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Old 11-23-2009, 12:18 PM
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Boreas Boreas is offline
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Location: Sonoma County, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueStreak View Post
I don't understand what the price of gasoline has to do with your electric bill going up so much. I can see some, but THAT much? Most electricity in this country is either generated from coal, or nuclear energy. And coal is transported to powerplants by train, a far more efficient method than delivery by truck. As I understand it, pretty much all trains are driven electrically, by an on board diesel generator powering electric motors. (Hybrids, basically.) So, I would think petroleum costs wouldn't affect electricity generation nearly as much as other industries.

I know, I'm off topic, but this is just a thought that struck me while I was reading your post.

Dave
Here's the breakdown from DOE:

Coal 44.4%
Natural Gas 23.2%
Nuclear 20.4%
Hydroelectric 7.1%
Petroleum 1.1%
Other 3.6%

That "Other" category is the disturbing one. It tells us that less than 4% of all power generated in the US comes from solar, wind, geothermal, pyrolysis and all other "alternative" sources combined.

John
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