What are disadvantages to alternate fuel?

By | Sep 23, 2009
BrandyBreakdown asked:


Prompt: Should the president make it so all and small have to run on alternate and by the year 2040?

I need DISADVANTAGES! This is for a debate for a school team. Feel free to post advantages as well.

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6 Comments so far
  1. RYAN M September 26, 2009 9:29 am

    Alternative fuel is a very broad category, but generally, an alternative would be a negative thing if it:

    Took more resources to produce

    Produced more harmful emissions/by-products

    Was too dangerous for general use

    Required an increase in shipping or other transportation

  2. Chris September 26, 2009 3:08 pm

    Well lets use Bio Fuel as an example. Bio fuel is typically made from corn. Now imagine if every car needed a bushel of car to run, their would be a shortage of corn and thus a shortage in feed for livestock. That should get your brain thinking, just remember that one event leads to the other.

  3. Alan W September 28, 2009 5:25 am

    One of the primary disadvantages is the cost of change. The U.S. infrastructure is not ready to use alternative fuels. If cars went to natural gas or fuel cells all the gas stations and service station would have to switch over to the new services, electric would need charging stations in your house or at public parking lots.

    People that have to service cars would have to be re-trained to work on the new type of cars. Factories would have to be retooled for new energy sources and workers re-trained in the technology. New waste management businesses would have to be started for alternative fuel by products.

    The energy grid in the U.S. would need new interfaces and switching stations as well as technology upgrades for transfer of energy to homes and businesses.

    We would also have the issue with the workforce, millions of workers would need to be re-trained that support the current energy sources. The old infrastructure would be obsolete and there may be a cost to do something with the old infrastructure. Services and maintenance jobs would be different.

    The change over would cost billions. The companies that would have to change over to support the new technologies would have to do capital investments to transition with little or no incentive to do this massive spending unless the government subsidized the change over costs possibly adding to the deficit and tax burdens.

    There is a cost of change and we don’t have a good plan to do it or pay for it. Alternatives are a great way to break the dependancy on oil but they come with a cost and broad sweeping social change. So far nobody is talking about HOW to make the changes. Just that change is required.

    Hope this helps.

  4. Jason ford September 29, 2009 7:55 am

    Thanks to the powers that run the multi-billion dollar oil industry, the water powered car has never gone past its development stage. After having been found to work, its existence and possibilities were kept a deep, dark secret to protect the many oil cartels that govern the daily price per barrel worldwide. However, saving money on fuel is becoming more and more important to all, and the dire need caused by the economic turbulence in the country has paved the way for the water powered car to emerge from anonymity to become what is seen to be the saving grace in the face of today’s recession.

  5. vancedecker October 1, 2009 12:01 pm

    Arab countries will lose their only source of income.

  6. grahamt721 October 1, 2009 8:08 pm

    for electric cars they can’t go very far and most of them aren’t highway capable, for biofuels there is not enough land to grow the crops in order to make the fuel

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