In article >,
says...
> In article >,
> T > wrote:
>
> > So true, we waste an awful lot of potential energy. Look at the oil
> > cracking process, that little flame jet that you see at the tops of many
> > a refinery are pretty much methane or hydrogen burning off.
> >
> > http://science.howstuffworks.com/oil-refining.htm
> >
> >
> > Then of course add in light from that big ball of fire in the sky that
> > we call the Sun, as well as tidal interractions between Earth and it's
> > Moon.
> >
> > There's a lot of energy out there just waiting to be taken.
>
> You forgot geothermal. :-)
>
> Hawaii could run itself off it's volcanoes with energy to spare.
>
> It's all about money...
>

Of course it is. Just finished a very good book by Edwin Black titles
"Internal Combustion". He explains that electric vehicles were gaining
steam back in the late 19th and early 20th century and goes on to
explain how the big auto manufacturers like GM, and big oil like
Rockefeller's Standard Oil which lives on today as Exxon-Mobil.