And let's not forget that fusion energy is coming, sooner or later. I think I remember they have predicted that within the next 50 years or something they'll get it to work. Then we won't have to worry about energy anymore.

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I haven't heard anything about that, so my comment might be completely erroneous. Still, I think that the environmentalists and other such worry-worts will have a problem with anything having to do with nuclear technology on the highways and byways. They won't even let a nuclear powered rocket take off for fear it will explode and rain nuclear waste down on their organic crops. They're certainly not going to let cars, which have considerably more accidents than rockets, carry around nuclear fuel.

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In this country, we don't need reasons to make things legal; we need reasons to make things illegal. - Startup

Doing a Google search yielded some 235,000 hits on "vegetable oil car", so I guess this guy in Maine isn't as unique as I thought.

What a great idea, though. As an ex-restauranteur, I can tell you that dealing with used oil is a big hassle. It sits in this huge tank outside your joint, stinking up the place and then you pay a guy to come by a couple times a month to pick it up. Even a moderately sized restaurant will use a couple hundred gallons of oil every month. Fast food joints probably use at least a thousand gallons. I don't even want to think about what happens to this nasty stuff after that.

Even if that is not enough for billions of gallons we would go through, I bet we could get third world countries growing enough corn to supply the rest. Ethiopia could be the next Middle East.

Somebody needs to get on this and build a car that can start and stop on vegetable oil.

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In this country, we don't need reasons to make things legal; we need reasons to make things illegal. - Startup

i am less optimistic about hot fusion. just last year they delayed the decision in which country (france or japan) to build the testreactor. ofcourse the america bashers immediately accused the usa of trying to punish france for being against the iraqwar by arguing for japan. the testreactor will need more power than it produces, cost all nations on the project billions of dollars and it is not yet clear how the plasmachamber is effected by radiation. even if they succeed in building fusion powerplants, we are still a long way from using it in cars.
but who knows, maybe this weekend someone will discover a catalyst for cold fusion. the future is promising.

I wasn't talking about using it in the cars, just in general. Fusion reactors will probably be reality in the near future, but I don't think it could be used directly for cars for a long, long time.

Fusion energy is much safer than fission energy so the resistance wouldn't perhaps be that furious. And there are more pros than cons for fusion energy regarding the environment.

http://www.fusion.org.uk/focus/

"The major conclusions reached by the SEAFP team in 1995 were that fusion has very good inherent safety qualities; there are no chain reactions and no production of 'actinides'. The worst possible accident originating in a fusion power station could not breach the confinement; any releases could not approach levels at which evacuation would be considered.

The radiotoxicity of a fusion power station's waste materials decays rapidly, and they present no accumulating or long-term burden on future generations. They would not need guaranteed isolation from the environment for very long timespans. In addition to these favourable results, fusion produces no climate-changing or atmosphere-polluting emissions."

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Regarding the oil issue, i would just want to leave here a bit of info.
Remember the Carlyle Group? Well, most of the portuguese people never heard about them before, that is untill they start bidding to buy our national oil company, the Petrogal. Seems this nifty company owned and directed by some sounding names are hoarding every oil business they can lay their hands on. Names like James Baker, George Bush senior, John Major and many others, big responsibles for the planet´s energy and resource management. And they are getting filthy rich at our expense. Just think how much they stand to make with each barrel of crude oil costing now over $42 USD.
Oh well...

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"Quincitilius Varus, give me back my legions!"
Emperor Augustus of Rome.