Re: Infrastructure implications

Extinction Level Event


Since they can’t sell people on electric cars, the next best thing is to outlaw internal combustion-engined cars. In order to force people into electric cars.
The German Bundesrat (their version of our Congress) just passed a bipartisan agreement toward that end. The legislative details have yet to be worked out, but the idea is to impose a comprehensive ban on the use of cars powered by internal combustion on not just German roads but all European Union roads as well.

By 2030 – just 14 years from now.

This is supposed to curb “climate warming emissions,” in particular carbon dioxide, says Green Party representative Oliver Krischer. “If the Paris Agreement (on global warming) is to be taken seriously, no new combustion engines should be allowed on roads.”

The Paris Agreement Krischer refers to urges a “review (of) current practices of taxation and dues with regard to a stimulation of emissions-free mobility.”

Why speak in euphemisms?

“Stimulation” = punitive taxes designed to make driving other than an electric car cost-prohibitive.

And of course (but never spoken) electric cars will be that, too.

Remember your Heinlein. There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL) and electricity isn’t free energy and batteries aren’t cheap. Plugging in seems free because (for now) there is no meter attached to the port and whatever it costs to feed juice to your EV is either folded in to your general household utility bill or (if it’s a public charger) it’s “free”… for now.

Until they start to charge you for a charge.

It’ll be “free” just long enough to get you gulled into believing in such an idiocy as “free” energy. And batteries.

.battery-cost

We keep hearing they’ll get cheaper. Maybe so. To some extent, they have. But right now, they still cost a fortune and until they cost a fraction of their current cost, electric cars will never be an economical alternative to a car powered by internal combustion.

Which is why it is necessary to massively subsidize electric cars via tax (and carbon) credits and so on. Absent these, not even the stupid rich would pony up. And for the average person, a $30,000-plus car (whether electric or IC-powered) makes as much economic sense as a snow shovel in Phoenix. Buy an EV because you think it’s cool, because it’s quick or for any of several other reasons. But as an economic decision, it’s wasteful and frivolous.

And this “emissions free” business?

These Green People are immensely dishonest or immensely uninformed.

Unless it becomes possible to harness lightning bolts or extract energy from the vacuum somehow (and in a “clean” manner) man-made electricity will continue to entail the production of emissions. Coal and oil and natural gas burning (to make electricity) produces plenty of C02. Does it make it any difference, global warming-wise, whether the C02 is produced at the smokestack vs. a tailpipe?

Yes, there is nuclear power generation. It also produces “greenhouse” gasses (water vapor at the cooling towers) and (much worse, Gaia-wise) radioactive waste that lingers for thousands of years and which is immensely more harmful both to the earf and to the human beings who inhabit it than asserted harms caused by an inert gas (C02). And the true object is not a Happy Earth Dance. It is to get us walking. Out of cars, period. Ban the IC engine, then present as the alternative electric cars that most of the population can’t afford. The end result is the same: A fraction of the population – the very affluent – enjoy the privilege of personal transportation. The rest of us get public transportation.

Or, we walk.

Our radius of action limited to urban cores; our movements on schedule and coordinated. The Germans – bless them – have a word for this: Gleichschaltung.

And some will cheer this.

An article in Gizmodo concluded its coverage of this business with the following noxiousness: “The fact that the country with the fourth-largest auto industry in the world is spearheading such sweeping changes is a big sign of where we’re headed. It’s a road paved with slow-moving politicians making incremental changes and hoping the industry will warm up to the idea of not killing us all.”

But it’s not global warming (or climate change or whatever they’re asserting now) that’s “killing us all.” It’s the reality of economic ruin and what that will actually mean to the average person, if this all comes to pass.

The elites – guys like Krischer in Deutschland and his marching-in-step gebruder (and schwestern) here in Amerika (which includes, unfortunately, The Donald, who has either bought into the “climate change” shibboleth or is fearful of questioning it) will continue to have cars, IC and otherwise.

Because for them, cost is no object.

The object is to impose costs on us.

And don’t rest easy thinking this is just a German Thing. See the above point about the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of cars. If Mercedes, BMW, Audi, VW and Opel go all-in for electric (VW already has) the die will have been cast.

