This is required reading for anyone who wants to understand our "energy problem" and the basic solution to it. Robert Zubrin defines the cost of petroleum-based fuels, the problems it causes and offers an unusually simple solution to it.
We have all the automotive fuel we need right here in America if only the government would require OPEC and their entrenched interests to compete with fuels readily at hand in the USA. We have a "natural gas glut". Do you know that methanol can be mixed freely with gasoline in your tank to run your car? Do you know that the easiest way to make methanol is by steam reduction of natural gas?
And there's ethanol. Zubrin de-bunks much of the myths offered by people who are often found connected to the oil lobby. Moreover, Zubrin describes how ethanol is a good export product for many third world countries; a way out of poverty.
Zubrin also does a nice job of de-bunking hydrogen. 12-years after hydrogen was supposed to be the automotive fuel of the future, nobody has driven a hydrogen fueled car from New York to LA. (Hey! I'm an engineer. I didn't need Zubrin to tell me this, but a lot of people did and still need to be told.)
Cars that use less gasoline don't solve the problem. Zubrin explains that too.
The author is a PHd in Aeronautical Engineering (or something like that). He holds a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering.
If you don't read this book, don't scratch your head wondering why the price of gasoline makes no sense.
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