December 14, 2010

The Energy Equation: Practical Fact vs. Political Fiction

By Frank Burke
Politically motivated energy solutions continue to exacerbate the problems they were supposed to counteract.  The automotive industry and the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) regulations, which originated in 1975 as a result of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, make up only one example of many.  In the early 1980s, American car-makers were refining the design strategies necessary to meet the mileage requirements imposed by the government.  One of the Big Three automakers' programs called for the use of a small four-cylinder engine equipped with a supercharger -- a mechanism that intermittently forces air into the combustion chamber to provide more complete combustion and greater power when needed.Following a planning meeting with one of the key suppliers, a design engineer was asked the inevitable question: Is this going to work?  He smiled and replied that although the mileage standards would be met, it might be more practical to consider all of the energy inputs...(Read Full Article)