Once upon a long time ago, another German said the following, or close enough: In America they are filled with curiosity and wondering, is he coming? When is he coming?

Don’t worry! He’s coming…

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

I wonder what the sports exhaust option will sound like.

on the electric Boxster will be much more flexible.

Just check out the exhaust system.



You'll get the sound(s) of your choice at iTunes at about $2,500 each.

Prices dropped by 80% in 5 years and they're still going down.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2016 07:13PM by Boxsterra. (view changes)

Battery fueled transportation is neither clean nor energy efficient, and it is certainly NOT cost efficient.....if that was your point.

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

Quote
Gary in SoFL
Battery fueled transportation is neither clean nor energy efficient, and it is certainly NOT cost efficient.....if that was your point.

Exactly. Right now, there are only a few electric cars being plugged in each night. Make that millions of cars and see how that effects the power grid. Get a power outage overnight and you won't be going anywhere in the morning. But we can solve that problem by building more coal fired and nuclear generating stations.

which is still in its early stages but take Costa Rica, for example, which is nearly 100% renewable. And it's not all solar.

Obviously, there is a joy to driving internal combustion engines that cannot be replaced with electric. But car enthusiasts don't represent the majority of people.

It will be possible to provide the entire world with low-cost renewable energy but obviously we have a long way to go.

That's what's nice about the Panamera Hybrid--22 miles range on electric motors, which covers most local trips, but gas engine for longer trips. Electric is terrible for long hauls. I did see Telsa has devised a system where your power pack is replaced by robots. Takes about as long as fueling a gas tank, and you do not have to get out of the car. Put a bunch of those along the highway, and yeah, electric would be more viable.

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

Let's remove the $550 billion in annual subsidies that currently go to the fossil fuel industry and see how well it can compete against renewable.

I predict the deadline will be extended. If not, even the wealthy few will not be able to easily find gasoline for their cars. It reminds me of a couple of situations from my past. After finishing grad school I bought a new Champion Citabria airplane in 1973. It used 80 octane avgas. The oil companies phased out 80 octane and replaced it with 100 octane low lead gas which had a lot more lead than 80 octane and could not be used extensively without damaging the plane's engine. I hauled car gas out to the airport in 6 gallon cans for years. In 1976 I bought a new BMW R90S motorcycle which required leaded premium gas. When that became unavailable, I used a mixture of lead free premium and 100 octane low lead avgas to simulate leaded premium.

That R90S was a helluva bike, and represented the start of a major shift in the industry.

Used ones in good condition command a price in excess of their factory sticker. (Not unlike certain Porsches)

It was a fantastic ride. I sold the R90S in 1992 and have no regrets. I'm a recovering speed addict, and I spent some afternoons on that bike going way too fast on the back roads of Minnesota and Wisconsin. I told a friend at the time I felt like a gambler who cashed in his chips and left the casino a big winner.

My bike wasn't even close to being in the same league as yours. But there were some runs sufficiently 'spirited' that, when I look back on them now, I shake my head and think "what was I thinking"? Who knows, but my mortality wasn't on of the list.

After riding for 10 years without incident, I figured, like you, that I'd be wise to quit while ahead. Your expression is much more poetic.

If you have a pic of your R90S, I hope you'll post it.

As long as you asked.
[s153.photobucket.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2016 11:13AM by SteveJ (2010 987 base, manual trans). (view changes)

No one seems to consider what happens when those things are spent and need to be disposed of. Hazardous waste anyone? Not enough clean energy to make this worthwhile, this is simply as it is stated, some politicians trying to make themselves look better than the rest by "caring" about the earth. Its not the case, just politics. Maybe we can give tax breaks to VW, Audi, BMW, Mercedes , and Porsche to move across the pond to relocate their industries?!

Steve
Guards Red 1999
I'm not a race car driver, but I play one in 2nd and 3rd gear

Today, 70% of the Tesla batteries are recycled. Eventually it will be 100%.

With today's processes, "battery recycling technology is able to save at least 70 percent on CO2 emissions." Eventually it will be more.

[www.tesla.com]

All of this stuff is getting better quickly.