Oil Junkies: The Edwin Black interview
Reform Judaism recenlty posted online a lengthy, involved interview with Edwin Black. He's the author of "Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives."The Q&A format follows the book's chronological expose of the early decline of electric cars in the automobile's infancy up through the demise of electric mass transit and the dependance on oil. There are far too many stories and details to try and condense in blog post but there is no shortage of back-stabbing, manipulation, corporate greed and other nefarious activities to keep any conspiracy theorist happy. Black recalls the National City Lines scandal where GM, Standard Oil, Mack Truck, Firestone and Phillips Petroleum were charged with monopolizing and eventually killing electric trolley lines in favor of busses. Other topics covered included auto-business connections with Germany during the Hitler years, hidden incentives to oil producers and security for Israel.
A major part of the interview involves Black's criticism of ethanol, calling it "America's next big fuel mistake." His main argument is that ethanol production could use more petroleum than it saves. His solution: hydrogen.
"We don't need to reinvent the wheel but to distribute the wheel," he responds to interviewer Aron Hirt-Manheimer. "In other words, we already have the knowledge to harness hydrogen; now we need to ramp it up and apply it. A good analogy is the Manhattan Project, which ramped up and applied existing nuclear knowledge more than it developed new knowledge."
Black also calls for restrictions on gas-guzzling vehicles much the same way the government discourages smoking. He likes the idea of a carbon tax and supports "bridge technologies" such as CNG.
[Source: Reform Judaism]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 12:41PM (9/07/2006)
"A major part of the interview involves Black's criticism of ethanol, calling it 'America's next big fuel mistake.' His main argument is that ethanol production could use more petroleum than it saves. His solution: hydrogen."
It's somewhat amusing, although pathetic, that somebody who has figured out the true economics of ethanol would advocate something much worse. Sounds like he didn't really figure it out on his own, but took somebody else's word for it.
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loikll 1:51PM (9/13/2006)
Sounds like a big collection of sqare pegs of historical self-interst and malfeasance sqeezed into round holes of conspircy theory.
Anyway, am I the only one whose tired of these calls for a Manhatten Project? The purpose of the Manhattan Project was not, you may recall, to create something that 300 million consumers econmically use everyday. They were not creating a mass market device. If their job was to create an affordable mass market atomic omb for consumers, they would have failed.
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1985 Gripen 4:30PM (9/07/2006)
As I believe Mr. Harkness is alluding to, it also takes a lot of electrical energy (which has to come from SOMEWHERE) to produce the hydrogen fuel (separating the hydrogen from the oxygen in water).
Unless Mr. Black sees a future where all the power in our electric grid comes from renewable resources, I can hardly see how a hydrogen-based future would be much better than a petroleum-based one.
Reminds me of years ago how some people were advocating mining the moon for Helium-3! Yeah, that'll happen...
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/helium3_000630.html
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John Truth 6:18PM (9/07/2006)
THIS is JUDAISM? That's one strange religion....
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Jake 1:33AM (9/12/2006)
A major part of the interview involves Black's criticism of ethanol, calling it "America's next big fuel mistake." His main argument is that ethanol production could use more petroleum than it saves. His solution: hydrogen.
It is amazing. Someone who starts off so strong falls to the old stagma of it could. A myth that started in the seventys that ethanol consumes more oil to produce than the oil it replaces?
Today ethanol farmers are proving that old myth incorrect. And who planted the myth? As a matter of fact Ford himself said Ethanol was the way to go.
Did they even have gas analyzers back then?
This is called common sense.
Myths are hard to correct. Its like the one that you should let your car sit and idle until it is warm before driving. What a farse.
And who planted that myth.
As if it matters. The main thing is biodiesel, ethanol and everything else is better than what is.
Latter!
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monkeyrotica 12:42PM (9/08/2006)
Nice to see that old streetcar conspiracy chestnut recycled for a new generation of dupes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy
Standard Oil and GM didn't kill the streetcars, the suburbs did. Next time, try getting your history from a book instead of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
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Mark Abramowitz 10:19PM (9/09/2006)
Mike Magda does a nice job of summarizing the article, but as he clearly says, it's an in-depth interview. And that interview is only a brief taste of Black's book. (Yes, I've read the book - or at least one of the latest versions of the manuscript. Further disclosure: Black is a friend of mine, though I don't mind being critical when he deserves it)
A few comments:
1985 Gripen - hydrogen as bad as petro fuel?! Really? From what standpoint? National Security? Criteria emissions? Toxics? Greenhouse gas?
monkeyrotica - Yes, you're right that Edwin didn't get his information about the "streetcar conspiracy" from a book. Perhaps you did, and that may be your problem. (Or maybe you relied on Wikipedia, certainly a credible original academic source!).
Black used the original court documents and Congressional records, including transcipts from the original hearings, and backup material from that. Go back and read reviews of any of his other historical books, and I suspect you'll be more than a bit embarassed of accusing him of relying on a cartoon. Better yet, read his book, and get a bit educated.
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Watchman 3:32PM (9/19/2006)
In response to John Truth, #3, the Reform movement of American Judaism has been highjacked by a left-leaning activist professional leadership cadre. (I do have a grasp- my family has been part of Reform Judaism for over 130 years).
Black's conspiracy stuff fits neatly into the left's paranoia about CORPORATE EVIL-DOERS, etc. Shucks, even a country cluck like me realizes that 1900's era electric plants -- mostly fueled with dirty-burning coal, were heavy polluters. Even if you could produce enough batteries for those cars, think how many more dirty electric generating plants you'd need to charge 'em! Nor were electric vehicles very practical if you wanted to go more than a few miles, much less than town-to-town. Hydrogen? Give me a break -- every kid watching 50's TV knew that rocket fuel -- hydrogen -- was one of the most dangerous and unstable substances on earth.
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