The mid-Atlantic of the USA has no power.
And so one really has to wonder about the sheer brilliance of Energy Secretary Chu’s latest idea – more electric cars for a country that can no longer provide its citizens with a steady supply of electricity.
I have a question for Secretary Chu: Even if electric cars were free, what purpose would they serve when your energy system cannot produce electricity for days and days? If people and emergency services had your electric cars, they would all be stranded by now with no means of getting around.
Secretary Chu, rather than calling for more electric cars, which very few people want, you need to focus on, well, energy. After all, you are the Energy Secretary, and not the Secretary of Golf Carts.
How about focusing on revamping the utterly dilapidated electricity grid, which has been allowed to go to hell over the years? The energy generation and distribution system has been so neglected that it can no longer withstand a summer storm or heat wave. What a joke.
It’s time for you to start focusing seriously on making the supply of electricity affordable and reliable. Why do you refuse to do that? As it now stands, Washington DC and surrounding area are looking like a banana republic.
It’s time to seriously invest in more coal, nuclear and gas power generation technology. These supplies are cheap and RELIABLE.
And only then can you start to think about electric cars.
The solution is simple: ask the Greeks. They are already planning to sell “virtual” electricity to the rest of the EU.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-05/greece-urged-to-sell-virtual-solar-power-to-help-eu-meet-goals.html
They will gladly sell virtual power to help out the free West. Just make sure that those are virtual vehicles.
WOW! Is there anything the EU can’t solve! Why do we bother with trying to build transmission lines anyway to save the planet from evil coal power! The solution has been there all along! Just send money, don’t actually produce the energy! That’s it! It’s beyond quantum physics… even beyond REASON! This is to the enlightenment what the enlightenment was to the Dark Ages! (Gotta work on that last slogan lest it be misunderstoodo as “The Opposite”…)
Leaders should lead. Both should have solar powered limos with all the SecretService gizmos. Solar powered AirForce One and Marine One wouldn’t be bad either. Yes indeed, leaders should lead.
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The DoEnergy was founded by Carter to find more expensive ways of making less reliable electricity. It’s like the People’s Republic of China or the German Democratic Republic – just invert the qualifiers and you get the meaning.
And the EV lobby gets desperate, with volume production capacity coming online everywhere yet no consumer demand. How can we prod the taxpayer into buying these things without having to sell them at a giant loss per unit, that is the question for them. Who pays 30,000 bucks for an inner-city noddy car that needs a hugely expensive replacement battery after a few years?
What’s Government Motors doing? Oh,thanks for the bailout, we’re sinking as if a Chevy Volt was tied to our feet, down from 30 to 15 EUR in a year and a half. And completely unaffected by our current political Eurozone happy hour (which will start to evaporate today or tomorrow anyway)
http://www.comdirect.de/inf/aktien/detail/chart.html?timeSpan=5Y&ID_NOTATION=40456492
Donna Laframboise on the detached reality:
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2012/07/02/is-the-wwf-telling-the-truth-about-electric-cars/
She quotes Margaret Wente:
“Please don’t blame me for this splash of cold water. Blame the greens, whose grasp of basic consumer behaviour, energy economics and political realities are shockingly inadequate…just because the facts are unwelcome doesn’t make them untrue. Time and time again, the greens have harmed their cause with their uninformed fervour and simplistic thinking.”
(http://m.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/the-shocking-truth-about-electric-cars/article626992/?service=mobile)
My own take on the viability of EV: Off the grid.
http://contrary2belief.wordpress.com/energy-for-civilisation/energy-to-move/electric-cars-in-their-time-and-place/
For detached reality you should certainly pay a visit to Amsterdam. The government has decided to make for hundreds of millions a new lock in the canal between our city and the sea. It will become 18 metres deep allowing the biggests ships to arrive in the harbour. However, at a short distance there is a tunnel at 16 metres deep. Therefore, both the lock will be build and the big ships will be unloaded off shore and their content transported in small barks to the city. There still is the plan to build 60 windmills in the city.
A storm such as just happened (not actually uncommon in the great scheme of things) causes lots of problems that are not easily and/or quickly fixed. A car that will barely get one home from work without an electric charge just adds to the woes. Well at least you may get home.
The real message is that folks need to prepare for such things with adequate food and water, alternative fuel and lights, and on and on. If you and your family do not do these things (search the web for ideas) expect serious issues when a storm, earthquake, forest fires, or other disaster happens. We have a chest-type freezer filled with food and ice in 2 liter plastic bottles. Kept full in this manner, things will keep a week and the water is drinkable. Charcoal and a propane grill allow cooking. For those with space, a portable generator is a good investment. And so on.
Getting back to autos: A 300+ mile tank of gas (fill frequently) makes the all-electric 30 /40 mile item seem really dumb when the grid goes down. Note that most gasoline stations can’t pump during a power outage. Stores often give away (or sell at low prices) things such as ice, frozen items, and meat if the power will be off even for a day or two.
To repeat: Either prepare to take care of your needs for a few days or suffer while you wait for aid and comfort that will be slow in coming.
Nature’s a heartless bitch.
Prepare to survive.
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When the citizens of a country are distracted, or have grown too stupid to notice, anything is possible. In other words, “Imagine…” (a’la J.Lennon). The King really does have fine, new, beautiful clothes on! If you can’t see them you’re a moron, an idiot, a fool! If you really want to get along these days you really do have to go along, or Big Brother WILL get you.
The more people rely solely on government to minimize risk of being harmed or inconvenienced by disruptions (weather-related, financial, economic, health-related, etc.), the greater they – and society – are at risk.