Yunno, I was really trying not to 'jack your thread?
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Originally Posted by plwhit
The federal government is broke, state governments are broke...
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Yep. Going into debt to buy Oil has pretty much wiped US out.
Low Taxes + High Debt (Reaganomics) is a gross and utter failure as a long term plan.
I think that is pretty clear to everyone / everywhere by now.
At this point just about everyone / everywhere is trying to figure out how to back out of the lies, the debt and the mess without the entire structure collapsing on everyone.
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Just who will pay for these grid powered roadways?
These grid powered roadways like many other environmental concepts are extremely cost prohibitive, besides, the number of electric vehicles on the road do not justify the cost of these grid powered roadways.
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That is why transistions like this are slow conversion processes. If you look at Oil (and other finite resource) depletion curves, slow and steady conversion is all that is required, anyway. It took US around 40 years to transition from horses to autos. Allowing US at least 20 (to 40) years to go off Oil is fairly reasonable.
For a more modern examples, we have been transitioning away from Land Lines to Cell phone system for a couple of decades. Same as we went from Central Mainframe Computers to PC's and networks across decades. Technology changes are rarely just from On to Off. The old systems run right along beside the new, and are slowly replaced across time.
So we back out of Oil (etc.) the same way we got in -- one step, one car, one driver at a time. Builds up to one roadway, one town, one city, one state at time, and after some years we will have reached some hundred of millions of US.
The longest journey begins with the first step.
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I know these are slightly old figures but it seems the electric car sales in America are mmm how to say it? lousy?
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We have discussed this ad nausem. To see the real world condition, you know I placed an order for a Volt? We discussed that, as well. They are not available to even accept new orders until 2012. And there is a long line for that. How can you claim they will not sell, when they are already sold-out and back ordered before they are even built?
You are just making yourself look silly on this part.
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America needs a vehicle that's affordable and doesn't change one's driving habits. Smart/solar roadways are interesting but not practical unless America uncovers 15 Trillion dollars to build them and give people the electric vehicles utilize them....
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15 Trillion is an interesting number.
How did you come up with that? Not saying it is valid or not, just wondering. I have never ran a full budget, myself. Just compared it to the existing path and found the Electric Roadway model cheaper overall than the existing Oil Only methods.
The reason I am saying 15 Trillion is an interesting number is that what I am now seeing quoted as the overall cost of the total bailouts for the Upper-End, Bankers, Wall Street, Insurance Companies, IMF, etc.
So, I guess by that reasoning we can all afford to buy new lifeboats for the folks in First Class, but not so much for the folks who actually go to work and produce the wealth of the world? Typical, huh?
But back to US. Let's say your 15 Trillion is a valid number? Again, not arguing it either way, but let's run a simple model on it. For ease of numbers let's set interest and inflation to zero, as though they are cancelling each other out? On Big Stuff, things often turn out that way. And let's stretch our model to the 40 years for the full transition?
Simple math says:
$15 E 12 / 40 years = 3.75 E 11, or about $375 Billion per year.
Now compare that with our imported Oil addiction.
At about 10 E 6 barrels imported a day and *only* $80 a barrel (current spot price) and 365 days a year = 2.92 E 11 or about $300 Billion per year. And that is only counting the present imported fuel, at a relatively low cost of $80 a barrel. Only going up from that point.
Add in the costs of the Oil driven vehicles to be replaced at least 3 times over that next 40 years, and the present system is way upside down compared to the $15 Trillion (over 40 years) that you are citing.
And all comparison assumes that we could continue to burn imported Oil at our present rate. We cannot -- due to finances, depletion and we cannot kill enough people and steal enough resources to do so. Game Over for US.
Not talking about this because it is pie-in-the-sky, by-and-by. Other than this, we have painted ourselves into a corner. To transition to grid power roadways requires No new technology, no future Mr. Fusion, No additional Coal, No Nukes. All cleaner, faster, cheaper and safer than what things are now.
All the resources to do this are 100% available in the US, and would fully employ the population doing so.
And by your numbers -- it is a bargain.
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