Trump and coal mines

[Svartalf]

What precisely have they actually achieved? Their electrical vehicles are desperately short ranged.
They may use the best in battery technology, but have not, at least not yet, brought any major improvements to said tech.

[pErvinalia]

The powerwall that Jim talked about is a major step forward. Not just in innovation, but price too. His mega battery factory when built will have more production than every other battery factory in the world combined.

And the car is a beast.

[Animavore]

I'd love to buy a Tesla. I'm holding off driving 'til I can afford one. I'll be walking distance to my job in Dublin Airport when I move tomorrow.

[Scot Dutchy]

Grats Ani.

[Seth]

What precisely have they actually achieved? Their electrical vehicles are desperately short ranged.
They may use the best in battery technology, but have not, at least not yet, brought any major improvements to said tech.

The biggest failure of the battery-powered car model is not range, though that is abysmal at the moment, it's recharge.

Electric cars are fine if you drive the same route every day to and from work and can plug in at each end to recharge while the vehicle is not in use.

But they are utterly useless for long-distance one-way travel because there is no infrastructure for quick recharge.

Our fuel delivery infrastructure is very mature and effective. Even in the West there are fueling stations available less than 200 miles apart everywhere in the lower 48. In driving through the high deserts of Nevada and Oregon this month I drove through several of the longest major roads with limited fuel stations and the longest I've ever gone without coming across a gas station is the trip between Winnemucca, NV and Lakeview Oregon through the Sheldon National Antelope Refuge. The signs say that it's 144 miles to the next gas going west, which is pretty close if you discount the private card-only fuel available at Adel, Oregon. And if and when the gas pumps reopen at Denio Junction, it will be far less than that. The most expensive fuel I've ever bought was at Denio Junction some years ago when diesel for the Hummer was $6.50 per gallon.

I think it's fair to say that if you stay on a paved road you're always within 100 miles or so of a gas station.

Now, it is true that all gas stations have electricity, but the problem for cross-country travel is that it can take eight hours or more to recharge a current-technology electric vehicle at your standard 15 amp service. Sure, some power stations will recharge much faster at higher voltage, but there are very few of them and none of them in the "outback," which means that after you've driven your 200 mile maximum range you have to sit and recharge for eight hours before proceeding. This is not an economical or effective distribution or technology for refueling electric cars, which makes them useless for long-distance travel.

So, until battery technology exists that provides at least a 400 mile minimum range and a recharge time roughly equivalent to the time it takes to pump a tank of gas, say ten minutes and those facilities are available as ubiquitously as gas stations are, electric-only vehicles will never be viable transportation except for the aforesaid commuting purposes, and most people can't afford to buy a car just for commuting and another for traveling.

I've always said, and I'll repeat myself, that when they can make a full-size electric pickup truck capable of carrying 6000+ pounds and towing 33,000 pounds with a minimum range of 300 miles per charge that can be recharged in ten minutes within a maximum of 50 miles of wherever I happen to be in the US at any given moment, I'll happily buy one.

Ain't there yet I'm afraid. Won't be till long after I'm dead I'm afraid. So I'm sticking with gas and diesel, as is everybody else.

[Seth]

The powerwall that Jim talked about is a major step forward. Not just in innovation, but price too. His mega battery factory when built will have more production than every other battery factory in the world combined.

And the car is a beast.

Until it runs out of juice, at which point you're fucked for 6 to 8 hours.

[Tero]

Then don't drive one. I imagine we will have gas powered tow trucks for a while.

[Sean Hayden]

If you want to do something about cars then charge people to drive. Work related travel being the cheapest, driving during peak hours when not going to or from work being the most costly. :buwhaha:

[Tero]

Not only mines, also coal power plants closing. It's just business.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/politics/ ... index.html

[rainbow]

Not only mines, also coal power plants closing. It's just business.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/politics/ ... index.html

The problem for Trump is that if he props up uneconomic plants to save some jobs, he will be jeopardizing other jobs that do have economic viability.

... a lose-lose situation. Not clever.

[Svartalf]

shh, frummp is the smartest cookie in Merka, any other opinion is alt fact by the partisan liberal media.

[pErvinalia]

Fake rainbow.

[Tero]

Coa..coa...cough cough...coal jobs:

Now here’s the funny thing: The Interior Department, which crafted the rule, in its own analysis prepared by Industrial Economics, claimed that the final rule would result in a net increase in employment. Although some jobs would be lost — just an average of 124 a year — the agency concluded that enough people would be hired for compliance that it would make up the difference. (Initially, in the early years, about 500 jobs a year would be lost, but the hiring of compliance staff over time would help make up the difference, the report said.)

Yet Interior also concluded that the compliance costs would be about $80 million a year, but the costs would be passed onto consumers. The agency said coal production would decline slightly, but it was already due to decline anyway because of market forces. (For smaller mines, the agency proposed financial assistance to comply with the rule.)

So what you have are two dueling reports, produced by two different consulting firms, reaching completely opposite conclusions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fac ... 709ff7eed7

[Scot Dutchy]

This will be the story of Trump. Fake figures and fake news. "He who controls the past controls the future". Heard that before somewhere.

[Tyrannical]

We're going to need all those coal mines soon, to power all the steel refineries that will be opening. All that infrastructure spending is going to take a lot of American steel.