http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...-into-ethanol/

I'll keep my ICE and get drunk in the process. Thank you! Science rules!

 

The thing that always kills me about any talk of climate change is the ever-present notion that we must do something (ANYTHING!) immediately, even though we fully acknowledge that even if American does everything right, the world will still be screwed because of all of the other polluters, AND we can't help but arrive at the conclusion that we're going to need to this ephemeral "whatever it takes" action irrespective of the financial implications, yet it is so rarely ever discussed that the solution will inevitably be a technological revolution rather than bureaucratic nitpicking.

This is particularly frustrating with respect to cars. You won already. A Ford F-150 is cleaner than a lawnmower. f@#king stop already.

 

That's actually pretty amazing. America to the global rescue again! Take that G20!

 

If nothing else it makes the air cleaner for us here and now. Look at smog in major cities compared from the 1970s (with far less vehicles and people) vs today. Even China and Paris' limiting (or "banning") cars for a few days in their major cities had profound effects on the immediate air quality.

I understand what you're saying, but I advocate change. Given our position as car enthusiasts vs the masses who couldn't care less what powers their cars as long as it gets them around, we should be fine with it. I'd be cool with a Tesla type daily, as long as I can keep my dirty Datsuns and a V12 Lamborghini in the garage for weekend duties!

 

I hear you, but America is far from homogeneous in terms of, well, how air works. For instance, in Florida you'd have fine enough air quality even if emissions standards were never updated. In a basin like Los Angeles, different story, of course. I have a strong objection to the one-size-fits all approach.

 

But as we've seen with stricter gun control (Chicago) its effects are inconsequential as you can drive an hour in any direction and buy them legally, throw them in your trunk and come home.

One size fits all is how the law works - arent you an attorney?

 

Nitrous oxides and particulate air pollution is an entirely different problem and situation than CO2 emissions. Some people lump them together but they're different issues. Smog, haze and acid rain caused by stuff like NOx is EXACTLY what the Clean Air Act was created for. It was never intended to regulate CO2 but that's what the EPA has been bending over backwards to try and justify.

We can minimize and eliminate NOx and particulate pollution, while at the same timing pumping as much CO2 into the atmosphere as we merry well please.

 

Oak ridge is pretty effin' cool. If you drive Devil's Triangle, you'll be in the neighbourhood!

darcy

 

You don't want to pull the pin on the gun control debate. Haha.

In this country of ours, we do not have one-size-fits all laws concerning the overwhelming majority of legal topics. We have 50 states which exercise "police powers" and a federal government which has only certain enumerated powers. The overwhelming majority of laws vary from state to state. That any two state's laws look the same is little more than the result of trying to accomplish similar things (outside of model laws) and the fact that they started with the same body of English common law (except for Louisiana whose laws derive from the Napolenic code).

In short, we definitely don't have one-size-fits all laws but for the laws that fall within the purview of the federal government (for obvious reasons).

 

Also, all due respect, but you misunderstand firearms law. You cannot buy a gun across state lines without violating federal law. In other words, your example of "gun control isn't working because there'a not enough of it consistently applied" is not actually accurate since it's already illegal to do the thing you don't want people to do. And as you pointed out, it's almost like those laws didn't stop the bad thing from happening. Go figure.

This is the biggest issue that I have with gun control. I absolutely want fewer people to die. I just don't trust that the people advocating for gun control have any familiarity with the subject matter.