.com to write tome after tome, when and if the mood strikes. So with that in mind, I’ll end today’s entry. But to give you some background on our line of thinking on this subject, we’re listing below links to the various position pieces we’ve previously written.
Marc Rauch Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
In chronological order