why does the media do it?

[SilverBack]

^I was making a joke about how the media tends to blow reality out of proportion as a way to whore for attention and ratings.

Honestly, we on the west coast are gonna be just fine at least during this jet stream event. No guarantees later though. We'll just have to see how over-excited the media acts about it to know for sure if people are at risk LOL

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by frownonfun

Yeah I don't think anyone is suggesting we run vehicles off natural gas. Just for the production of electricity for energy grids. It really is an underused resource in that regard.

Why not?

The "greenest" car for 8 years straight is the Civic GX (100% CNG).

http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-gx/



Reviews suggest that the driver can't tell the difference from the natural gas Civic to how a regular gas Civic operates. It gets up to 240 miles on a tank and it costs a good amount less than regular gas. Refilling takes the same amount of time as a regular gas station. The current problem is the available refilling stations but that could and should be fixed.

Not quite sure why CNG cars haven't taken off more than just the Civic offering which started production way back in '98.

[frownonfun]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

Why not?

The "greenest" car for 8 years straight is the Civic GX (100% CNG).

http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-gx/



Reviews suggest that the driver can't tell the difference from the natural gas Civic to how a regular gas Civic operates. It gets up to 240 miles on a tank and it costs a good amount less than regular gas. Refilling takes the same amount of time as a regular gas station. The current problem is the available refilling stations but that could and should be fixed.

Not quite sure why CNG cars haven't taken off more than just the Civic offering which started production way back in '98.

i didn't even know they made a car that ran on natural gas. that's cool. but i wasn't saying that we shouldn't. have at it. i certainly have no problem with it. i was just saying i don't think that's what most people are suggesting when they say to increase the use of natural gas for conversion into energy consumption. plus i feel like when it comes to cars, if it's not good ol fashioned gasoline then americans are going to look down on it. the only thing i've ever run off natural gas is a forklift so i couldn't comment much on how much difference there is between the two. but i'm open to it.

[tk1971]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

Why not?

<snip>

Not quite sure why CNG cars haven't taken off more than just the Civic offering which started production way back in '98.

Maybe because of this?





As seen here:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/gener...otos-7555.html

Some Quotes:

"A picture of the trunk lid. This was blown approximately 75 feet from the car. That little blue CNG sticker on the back is the only warning that fire fighters have to tell that the car is powered by NCG."

"Where the CNG tank landed. ~110-120 feet away."

Safety-wise, it was almost there, but then something like this happens and then everyone does a double-take. I'm sure these tanks are more integral now as a result of this fire. But people get squeamish and the resulting back and forth delays progress.

[frownonfun]

wow. maybe just throw that into our pile of bad ideas and call it a day. it's hard enough just keeping gasoline run cars from catching fire after an accident, the last thing we need is cars catching fire and then exploding. i wonder why that thought never even entered my mind. i guess i figured they had figured out a safer way to store the fuel. guess not. i read the discussion thread for that car and someone mentioned that the car was targeted by an arsonist but still, fire doesn't have to be intentional.

[TLyttle]

Sure propane and natural gas can blow up, just as easily as gasoline. If you are looking for safety, diesel seems to be the least volatile, plus gives better FE. All one has to see is the results of a service station explosion to make one worry about just filling a vehicle, if you wish to take the paranoia to it's limits...

[frownonfun]

Originally Posted by TLyttle

Sure propane and natural gas can blow up, just as easily as gasoline. If you are looking for safety, diesel seems to be the least volatile, plus gives better FE. All one has to see is the results of a service station explosion to make one worry about just filling a vehicle, if you wish to take the paranoia to it's limits...

i've seen many car fires and never any explosions. except in the movies.

[nemelek]

Originally Posted by thebarber

seems to me that the news media loves to whip the american public into a frenzy....its ~630am and CNN is listing how many people live near some of the nuclear reactors in the US....

doesnt this whole thing (discussing shutting down reactors) seem like such a knee-jerk reaction to whats happening in japan?

however, i bet you couldnt go wrong right now buying some stock in radiation detectors....lol

The boy who cried wolf. Some day when there is real concern no one will pay attention. Just another over blown news article.

[TLyttle]

Clearly I am older than you frownonfun, so my opportunity to witness car explosions has been longer, and yes, I have seen cars explode; VERY exciting. The occurrence is less frequent now, due to more stringent regulations regarding fuel management. Biggest bangs are from nearly-empty fuel tanks.

A service station blast, however, is seldom limited to just a couple of vehicles!

[frownonfun]

Originally Posted by TLyttle

Clearly I am older than you frownonfun, so my opportunity to witness car explosions has been longer, and yes, I have seen cars explode; VERY exciting. The occurrence is less frequent now, due to more stringent regulations regarding fuel management. Biggest bangs are from nearly-empty fuel tanks.

A service station blast, however, is seldom limited to just a couple of vehicles!

Don't get me wrong I believe that cars sometimes blow up. Just because I haven't seen it happen doesn't mean I think that it can't. It would just seem like it's not something that happens often. I've seen many cars actually burned down to practically nothing without any kind of explosion.

And hey maybe it wouldn't happen that often with natural gas either if executed properly. Either way I'm not all that worried about it because really all I was ever suggesting was upping our usage of natural gas to produce power. If they wanna try to put it in cars and find they can do it in a relatively safe way then that's fine. Seems like we could come up with something better but it doesn't much matter to me. When it comes to car accidents I'm more worried about the collision itself than the aftermath.

But anyway I think I'm done with this thread because it seems like anything short of the Armageddon just isn't worthy of media coverage.

[Kal-El]

For a discussion on natural gas vehicles, I started this thread...

http://yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33788

This way, we can revert back on topic here.

[Freedan]

Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That's all I have to say about this nuclear holocaust the Media is spewing.