Chevron not yet done trying to derail hybrids

As there is obviously a long history to this subject, would some enlightened individual(s) mind posting any other links to actual news articles on the subject involving Chevron and their campaign against the Hybrid market?

 

If you look at the entries on Wikipedia for Cobasys and Ovshinsky and NiMH batteries you can get a summary of the history of the NiMH battery. Ovshinsky was the inventor of NiMH.

I did a Google search on Cobasys and found a couple of interesting links.

The press release for the settlement: Yahoo! Groups

Cobasys is currently in financial trouble:
Cobasys' owners push for sale of battery maker -

What you won't find is the terms of the licensing agreement(s) between Panasonic, Toyota and Cobasys, et. al. That is confidential, but the rumor is that it limits the capacity of the NiMH battery that Toyota (or other licensees) can use in automotive applications.

 

That is correct except there are some details of the agreement out there, check my link below.

LIon batteries are not covered by Cobasys patents. The patents expire in 2014. A good read is here:

Cobasys - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The world of electric cars will be a much better place after 2014. What a shame that this one company can do so much damage.

 

For something like this, we need the opposite of the Nobel Peace Prize to recognize individuals, politicians, corporations, etc. who have done acts such as these to the overall set-back of humanity in the name of corporate (greed) profit.

Right along with the Nobel Peace Prize Winners being recognized and awarded for their contribution to society, these other 'winners' will be ridiculed and shamed.

Now we just need a name for this prize....
How about the Nobel Booby Prize?

 

How about the Luddite Award?

Given to individuals or companies that stand in the way of the advancement of science or technology.

 

what is this obsession people have with so-called "rights"?

why do people confuse a social "right" like free speech and thought, religion, etc. with the "right" of a company to do anything for a profit? where did people get this idea that a business has freedom? corporate charters still can have as many limits as a state wants to set.

this obsession with market consumer freedoms while ignoring the real freedoms being trampled on is one of the many reasons America is on such a decline.

 

The notion that a corporation has the same "rights" as an actual person is a typographical error in Supreme Court documents that has never been corrected.

 

Coal likes to tout their numbers of centuries of supply, but that's at the current (typically last year's) production rate. If you figure in a typical 3% annual growth, it drops by about a third, and if you assume coal gasification (coal to liquids) takes off because of a petroleum shortage, then you probably have less than 50 years supply. I don't have the real estimates, and business math takes me awhile to figure out (give me hexadecimal any day), but those numbers are roughly accurate.

Not to mention coal is a really dirty power source and involves nasty mining techniques, like mountain-top removal which destroys the habitat for centuries and topography for millenia.

 

Let us posit that Chevron etc. have acted in their own self-interest to inhibit demand reduction for their money maker, crude oil. May it not also be true that this stance has accelerated the development of cars like Prius, that clearly illustrate the efficiency increase that can be achieved with a '6.5' (small) battery?

As an unintended consequence, they caused Toyota etc. engineers to be exceedingly clever. Now we have a large and growing fleet of quite efficient vehicles, each one requiring not all that much nickel metal.

Somebody has to sing 'Kumbaya' in this dreary thread

 

.....must.......restrain.......from.........thinking.......of......XXXXXXXX

 

This is EXACTLY what my finacial adviser told me.

He said not to invest in new energy technologies because any company that was looking promising would be bought up by the oil companies and closed down.

Doesn't look promising for the future, unless you invest in oil I guess.

 

I think I'd get a new financial advisor (or go without one and do your own research - plus online trades are $7 or less flat fee - what does he charge?). How does he explain First Solar and Sun Power? Granted, alternative energy is somewhat speculative and you have more risk, but there's good money to be made in this growing field.

Also, if he is correct, one of the best things to happen to a stock is to be bought by another company as they pay above market price to acquire your shares. Even if the long-term result is not what your morally agree with, financially you'll be money ahead.

And finally, many oil companies (but not Chevron apparently) are looking at green energy themselves because they know they can't survive forever, particularly with the trend towards state-run oil companies. Shell and BP and Exxon-Mobile are small bit players in today's petroleum marketplace, it's Rusneft, PdVSA and Saudi Aramco, etc. that control the future oil supply. So even the public oil companies are investing at least a token amount in solar and wind, etc.

I've invested almost entirely in alternative energy for the last 7 years, and other than an early fiasco with fuel cells, I've done pretty well (it's just a little gambling money, nothing serious, but still enough to keep me honest). I'm up 80% in 4 years, and that's including amateur mistakes.

 

nerfer would you mind sharing which companies you believe are on the right track with alternative energy

 

After Gore got one, it already is a "booby" prize in my opinion. LOL.

You know I have always bought Chevron gas (since 1988), but this post has me re-thinking that.

Mike

 

A123 has done the paperwork for approval prior to going public.