The original use for petroleum was as a replacement for whale oil in lamps. The cracking process hasn't changed much in 100 or so years, but the desired product originally was kerosene. Gasoline and lighter fluids were considered "undesirable" then... So were cheaper to purchase from the oil barons.
We all know that Rudolph originally designed his engine to run on peanut oil, which (IIRC) was also considered an undesirable back then. Even if it was a normal product for other things, it was cleaner and easier to get than oil. My understanding is that even Henry Ford talked with Rudolph about putting diesel engines into the Model T at one point. BOY would that have made the world a different place! Why he didn't, I can't remember right now.
Supply and manufacturing reasons aside, safety of the fuel has never been a deciding factor for the auto makers and their bought-off members of Congress.
Anyone remember a tiny little doomed design called the PINTO that would burst into flames if you hit it in the rear? The original Ford Mustang had the SAME DESIGN FLAW - The top of the fuel tank was the bottom layer of the trunk. There was no second layer of steel, and the tank was just resting (tack welded) in between the frame rails that had NO REINFORCEMENT BEHIND THE TANK... So WHEN you were rear-ended, the bumper would collapse inward... Directly into the tank. Tank ruptures, spraying fuel everywhere into the trunk area. On the Pinto, since it was a hatchback... You were now wearing a gasoline suit just looking for a spark.
Ford famously produced a memo that said it would be cheaper to pay the claims than to fix this design on the pinto. Bastages.
The design continued through the mid 80's (even though the original Mustang and Pinto designs were scrapped in the mid 70's) because they CONTINUED to put the tank unprotected BEHIND the axle in the Crown Victoria and equivalent full-size frame cars from Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury. Only after several WELL-PUBLICIZED fires involving police cars did they finally stop doing that and protect the tank better.
Remember the GM dually trucks with the "sidesaddle" fuel tanks in the wheel wells on both sides? Another completely unprotected mounting for the tanks... And ANOTHER memo of the same "cheaper to pay lawsuits than fix this" from the board. Garbage, all of them!
This kind of blatant avarice and greed is the reason why diesel isn't more prevalent in this country, why Los Angeles no longer has a world-class mass transit street car system, and why the state of development of ACTUAL alternatives to oil-powered vehicles hasn't changed in 100 years in this country. Someone is getting paid off, and someone else is making WAY too much money to allow actual competition to endanger their money flow.
Electric cars existed BEFORE gasoline engines. Electric TRUCKS existed before diesel powered trucks moved their first pallet. So why after 100 years of development, can we still only get 15mpg from a passenger SUV (gasser) and barely 40 miles of pure electric from an electric vehicle? The GM EV-1 in the late 80s could give 100 miles and nobody really knows how fast they could top out at (chickened out at 180mph after removing the limiter) Yet GM and Toyota fought tooth and nail against the requirement of even BUILDING them, and suddenly pulled all of them from the marketplace and destroyed them once their lawsuits were bought in their favor.
I know I sound like a tinfoil hat right now... But the motive is simple: FOLLOW THE MONEY. Who stands to lose the most if something changes?
We all know that diesel is safer to use, has more energy (so you use less of it) and is cheaper to produce... And you get more of it from a barrel of oil, which further reduces the amount of oil that you need to start with... So who stands to lose the most if we use more diesel fuel? FUEL PRODUCERS WHO WON'T SELL AS MUCH PRODUCT. So they fight by buying junk science that says that diesel is dirtier. If you use LESS of it, you are naturally polluting less than gasoline. Ditto for CO2 production, the newest boogeyman. But that won't dissuade someone who's eyes are blinded by $$$$$.
Think about this: History is repeating itself right now. Watch this link, and tell me what you think has changed to make the world better or safer... Or has money simply been spent to protect the status quo? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9A36A3GTcY
Yea... This is a huge problem. But are any of the sheeple REALLY going to be able to prevent this from ever happening again? I doubt it.
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