What will you do when GM goes all electric?

[Rev. Rye]

You do make a point about electricity costs. There isn't the generating capacity nor the electricity grid infrastructure to support every family charging one or two cars every night.

Time-of-day pricing, and smart systems that spread load (i.e. tells each house system when to charge the car) can partly solve the problem, but I don't think it will work fully.

To environmentalists -- how is that "don't flood my river" and "no nuclear in my back yard" going?

So, I just checked it up.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average U.S. residential customer uses approximately 909 kWh per month of energy, or around 10,909 kWh per year.

The average gallon of gas puts out an average of 33.41 kWh. Doing the math, that’s less than a gallon of gas per day on average. That seems doable, and Given Biker’s apparent quest to be like Ron Swanson without any redeeming qualities, I can expect him to use less.

However, it just seems impractical and needlessly spiteful. And looking at the conclusion you reach that gas prices are going to go down to $1 per gallon and electricity prices are going to go 3-4 times higher than they are now, I have to admit: I don’t think it’s going to reach that point for a long time.

Even if GM is discontinues production on gas-powered light cars today (and not by 2035, like they actually announced) that still means that the gasoline-powered cars in operation are still going to be in operation, guzzling gas and contributing to the world’s carbon footprint and further depleting the global supply of oil until they break down, especially considering that I haven’t noticed any claims that other car manufacturers, like, for instance, Subaru or Volkswagen (or, fuck, the other two members of the Big Three, Chrysler and Ford), are doing the same. And given that advances in renewable energy are happening all the time (and even becoming less expensive), I’m not even convinced that in the time it takes for the vast majority of cars Americans drive to become electric, electricity prices are going to go up 200-300%. Also, that doesn’t even get into the other uses of petroleum besides as vehicular fuel (like plastics, for instance.)

It looks like, for all the talk you’ve given about supply and demand, you seem to have forgotten the whole “supply” aspect.

[The Valkyrie]

I'll demote them to Colonel Motors (CM).

[onlinebiker]

You do make a point about electricity costs.  There isn't the generating capacity nor the electricity grid infrastructure to support every family charging one or two cars every night.  

Time-of-day pricing, and smart systems that spread load (i.e. tells each house system when to charge the car) can partly solve the problem, but I don't think it will work fully.

To environmentalists -- how is that "don't flood my river" and "no nuclear in my back yard" going?

So, I just checked it up.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average U.S. residential customer uses approximately 909 kWh per month of energy, or around 10,909 kWh per year.

The average gallon of gas puts out an average of 33.41 kWh. Doing the math, that’s less than a gallon of gas per day on average. That seems doable, and Given Biker’s apparent quest to be like Ron Swanson without any redeeming qualities, I can expect him to use less.

However, it just seems impractical and needlessly spiteful. And looking at the conclusion you reach that gas prices are going to go down to $1 per gallon and electricity prices are going to go 3-4 times higher than they are now, I have to admit: I don’t think it’s going to reach that point for a long time.

Even if GM is discontinues production on gas-powered light cars today (and not by 2035, like they actually announced) that still means that the gasoline-powered cars in operation are still going to be in operation, guzzling gas and contributing to the world’s carbon footprint and further depleting the global supply of oil until they break down, especially considering that I haven’t noticed any claims that other car manufacturers, like, for instance, Subaru or Volkswagen (or, fuck, the other two members of the Big Three, Chrysler and Ford), are doing the same. And given that advances in renewable energy are happening all the time (and even becoming less expensive), I’m not even convinced that in the time it takes for the vast majority of cars Americans drive to become electric, electricity prices are going to go up 200-300%.

It looks like, for all the talk you’ve given about supply and demand, you seem to have forgotten the whole “supply” aspect.

Where exactly is YOUR "clean energy" going to come from?

You aren't going to get it with windmills and solar panels - despite all the cheery, optimistic blathering we are deluged with......

Last year we used 4 TRILLION kilowatt hours in the US....

