Nov 7, Joe's comments on some technology

I have to add some commentary about technology. Unfortunately there is no time to research facts and to be certain my perspective is correct but for certain these are things I observed first hand. As we arrived to Lima from the airport I saw an automobile refueling station that only handled natural gas. That really sparked my interest. I asked several of our guides about the conversion and none could really give me good answers. A quick Google search reviled a pretty aggressive program was in place for conversion. Around Lima there are already 170 stations and more being built every day. Taxis and Buses have laid out plans for conversions and some government assistance is available for citizens. I know NYC and Philadelphia have been converting but I don't think at this pace. In the US we produce 78% of our own natural gas, the percentage is below 20% for oil (this fact I couldn't confirm) why aren't we more aggressively pursuing conversion to reduce our dependence on oil, it's cleaner burning and per mile cheaper to operate. The conversion costs about $300 USD and can even be switchable from gasoline to NG as needed depending on fuel availability. A side note Brazil converted several years ago to Ethanol. I understand they have gone back to allowing both because the lack of competition drove the Ethanol price up. But why can't we do any of this? What am I missing, everyone talks less oil dependency but what are we really doing?

OK, one last item on technology. Compact fluorescent bulbs. The rest of the world has had these for years; we act like it's a new thing here at home. One of the first nights in Peru I turned a lamp on near the table I was working on. When I did it I thought wow, that's fast. Didn't think anything more about it. Next day I turned another light on and actually thought that must be an incandescent bulb, I looked under the shade and found a compact fluorescent. Came on as bright and as fast as a old incandescent bulb. Now I'm sure it might have something to do with our voltage of 110 vs the rest of the world's voltage of 220. I guess I can't help myself, who decided that it was a safety risk for the USA to use 110 instead of 220? The voltage doesn't kill you the current does. Just think how much cheaper our electrical in-house distribution system would be with close to half the copper in it. I guess my point about all this is we in America don't have the corner on all these answers, the rest of the world is doing just fine on their own, including our friends in South America