Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 12/13/2008 2:56:23 PM PST by Joiseydude
President Nicolas Sarkozy would dearly like to end France’s rotating presidency of the European Union on a high note by brokering this week a deal on a grand European response to global warming and energy efficiency. The ultimate plan is to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent with member states at the same time drawing their future energy needs from clean renewable sources by the same percentage amount. Under the circumstances, it is no surprise that the automobile industry has found itself at the heart of the climate change debate.
Indeed, Mr Sarkozy’s own government commissioned months ago one of France’s leading energy experts – Jean Syrota, the former French energy industry regulator – to draw up a report to analyse all the options for building cleaner and more efficient mass-market cars by 2030. The 129-page report was completed in September to coincide with the Paris motor show. But the government has continued to sit on it and seems reluctant to ever publish it.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Imagine an all electric-powered car being used out West where someone commutes 60 miles one way to work. Who is going to pay the cost to recharge that thing during the day, then again at night. The big question is where is all the electricity going to come from? A coal generated power plant?
I wonder how well the heater works on those electric cars when it is twenty below outside?
GM has just bought Stanley Steamer and will offer a coal-powered engine to eliminate the need for messy kerosene.
America's new DreamMobile!
Pssst. Charge them at night. The grid will never notice.
Works great, but by the time the car warms up, the battery is dead.
Nothing man uses can please everyone. We cannot build one thing that will make everyone happy.
If we could build a power supply that was totally self-sustaining, with near-unlimited lifespan, and totally clean, some group of people would still find something to bitch about it.
Electric cars are no different. What do we do with the batteries? Huge environmental issue there, worse than gas. They’re too small. Some shut down on wet/slick roads. Don’t have enough power. Limited range. Takes long to charge. Easily damaged in a crash. Safety hazard for emt crews to cut through high voltage wiring. They look boxy or ugly. The electricity they charge on comes mostly from fossil fuel plants, so you’re really not dodging carbon in some form, fueling the car.
I think if people want to buy them, let the market consumers decide to buy them. Just don’t kid yourself you’re saving the planet, or that you care so much more about earth by doing this.
Dead batteries in the middle of a snowstorm, enjoy!
Pray for W and Our Troops
It wouldn't require as much additional generating capacity as you might think. Most recharging could be done in early morning hours when the grid generally has lowest demand, so it would largely mean that peak generation capacity could be used more efficiently.
We out west would like the liberty to choose what works best for us. For most out in my neck of the woods currently that is a 1/2 ton 4x4 pickup to pull a trailer, get through the snow and avoid urban social tyrants. A little wind-up or battery powered toy might work fantastically for someone in a high density city, but not out here. I wish the enviro-nazis would stop telling us what works for us when they do not know what work we do. BTW how will you all produce that electricity after Barry bankrupts the coal industry? (Coal the one source of energy God has given to us in abundance and they want to forbid its use!)
What if you wanted to drive 1000 miles for vacation?? Enjoy!
Pray for America and Our Troops
Simple solution: add power to freeway lanes, just like trolley lines.
Sure there is a slight chance of electrocution, but that’s just the cost of progress.
Gee how many windmills will it take to recharge an electric car? At least the French generate 80% of their electricity from nuclear plants while Lord Obama promises to bankrupt new coal fired generating plants.
All the “leaders” are equal in this: The solutions are right in front of them but they prefer to blather on about alternative energy and speak fondly of boondoggles that create endless research.
>>>>>If we could build a power supply that was totally self-sustaining, with near-unlimited lifespan, and totally clean, some group of people would still find something to bitch about it.<<<<<<
I have the plans for a 21st Century Perpetual Motion Machine secreted away in my attic.
For a small number of cars it wouldn't be a big deal. For a mass conversion we aren't talking about going from 110% to 120% of the grid's capacity, we're talking about going to 200%. We simply do not have the infrastructure to handle that kind of demand, or the plants (of any kind) to produce it.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.506,css.print/pub_detail.asp>
July 2, 2008
Raymond Kraft
[snip]
Electric Cars?
Environmentalists wax enthusiastic about electric cars, "zero emissions vehicles," they call them.
If they ever awaken from their green dreams, they will discover (surprise!) that electric cars aren't "zero emission vehicles. " They just relocate the emissions from the car to the electric power plants, most of which burn coal and natural gas. The only "zero emissions power plants" are the hydroelectric dams, which the Greens oppose, and the nuclear power plants, which the Greens also oppose. And a few geothermal plants.
Oil provides about 40% of America's energy consumption, almost all for transportation. That's a lot of energy.We can run cars on electricity, but we don't produce a lot of surplus electricity. So if weswitch toelectric cars, we will need to increase our electricity supply by 50%-75%. If we replace oil with electricity, we are going to have to build some 300 new coal-fired power plants, or gas-fired power plants, or hydroelectric power plants, or geothermal power plants, or nuclear power plants, or millions and millions of bird-killing windmills, or thousands and thousands of square miles of solar farms, to produce all that new electricity it will take to run our cars. And we'll have to build thousands and thousands of miles of new power lines criss-crossing the country to transport all the extra electricity to where hundreds ofmillions of cars are plugged in.
Electric cars need batteries. A compact electric car carries about 500 pounds of batteries. Bigger cars need bigger batteries.Auto sales in the U.S. are about 15 million vehicles per year. Thus, to convert to electric cars with batteries, we must mine and refine at least five million tons of lithium, copper, nickel, lead, and whatever other metals are used to make 15 million battery packs for all those cars. Five million moretons ofmetals mined each year. That's a lot of new mining that will have to be cranked up, andhere I thought Environmentalists were opposed to mining, pillaging Mother Earth. Ah, silly me.
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