Do the.math..

FYI - A newer nuclear power plant with no problems can generate about 5,000,000 mwh if run 24/7/365....

See the scale of the problem yet?

[Rhizomorph13]

Nuclear power!

Ok, but seriously I'll keep my current vehicles (Kia Soul and Grande Caravan) and buy an electric when we need new vehicles i.e. the cost to repair our vehicles greatly outpaces the value of the vehicle. I used to think that an electric vehicle just front loads the carbon foot print and then spreads the ongoing footprint across the grid to hide the fact that they do have a large carbon footprint. I've done enough research that I am now convinced that there are many efficiencies to switching to electric and we should certainly do that while finding better ways to generate electricity. There are some nuclear plants that actually consume depleted fissionable material so hopefully nuclear might be the way forward along with clean coal plants.

[Rev. Rye]

Happy Skeptic brought up the subject of nuclear energy, and, frankly, I think it’s the most practical option. Despite the fact that there are occasional cases of plants going under a meltdown, frankly, given that the worst case scenario in my lifetime (Fukushima) involved a plant being hit with a 15-meter Tsunami and the fourth-largest earthquake in recorded history simultaneously, and ended up with only a single death due to radiation (though there were 2 from the impacts and one from a heart attack) with only a small radius of the area needing to be evacuated, it looks like it’s actually a safe bet. Imagine if the builders of the plant had the foresight to actually make sure they could properly weather such events!

[onlinebiker]

Happy Skeptic brought up the subject of nuclear energy, and, frankly, I think it’s the most practical option. Despite the fact that there are occasional cases of plants going under a meltdown, frankly, given that the worst case scenario in my lifetime (Fukushima) involved a plant being hit with a 15-meter Tsunami and the fourth-largest earthquake in recorded history simultaneously, and ended up with only a single death due to radiation (though there were 2 from the impacts and one from a heart attack) with only a small radius of thfe area needing to be evacuated, it looks like it’s actually a safe bet. Imagine if the builders of the plant had the foresight to actually make sure they could properly weather such events!

Sounds great.

We'll store the waste next door to you.....


Everybody's happy...

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Happy Skeptic brought up the subject of nuclear energy, and, frankly, I think it’s the most practical option. Despite the fact that there are occasional cases of plants going under a meltdown, frankly, given that the worst case scenario in my lifetime (Fukushima) involved a plant being hit with a 15-meter Tsunami and the fourth-largest earthquake in recorded history simultaneously, and ended up with only a single death due to radiation (though there were 2 from the impacts and one from a heart attack) with only a small radius of thfe area needing to be evacuated, it looks like it’s actually a safe bet. Imagine if the builders of the plant had the foresight to actually make sure they could properly weather such events!

Sounds great.

We'll store the waste next door to you.....


Everybody's happy...

Whereas we can keep burning fossil fuels and store the waste in everybody’s lungs.

Boru

[HappySkeptic]

You know what they've said for the last 50 years -- fusion power is only 50 years away!

I worked at a nuclear research facility. I wasn't worried a bit about the radiation, and I was actually there for a small release. We live with natural radiation all the time. Coal power puts far more radioactivity in the air than a nuclear plant does. Chernobyl probably caused fewer cancers over 20 years than we lose to Covid19 in a day (but hey, I loved the miniseries).

[The Architect Of Fate]

Sounds great.

We'll store the waste next door to you.....


Everybody's happy...

Whereas we can keep burning fossil fuels and store the waste in everybody’s lungs.

Boru

Not to mention all the adverse effects of climate change from the solution of "do nothing and pretend there isn't a problem"

[Rev. Rye]

Whereas we can keep burning fossil fuels and store the waste in everybody’s lungs.

Boru

Not to mention all the adverse effects of climate change from the solution of "do nothing and pretend there isn't a problem"

Or the solution of "if people say that there's a problem and doing a certain thing exacerbates it, just say 'fuck you, I'm going to do it more!'"