Hurricanes Lounge XXXII: wait, but why?

[Boom Boom Apathy]

we give how much in foreign aid again that could spent on roads....

True. Although it's kind of tough to have a military presence and/or a military base in 150+ countries world wide, and have countries accept/follow our policies, without paying those countries for it. Not debating if we should have that military presence in all those places (as I don't know enough about each country, foreign policy, etc...).

 

[sabremike]

An important public service announcement:

 

[HisIceness]

So that storm last night was a lot nastier than I thought it was, tornado killed 3 near Ocean Isle Beach.

 

[hockeynjune]

Jaguar cars to go all-electric by 2025 as JLR plans full range of e-models by 2030



So a number of car companies are now committing to 100% conversion electric/hybrid/hydrogen fuel cell by the end of this decade. The two drawbacks right now:

1) The ROI on these cars for the consumer, without government rebates, hasn't been there for many of the "all electric" vehicles, but like anything, costs come down with time, invention and scale.
2) The range and recharge time-frame. As I mentioned in the other thread, I make about 8-10 trips a year up to our farm which is between 500-600 miles. If I have to stop twice for a charge, how long it takes is going to be key. Shorter trips and around town, the electric vehicle makes a lot of sense. Long trips, a hybrid makes more sense right now.

I got to visit the Mercedes fuel cell R&D facility in Germany . Pretty 8mpressive stuff.

 

[MisterEd89]

Not to belabor this discussion, but wanted to comment on a couple things since I have a Tesla.

Any idea on the effect on your electric bill, when plugging a car in every night?

In pre-covid times, I think my average increase on my electric bill was $40-50 when I was averaging around 1k-1.2k miles a month. I got on Duke's TOU plan so that I can have a lower electric rate overnight when charging.

Doesn't a good portion of road maintenance funding in most states come from gas taxes? Has there been much discussion of how to replace that revenue as EVs become more prevalent? And is that factor taken into consideration when comparing operating costs for the two technologies?

NC, for example, has instituted a $130 fee when renewing registration to start covering for this. I believe a good majority of states have implemented or are trying to implement something of this sort.

 

[Negan4Coach]

True. Although it's kind of tough to have a military presence and/or a military base in 150+ countries world wide, and have countries accept/follow our policies, without paying those countries for it. Not debating if we should have that military presence in all those places (as I don't know enough about each country, foreign policy, etc...).

I sure as shit would like to debate having all those bases, having served on many of them. Huge waste of money and time.

Like the one really nice network of bases we built throughout Africa for the Great Kony Hunt from 2011-2018. Turns out we were never able to hunt down that prick and his handful of fighters because naturally the locals loved having our nice bases for them to work at and didnt want to give us intel on where he was because they knew we'd leave if we found him. It took them forever to shut that effort down even after the Trump admin pulled the plug on it.

The military loves having very expensive self-licking ice cream cones and will stop at nothing to keep them once you give it to them.

 

[MinJaBen]

we give how much in foreign aid again that could spent on roads....

The US gives about $50 billion dollars a year in foreign aid to other countries; that is both financial and military aid. The US (feds and states combined) spend about $180 billion dollars a year on roads.

Cutting all foreign aid won’t come close to covering the cost.

 

[Roboturner913]

Any idea on the effect on your electric bill, when plugging a car in every night?

Far cheaper than buying gas. Far far cheaper. And if you have solar panels and sell your excess energy back to the power company, well, it's essentially free.

I cannot WAIT to go solar and get out from under these ridiculous utility bills. I paid $400 last month for electricity alone, another $200 for gas. Utility companies are straight up evil.

Volvo is committed to being all-electric within the next decade. Another auto manufacturer (can't remember which) recently made a similar commitment. The second-gen GM electric vehicle (Volt or Bolt can't recall) was fairly successful and plug-in hybrids are becoming so common it's an easy next step to making those 100% electric. I drove a Hyundai Ioniq EV a little while ago and it was just like driving a regular car and that's under $30,000. It's happening already.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

I just want to comment that if we ever want to make meaningful impact on the environment, personal transportation is just a drop of water in the ocean of the work that needs to be done.

Big chunk of the ocean being agriculture.

 

[MinJaBen]

I just want to comment that if we ever want to make meaningful impact on the environment, personal transportation is just a drop of water in the ocean of the work that needs to be done.

Big chunk of the ocean being agriculture.

True. But personal transportation and housing (another big one) are two biggest areas that each individual can make the most direct impact without having to get the government or somebody else to do something on your behalf.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

True. But personal transportation and housing (another big one) are two biggest areas that each individual can make the most direct impact without having to get the government or somebody else to do something on your behalf.

Yep.

My first real job was as an engineer at an electronics manufacturer near Philadelphia. The circuit boards would get the components placed on them and then the boards would travel down a conveyor belt and pass over a wave solder machine that would solder all the components, and then the boards would be dipped in a hot Freon bath to clean the boards/remove flux, etc.... While people were up in arms about how much Freon small leaks in AC units caused, this stuff was just open and going into the atmosphere 24x7 in a huge bath. Probably more Freon was released into the air by a few small electronics manufactures than by all AC units combined.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I sure as shit would like to debate having all those bases, having served on many of them. Huge waste of money and time.

Like the one really nice network of bases we built throughout Africa for the Great Kony Hunt from 2011-2018. Turns out we were never able to hunt down that prick and his handful of fighters because naturally the locals loved having our nice bases for them to work at and didnt want to give us intel on where he was because they knew we'd leave if we found him. It took them forever to shut that effort down even after the Trump admin pulled the plug on it.

The military loves having very expensive self-licking ice cream cones and will stop at nothing to keep them once you give it to them.

Thanks. I kind of suspected this to be the case, but don’t know enough to confirm my suspicions.

 

[The Faulker 27]

I hope everyone has their supplies for making delicious milk sandwiches.

 

[WreckingCrew]

I hope everyone has their supplies for making delicious milk sandwiches.

I went to the grocery store yesterday not thinking about grabbing stuff for the ice storm (I think it was still mostly predicted to be cold rain here)...all I got was a lint roller, fiber gummies, cinnamon bread (damn you Publix for putting it by the checkout), and soup/marrow bones for my dog to gnaw on. Guess her and I will be sharing those marrow bones if it gets bad out

 

[Unsustainable]

Far cheaper than buying gas. Far far cheaper. And if you have solar panels and sell your excess energy back to the power company, well, it's essentially free.

I cannot WAIT to go solar and get out from under these ridiculous utility bills. I paid $400 last month for electricity alone, another $200 for gas. Utility companies are straight up evil.

Volvo is committed to being all-electric within the next decade. Another auto manufacturer (can't remember which) recently made a similar commitment. The second-gen GM electric vehicle (Volt or Bolt can't recall) was fairly successful and plug-in hybrids are becoming so common it's an easy next step to making those 100% electric. I drove a Hyundai Ioniq EV a little while ago and it was just like driving a regular car and that's under $30,000. It's happening already.

GM has an EV conversion kit now, would work great in like a K5.

 

[Lempo]

Page 43, btw.

 

[Negan4Coach]

I hope everyone has their supplies for making delicious milk sandwiches.

I'm getting the feeling like WRAL is wrong this time and Raleigh is going to get smoked. We're due for a good icing. Just hope it isn't as bad as '02-'03.

 

[Unsustainable]

Page 43, btw.

Hurricanes Lounge, XXXIII: Danger Zone