Prius Designer Says Industry Must Lose Oil Addiction (Update1)

[bananas]

This looks like a very interesting article,
I don't have time to read the whole thing right now.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aoCSD7m5zHhA&refer=home

Prius Designer Says Industry Must Lose Oil Addiction (Update1)

By John Lippert and Alan Ohnsman


Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Reinert, who helped design Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid, hovers in a helicopter 1,000 feet over Fort McMurray, Alberta. On this clear November morning, he's craning for a look at one of the world's largest petroleum reserves where there's not an oil well in sight.

Instead, in a 2-mile-wide pit below, trucks head to refineries with loads of sand weighing more than Boeing 747s. Yellow flames shoot skyward as 900-degree-Fahrenheit (482- degree-Celsius) heat liquefies any embedded petroleum. Floating scarecrows and propane-powered cannons do their best to chase migrating birds from lethal wastewater ponds.

Eventually, nuclear reactors may surround the crater 270 miles (435 kilometers) northeast of Edmonton, Alberta, delivering the power required to wring oil from sand.

``This is what the end of the age of oil means,'' says Reinert, 60, who plans the vehicles Toyota will make in a quarter century as national manager for advanced technology at the U.S. sales unit in Torrance, California. ``The car-based culture, the business-as-usual of building cars and trucks, is going to change dramatically.''

<snip>

[cedric]

1. Isn't it great

the way the car industry is now going to save us.

Pity they hadn't bothered to listen to all the people who were telling them that climate change and oil depletion were happening 20 years ago.

Oh and if he wants to save the planet I suggest he stops using his bloody helicopter.

[Javaman]

2. It takes between 20 and 50 barrels of oil to manufacture a car...

how much of the Prius is made of recycled material?