Diesel

[dtcerrato]

Clearly both sides of the isle here. I like the smell of diesel especially when it burns through a two stroke!
Almighty human greed will be the demise of our human race & at the rate we're going - sooner than later...

[fortyniner]

The trick is to leverage self-interest to benefit the greater good.  I think the founding fathers came to that conclusion early on. The needle wavers back and forth between the extremes but I think its one of the keys to our success.

I notice as the wealth gap widens political extremes seem to increase along with it. I guess that makes sense as fewer people have greater influence. Kind of like a small genetic pool. You get some weird mutations.

To get out of this mess will take a second industrial revolution to put money back in the average joe's pocket again. I think that will take the form of some revolutionary energy source. Pbly not fusion. Maybe a molten salt thorium reactor aka LFTR.

Just hope we do it before China does. Both China and Russia are doing all the can to befuddle the US at multiple levels including setting the country at odds with its self.  Trying to slow and distract us enough to allow them a permanent gain. 

If it doesn't kill us it will make US stronger!

[lvmci]

Clean energy has been the hope and the scientists goal for many years, my hopes have been on hydrogen powered motors, that exhausts water vapor with an unlimited supply of the element. GM gave their dealers a chance to drive hydrogen powered generators powering electric drive motors several years ago, before Tesla came on the scene. The small suvs, 11 of them,  were the same SUV powered by gas in their line up. the dealers put the kabosh on them, because of a slight whine noise, different then what they were used to. So GM killed the project. No one thought to mask the sound that some electric cars make nowadays...

[chessie4905]

definitely more reasons than a whine killed hydrogen.

[Jim Blackwood]

Can I get some cheese to go with my whine?

Jim

[lvmci]

The president of Chevrolet told me distribution of hydrogen was a problem. Kinda like charging stations were for electric cars in the beginning. But there was actually a hydrogen fueling station in LV at the time. My thoughts were get hydrogen filling station at the Chevy Dealers and you could sell them tires and batteries too...

[Nova Eona]

It's not that corporations shouldn't be able to make a profit, it's that:
-They shouldn't be able to gouge prices and call it 'inflation' or blame it on the Dems
-They shouldn't be receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies at all
-They shouldn't be using this money in DC to directly oppose green energy which might someday topple their monopoly

If this was all down to policies, pipelines, and politics, then our pump prices would go up while big oil profits remained semi-stable - this would be them 'passing on' the cost of the above.  Instead, every major oil company is posting record profits year after year, and they've been among the most insanely profitable industries for many years now.

[chessie4905]

insanely profitable? their stock price doesn't reflect it. They invest tens of billions on exploration to find more crude supplies. If they weren't so huge, they would never could afford to do it. Many times it's  a gamble to bring it in. Oil industry has always been boom or bust. Supplies go up and prices drop.

[windtrader]

Didnt most of the Enron employs loose their entire retirement?  I guess that was not figured into their liabilities.

I worked with a guy who sold his considerable Enron stock literally weeks before it imploded to start a business. Everyone thought he had inside info but it was just bind luck.

Or really good Kama.

Across the street neighbor back in the day worked for Enron - lost it all including his job. He was flying high and feeling rich as hell until they couldn't even afford paper to tell him you got ZERO

[luvrbus]

Across the street neighbor back in the day worked for Enron - lost it all including his job. He was flying high and feeling rich as hell until they couldn't even afford paper to tell him you got ZERO

Hundreds of friends of mine never lost their 401k,some took big hits from the banks they owned stock invested with their 401k,some took hits that owned Enron stock, but none lost their money they invested in the 401k that is protected by law   

[dtcerrato]

Hundreds of friends of mine never lost their 401k,some took big hits from the banks they owned stock invested with their 401k,some took hits that owned Enron stock, but none lost their money they invested in the 401k that is protected by law

The Enron management team on that Puerto Rico project - some made it really big & some went bust. It was all according to where their money was at that time.

[Dave5Cs]

Across the street neighbor back in the day worked for Enron - lost it all including his job. He was flying high and feeling rich as hell until they couldn't even afford paper to tell him you got ZERO

Yep had a good friend that was management and same thing lost her job and her whole 401K. She was after that managing an RV park on the Delta. She lost it all. Real sad.

[luvrbus]

A company can take the part they contributed to your 401k to cover loses if they choose to,your part is protected by laws passed after the raiders would buy a company like they did with the old grocery chain and used the 401 to pay for the buy and then sell off the assets and walk away with millions. I had a 401k for my employees wasn't my idea,they had their choices and choose the 401.I never did like the 401k but if you have a good year in business, it is a good place for taxes.LOL if you have a 401k and don't like stocks move because you are playing the stock market and greed comes at a cost sometimes when you deal with Hedge Funds for big fast money ,you make the choice on the investment not the company and you need to stay on top of it .Enron used the loop holes for some big tax refunds for sure they all do       

[fortyniner]

Right hydrogen or some synthesized liquid fuel based on hydrogen.  The primary energy source to generate it at very large world wide scale would likely need to be some form of reactor. After Fukushima pressurized uranium based reactors are OUT.  It takes decades just to turn it off or in Fukushima's case, centuries.

But I'm intrigued by the thorium based LFTR reactor designed for airborn bombers and later looked at by Nasa. Oak Ridge National Laboratories built a test reactor in 69 but it was ordered shutdown (and dismantled) apparently because it does not have a plutonium byproduct, a strategic imperative at the time.

Something like a LFTR could power Hydrogen production at scale in multiple sites.  Coal country would be a good for start.

The OIL companies would need to be brought on board to build and operate  hydrogen refineries. Their support would be key to getting something like this off the ground.

Sadly China is documented as having obtained all available research from ORNL on the LFTR project. (Actually called the MSRE by ORNL).  We don't know how close they are to getting one production ready.

Clean energy has been the hope and the scientists goal for many years, my hopes have been on hydrogen powered motors, that exhausts water vapor with an unlimited supply of the element. GM gave their dealers a chance to drive hydrogen powered generators powering electric drive motors several years ago, before Tesla came on the scene. The small suvs, 11 of them,  were the same SUV powered by gas in their line up. the dealers put the kabosh on them, because of a slight whine noise, different then what they were used to. So GM killed the project. No one thought to mask the sound that some electric cars make nowadays...

[windtrader]

I never dug into the details whether it was a retirement account or what kind. The portion of employee contribution to 401K from wages has no inherent protection.


The huge gold chest my neighbor saw disappear was company stock and options which could have been under some "retirement" plan, really doesn't matter as 401k funds can be invested in virtually any stock and if they goes bust so does your own and any company contributions. 401k does not mean 100% safe and protected.