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May 21, 2023
6:07:50pm
davidsonlaw Starter
There is so much wrong in this, and the understanding of the public
I get it, not everyone has the benefit of full information because neither side of the equation is being adequately addressed. There is a lack of truth telling on both sides, but let me illuminate a few things.

FIRST, we will suffer economically by jettisoning gas too quickly. There just is not enough electricity generated in North America or anywhere in the world to allow for us to have a large segment of the people driving electric cars. This is going to be true for at least the next thirty years. They use a lot of power. This is why gasoline was first used for cars and why it still makes sense today. Both by volume and weight, there is much more power in gasoline than in any battery. It isn't even close.

It is not a question of what is the better energy source, but in the ability to actually deliver enough energy. And, that energy in the form of electricity has to come from somewhere. Wind and solar are far too expensive and there simply isn't enough real estate in this country to do all of our electrical supply that way. Plus, it has been documented that where they put up too many windmills, the wind doesn't blow as hard. This makes sense when you think about it: there is a finite amount of kinetic energy in the atmosphere at any given point in time. The more you take out, the less the wind blows. Neither wind nor solar would exist in the quantities it does today if there wasn't mandates that power companies must buy that power and ridiculously high tax incentives. So what are we to do? Build more natural gas and coal? Build nuclear? Those strategies would work, but we seem hell bent to not do them, and we will eventually have to make a very hard choice in this.

SECOND, the slave labor part of the equation is a cobalt thing, not a lithium thing. Not all lithium ion batteries use cobalt, but your Tesla probably does. This should bother you.

THIRD, it is important to be wary of democrats (and republicans) passing laws that that force us to make one choice over another. This is bad every time it happens. Let individuals decide what they want or don't want. The market will then make adjustments. It's funny how the market lined Elon's pocket's, and he then bought twitter to fight the government. And, let's be clear. Poor people don't drive Teslas, but poor people helped buy every Tesla on the road.

Frankly, if you have purchased a Tesla, you shouldn't be encouraging everyone to do so. There really is only so much electricity to go around at this point, and you don't want your neighbors joining the queue making it harder for you to charge your own vehicle.

But, you are right that people have made electric cars a moral issue. They are trying to save the planet, and a large number of people are convinced that gas burning cars are destroying the planet. Unfortunately, these people are woefully illiterate, by and large. Their models don't work because they ignore variability in solar output, variability in our planet's orbit and a false belief that renewables, so called, are a free lunch. There is no free lunch. Everything is paid for.
davidsonlaw
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davidsonlaw
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