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Americans are too addicted to their cars and McMansions. Autocentric suburban sprawl is all we know how to do. Because sitting for hours every single day in bumper to bumper traffic congestion is so much fun!
It's the nation's biggest pasttime. Millions of drivers crawling through bumper to bumper traffic congestion twiddling their thumbs burning oil like there's no tomorrow. Gee, what fun. Only oil is a limited nonrenewable resource getting rapidly depleted as world population explodes along with demand from the two developing industrial giants China and India coming online. Oil doesn't grow on trees. Once its gone its gone for good. America's mindless consumerism and shortsightedness will be the end of us. Oh well.
Assuming gasoline hits $5 / gallon this spring and summer, and continues upward over the coming years...
It won't deter all driving, but will begin to create demand for less fuel consuming alternatives.
Of course, if we wait for government to take charge and "give" us electric rail - - - we'll have a gigantic system, as promised by the latest candidates - - - scheduled to be finished around 2112, when it's too late.
Back to the "green" electric car--after the electricity is produced in a power plant (almost 80% by burning fossil fuels ), it must be transmitted with significant loss over power lines, then stored chemically in the car battery, before being converted back into energy to power the car. How does this process compare in efficiency to simply burning gasoline to power a car?
Is this simply too complicated for the average American to understand?
Actually, you are overcomplicating things. Since electrical cars fuel costs are cheaper than gasoline powered vehicles it tells you that electrical cars are more efficient as far as fuel consumption goes.
I might buy a third generation electric car possibly in about ten years. When they are actually overall cheaper to run than a Toyota Corolla.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,351 posts, read 54,502,307 times
Reputation: 40809
Quote:
Originally Posted by KUchief25
Well old Rush spells out pretty good here what libs are all about.
"My grandfather was born in 1893. And he saw more advancement in human technology, quality of life in the first 50 years of his life than had happened in all of human history prior to it.
"
Did Rush bother to acknowledge that electric cars were quite common in his grandfather's era or is that just one of those pesky little facts he often chooses to ignore?
Electric cars are for sissies! When I hit the gas pedal I wanna go. I drive a full size pick-up that gets 15 miles to the gallon. For an occupation I drive a diesel powered truck that probably gets 7, which electricty could never have the power to pull and move what diesel fuel does. Beat that tree huggers!
I happened to hear Rush's monolog about electric cars and such. I found it amusing that he opened his talk with stating that there was some study done by two people (one a graduate student, I believe) who proved that electric cars emit more 'particles' than gasoline vehicles.
Rush then thoughtfully explained that he while he would like to explain the science behind the findings, his audience would not understand it. Hence, he explained nothing, but moved on to his point.
One point, that he repeated several times, was that 'liberals' are afraid of progress. I admit, that took me by surprise. I guess that Rush would maintain that conservatives are all in favor of progress.
I did take issue with Rush's statement that liberals believe that corporations are in the business of 'killing their customers'. I doubt that any reasonable person would agree with that statement. I certainly do not believe that large corporations desire the death of their customers.
However, I do believe that there are corporations who, in order to maximize profits for the shareholders, will take short-cuts that could, and have in the past, affected the health of Americans, whether they be 'customers' or not. Recall that there was a point of time in our history when corporations (including foundries, etc) would dump their toxic waste in rivers or other places where toxic waste should not be dumped.
One proponent, back in the day, of enacting laws to reign in such practices was Barry Goldwater, who wrote:
"While I am a great believer in the free enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment."
(The Conscience of a Majority).
I recall how polluted our streets were back in those days. I was all for the laws being enacted to protect our environment.
Oops, time to get to work. Go thou, and do likewise.
Yes but those power plants generally aren't located in major urban areas, you know like the roads and highways used by cars which in turn put pollution directly where people live....
Now we're getting to the heart of it. Its obvious that the electric car is significantly less green than the gasoline car BUT its environmental problems lie in rural areas where coal is mined, and burned, and batteries are dumped, rather than in urban areas, where the cars are being run. The intention therefore (like much of the current administration's agenda) has to be "to average out" (maybe someone can think of a better way to phrase it). This goes not only for pollution, but also wealth and military capability, among other things.
The fallacy with this one is that weather "averages out" anyway, and rather quickly, so the net result is simply more environmental degradation, at the expense of the taxpayer.
Electric cars are for sissies! When I hit the gas pedal I wanna go. I drive a full size pick-up that gets 15 miles to the gallon.
You do realize that electric motors have much higher low-speed torque than their internal combustion counterparts, when comparing similar vehicles? That's what gives a vehicle get-up-and-go from a standing start.
Quote:
Originally Posted by supertrucker212
For an occupation I drive a diesel powered truck that probably gets 7, which electricty could never have the power to pull and move what diesel fuel does. Beat that tree huggers!
Now we're getting to the heart of it. Its obvious that the electric car is significantly less green than the gasoline car BUT its environmental problems lie in rural areas where coal is mined, and burned, and batteries are dumped, rather than in urban areas, where the cars are being run. The intention therefore (like much of the current administration's agenda) has to be "to average out" (maybe someone can think of a better way to phrase it). This goes not only for pollution, but also wealth and military capability, among other things.
The fallacy with this one is that weather "averages out" anyway, and rather quickly, so the net result is simply more environmental degradation, at the expense of the taxpayer.
That's a politicized misunderstanding. The actual reasoning is that it's better to have fewer creators of pollution (the energy production plants) where it's easier to control the pollution, easier to improve pollution controls as the technology becomes available. Versus hundreds of millions of smaller pollution sources (cars) spread over the country, each in different states of maintenance and age, each one only as clean as the technology available at its time of manufacture.
That's a politicized misunderstanding. The actual reasoning is that it's better to have fewer creators of pollution (the energy production plants) where it's easier to control the pollution, easier to improve pollution controls as the technology becomes available. Versus hundreds of millions of smaller pollution sources (cars) spread over the country, each in different states of maintenance and age, each one only as clean as the technology available at its time of manufacture.
Well yes I politicized it unnessecarily. But I don't agree with your point either. Modern auto technology is such that it is far superior in terms of the environmental impact than that at the coal burning plant, considering not only emmissions but also the impact of extraction of these resources. And that differential will probably get larger, especially if we pull LG into the equation. Localized combustion will also always be more efficient than centralized combustion.
So, dropping back to the big picture, I'll say that it is a bigger plan than that of my emotionally based post above. Obama is anticipating the conversion from a fossil fueled environment to an electric one, by 1. Putting pressure on the oil market ( by not allowing the keystone pipeline, banning the drilling by US oil companies in the Gulf, and shutting down coal fired power plants ) and 2. simultaneously advancing electric automobile technology, for starters. This would seem a very long range plan. So what are the alternatives ? Nuclear? Hydro? These have there own environmental issues. It is as a result not clear to me what the virtues of the electric or hybrid car are .
Now...I still have time to edit my original post....nah, forget it.
All I got out that slobbering rant of Rush's is that he thinks Americans shouldn't have cheap convenient transportation (mass transit, trains, buses, subways, cars that hold more than one person, ski lifts).
It was surprising that he included women in the building of America...maybe he's having an equality moment...
Yup , those pioneers got their Conestogas together , FORMED A WAGON TRAIN, and TOGETHER headed west . Rush thinks that's Bad, Rush thinks that's Good....the drugs have destroyed whatever brain cells he ever had...
How is mass transit convenient? Do you propose hi speed rail stop at your front door to pick you up now? That will slow down the his speed part of it I'm guessing.
Oh on another note every car I've ever been in holds more than one person. Now I don't know about those little deathtrap moonbat mobile smart cars. You can have at those death machines.
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