[ausev] energy conservation

[jefoy at mindspring.com]

So many things have come and gone since the "oil embargo days" - diesel, sterling cycle engines, "water injection", propane, etc.. Don't blame Generic Motors too much for the chevette - just about everything produced during those years was lacking by todays standards and that diesel was not very clean! For my part I bought a '96 F-250 diesel a few years ago.. I do need a truck occasionally and it made sense at the time. I tow a 30' travel trailer with it, haul a yard of dirt or compost occasionally, etc. I also have a '95 Toyota Tercel that I drive most days when I don't need the truck - 31+mpg city, 35mpg highway. 309,000 miles and still going strong.. The truck has 280,000 and runs a mix of 70% waste vegetable oil and 30% diesel. 

My environmental impact is reduced by keeping both vehicles well past when most people would be looking to upgrade. The "carbon footprint" of the truck is not ideal but it still has all the factory emission controls and mostly runs a renewable fuel source. The Tercel passed Travis county emissions well within the standard for when it was new. It's not electric but it makes more environmental and economic sense than a lot of other choices. 

Jack

-----Original Message-----
>From: "m. edmund howse" <bytedawg at bytetamer.com>
>Sent: Mar 20, 2008 7:21 PM
>To: AustinEV News Announcements and General Discussion <ausev at austinev.org>
>Subject: [ausev] energy conservation
>
>Hello all,
>
>just my two cents,
>
>Back in 1982 I bought a brand new Chevy chevette with an Isuzu diesel in 
>it. At that time diesel was less expensive here in America than 
>gasoline. I also had a couple of brothers-in-law that worked on oil rigs 
>so occasionally I could get diesel for free. woohoo. But it wasn't long 
>before the prices changed and diesel became more expensive than gas but 
>this didn't bother me a whole lot since I managed to get better than 50 
>and quite often 58 miles to the gallon and this was back in 1982. 
>Anyway, the rest of the car was crap so when it fell apart I gave it to 
>a friend who wanted the engine which is probably still in use today. Too 
>bad GM couldn't put together
>a decent vehicle to work with a good engine.
>
>
>marv
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