I don’t know about the regualtions, but I think many carmakers switched around 1995 or so.
Something about CFC’s causing a hole in the Ozone layer? Or requiring less compression from liquid to gas?
The CFCs are very chemically stable, allowing them to slowly disperse into the upper atmosphere, where they react (actually, catalyze the reaction, so they’re not used up) with ozone (O3), breaking it down to regular oxygen (O2).
They banned CFC’s in the manufacturing of Aerosol Cans. I wasn’t sure about autos and any machine that requires a compressor.
texaes has the right explanation. The Montreal Protocol of 1987 banned the further manufacture of CFCs. It did not ban their sale until the supplies were used up. This was one of the few agreements signed by nearly every country. However, there arose a thriving business in recovering CFCs from old cars, refrigerators, freezers and any other equipment that was using them. The rise in price was the result of the phasing out, and the supply decreasing.
Aerosols now use different gasses. For a while a company in Texas started bottling Propane!! as a substitute for Freon in cars, since propane is a good refrigerant and often used in chemical plants. Needless to say this was an accident waiting to happen. An underhood leak could almost certainly cause an explosion.
As Katid explained, CFCs causes holes in the ozone layer resulting in increased incidences of skin cancer. The largest one was over Antarctica, and affected many in Australia. This hole has now healed almost completely.
We had a freon leak in the Air Conditioner of our house and the house was built in 2004 and when my mother had it fixed, the freon itself was more costly than the repair. It was using older freon. Current A/C units use the newer freon and our HVAC repairman suggest if we continued having issues with the A/C unit, to consider buying a new unit. The units the developers used when they built up the subdivision back in 2003 were installing had some defects and the manufacterer covered the repairs for the most part but I noticed within the past 2 years that most people were choosing to have the units replaced with new ones rather than mess around with repairs on the old ones especially with them using the more expensive and older freon. I guess different industries have different time frames in which they change the type of freon they use for their compressors. The household appliances industry as far as I know began using the newer freon in the late 90’s.
There was a large scale scam 20+/- years ago in which someone filled R-12 tanks with Propane and sold the phony refrigerant to automobile parts houses. The story got my attention and I began flame testing every can before carrying it into the shop. The last that I heard was that the crooks worked out of Mexico and were taking advantage of the R-12 laws which jumped the price from 50c/pound to $5.
Newer Cars use I believe, R134 or R431 freon now days. Modern Refrigerators use R134 and the LG corporation introduced the new Linear Compressor for its Refrigerators. Linear compression is more energy efficient and I don’t know if that applies to cars and trucks lol.
Deception, propaganda, folly and ignorance!
“extremist groups” bla bla bla…
“This country runs on oil” bla bla bla…
“vast majority of us are behind this” bla bla bla…
“independence” bla bla bla…
“job creation” bla bla bla …all propaganda!
Have we forgotten the BP / Deepwater Horizon disaster? Screw the future and our children they don’t need to breath, cancer isn’t so bad, war is birth control and global warming isn’t real… right?
we all understand that the Earth and it’s resources are finite, we all know it’s time for sustainability.
This TARSAND is TOXIC Sludge and we all know how Texas’s environmental laws are…
“Oilsands” is a corporate rebranding of Tarsands. Corporations have no use for truth, justice, equality, or democracy, they have no shame, no loyalty, no patriotism, no compassion, no heart, no honor and no soul. have we forgotten the economic disasters, oil spills, pollution, nuclear disasters, Economic disasters, CRIMES AND MASS MURDERS of these kinds of godless corporations?
Lastly ANYONE who believes this good or will help Oil Prices in America is ignorant… I’ll just say “look it up for yourself”
Fine if you don’t like how tarsands are mined. But to call them ‘toxic sludge’ is nonsense. It’s no different than any other crude oil. So stick to real issues.
“SO…that still doesn’t explain why it’s cheaper when people are saying it’s so expensive to refine.”
Because Hugo Chavez said so. It really is that simple.
Oil prices, unlike gas prices are set by worldwide suppply and demand.They are also a function of the quality of the oil, such as how difficult it is to refine. US citizens may have trouble acccepting the fact that most Saudi oil costs no more than $1.50/barrel to get out of the ground and maybe another $1.50 to bring it to Texas for refining. But it turn into $90 oil the minute it is offloaded. All that money pays for a country of 13 million or so to have 4 million foreign workers doing all the real work, and it feeds 4000 princes as well, most of whom do very little. It also pays for massive imports of all sorts of goods.
Other oil is not nearly as cheap to produce. Venzuelan heavy crude cost a lot more to get ready to ship. Oilsands oil is more expensive yet. But since they all cost well below the $90 level it’s feasible to produce and ship them.
Hugo Chavez does not set or control the price of oil, but takes whatever the market will allow.
Chavez sells oil for whatever price he chooses to, and to whomever he chooses to in this case. CITGO is owned by Petroleos de Venezuela (I’m sure you know that), so Chavez controls the whole kaboodle. He said in the past that he wanted to sell oil products in the USA at below market prices because he like the American people. It is just the leaders that he dislikes. Since we freely elect our officials, I don’t see a difference, but he has political reasons for his actions.
jt; you are right; Chavez just wanted to stage some propaganda at the expense of the US. His heating oil discounts to “poor” Americans also fit into this category. Never mind that poor Americans are better off than the average Venzuelan.
Needless to say, Venzuelan oil marketing tactics do not follow normal business principles and practices. The operating margins in oil production costs and what it sells for can be significant, since they have to reflect the costs of the highest cost producer.
The future = electric cars.
I know, I know, reviewers hate them because they don’t get that lovely engine noise. I think though, truth be told, something with less moving parts and greater efficiency like an electric motor, coupled with the torque on demand that this power plant brings will win over the American consumer if and only if we can get that battery business under control.
Oh look here… http://www.understandingnano.com/batteries.html
Looks like those batteries may be on their way sooner than we thought.
Now, for power generation, if I were a betting man and had time to hold my bet I’m all in on solar power. Even the most efficient panels only soak up 10 to 20% of the available energy there. Just imagine. We could coat the wasteland of Nevada with a 50% efficient solar panel that you could see from space and damn near power the whole country.
See, it’s not so hard, and we don’t need no stinkin’ pipelines!
If pigs had wings and wishes and buts were candy and nuts, Oh what a party the pigeons would have!
The wasteland of Nevada is mostly owned by the federal government, but good luck with that. Leaving aside the 50% efficiency solar panel. Not so hard at all.
You are a funny son of a gun.
I live in Nevada and you’re right most of the wasteland is owned by the federal government…Nevada has some geothermal plants but they seem to run into financial difficulites and lay off workers adding to the state’s already record high unemployment rate.
MCBMW…I am in absolute agreement. Because technology increases exponentially, and singularity where all the worlds problems including the development of the computer is given over to the computer by 2030 something…long before then, perhaps in just a few years, batteries that can be charged in an hour( already at 440 volts and special stations) with ranges equal to gas tanks will be here.
Let’s face it…in just a few years, Star Trek communicators have given way to cell phones.
This is the first time in a LONG time the oil companies did not get something they dearly wanted…The pipeline is a side issue. The main issue is the destruction of the Canadian State of Alberta…Are we paying to high a price for oil?? Do we need it that badly? To lay waste to thousands of square miles of “wasteland”…Wasteland to YOU maybe, but not to me…
“This is the first time in a LONG time the oil companies did not get something they dearly wanted.”
Hmm. I guess that explains all the new offshore drilling rigs I’ve been seeing.