Its now been 4 months since I started blogging on the subject. A subject that I had researched little into and one with many technical scores. Yet an exciting debate raged and I found myself mindful of the discussion and for ways to improve the efficiency of my own energy consumption. So I picked up on some know-how and with a little bit of common sense went on to start blogging. I also did it to learn about the subject and network with others on it in the hope of picking up some knowledge for myself. And in some ways it has. Well, I was stupid and ignorant enough to sense that shifting into a non-fossil fuel source somehow causes an improvement of resource efficiency. As I saw electric hybrid cars breaking out into the market it gave me the impression that the electric-hybrid version of a car is actually doing more out of the same energy input than its non HEV version. I bought into it. Others did too. Some went out and bought HEVs thinking that. The naked truth is that while there will always be invention and innovation some truths will never change. And one of those truth is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be converted or shifted. If your HEV has a nickel hydrite battery then process and resources were expended to put that equipment into your HEV. Hence, unless all the processes and resources can be quantifyed and put into the equation, only then can you size it up and see if your HEV's car battery is producing any real return in terms of efficiency. Given the law of physics I just mentioned it probably is not. Still, such vehicles will gain popularity. Because they suggest efficiency. They support it. And they bring cause and struggle to the domain. Do they have any real value? I believe they do. They will certainly have value in convenience. Less trips to the gas station. Reduced dependence on gasoline. And perhaps even enhanced performance at the lower $ market levels. And the advent of new ways and technologies that breaks out of the mundane. Still, it is important to keep some sight of the fundamentals and principals and not get totally duped by marketing campaigns.
Some fallacies are beautifully crafted. You almost cannot blame anyone for falling into them. The jolly old joker would even argue that you would want to fall into it. One such farcical drollery that I picked up a long time ago is when car salesmen tell you that you can give up the 'cash back' option on a car's purchase price for the 0% financing. But its not 0%. The cash back that you just gave up is the interest. Its added upfront. But its sooooo good that flocks will fall to it till the end of time. Perhaps the one that bothers me the most is the one that accountants perhpas unwittingly sell all the time. In a pre-dinner discussion at a friend's house in north LA last year I watched in horror as one of the guests pounded on the merits of interest only mortgage loans and their whopping benefit in tax deductions. That as a result he was paying far less taxes and just laughing to the bank. Which bank is that? You couldn't convince him otherwise. Especially now that he had bought the loan. The truth is that the only way you get a tax deduction outside of statutes is through expenditure. For this particularly wise man-of-the-world he was only getting a deduction for what he paid out in interest. Just because you got a bigger refund check means nothing. You paid for that refund. Well over.
Anyways, you get the gist. You wanna be green. Stop the car. And walk..........
Some fallacies are beautifully crafted. You almost cannot blame anyone for falling into them. The jolly old joker would even argue that you would want to fall into it. One such farcical drollery that I picked up a long time ago is when car salesmen tell you that you can give up the 'cash back' option on a car's purchase price for the 0% financing. But its not 0%. The cash back that you just gave up is the interest. Its added upfront. But its sooooo good that flocks will fall to it till the end of time. Perhaps the one that bothers me the most is the one that accountants perhpas unwittingly sell all the time. In a pre-dinner discussion at a friend's house in north LA last year I watched in horror as one of the guests pounded on the merits of interest only mortgage loans and their whopping benefit in tax deductions. That as a result he was paying far less taxes and just laughing to the bank. Which bank is that? You couldn't convince him otherwise. Especially now that he had bought the loan. The truth is that the only way you get a tax deduction outside of statutes is through expenditure. For this particularly wise man-of-the-world he was only getting a deduction for what he paid out in interest. Just because you got a bigger refund check means nothing. You paid for that refund. Well over.
Anyways, you get the gist. You wanna be green. Stop the car. And walk..........
