As war sends oil prices soaring, fossil fuel giants rake in billions while Americans get stuck with the bill, even though EVs already offer a cheaper way out…
The problem? The message to voters is that Brown illegals picking your lettuce are a crime threat even though they are hundreds of miles from your home.
Just ignore the wildfire smoke. Pay no attention to our atmospheric rivers, the heat domes. Who cares about weekly Katrinas, Andrews, and Melissas? Donald needs a billion, then oilmen can "Drill, baby, DRILL !!!"
The real problem is that Satanic forces are trying to stifle our Orange Jesus. He who was sent by Jeffrey Epstein to violently rape our children and grab our wives' lady bits whilst teaching the Yellows, Browns, Blacks, and Reds a caged-up, violent, lethal lesson.
yes it would be funny if it was not also true. black humor for dark times. There are now some red-brown people (fascists in left clothing) saying what we need is to end democracy, as people cannot be trusted to vote sanely. They forget that the lower third income ethno-majority quantitle who voted for Trump felt enraged, felt abandoned by the Ds and along comes Trump with the opium about "Real Americans". What would have saved the situation is jailing Trump after 2020, and the Democrats giving a real alternative, instead Biden was too timid. Got to laugh.
GREAT piece, Thom! Note also that China, not in the thrall of Big Oil, is far and away the world leader in EV technology (wherefore art thou, America?). Most recently, the Chinese have developed an EV battery that replaces rare and costly lithium with cheap and ubiquitous sodium. SODIUM! Short sighted, unfettered capitalism is ringing our death knell in so many ways.
Tom, my understanding is that sodium batteries tend to be cheaper and easier on the environment to manufacture, but lithium batteries perform better—at least for now. Like you said, "Wherefore art thou, America?" If we were a world leader like in days past, we'd be the tip of the spear figuring out how to make the sodium thing work. These days it's more like we're the butt of the shaft, thanks to the fossil fuel industry and their cabal of cronies in government.
Yes, the Chinese have been mining and burning a lot of coal, but I believe that that extra boost was what was required to get them off of the coal and concentrating their efforts now on solar panels and EV's. We have relinquished the goal (that we never really had - since Reagan,, anyway) of
being the planet's friend and savior, and China is gladly taking it on with gusto.
I do not believe the motives of Xi Jinping's China are much different or better than Trump's America. Neither are concerned about the climate. For China electricity generation from solar panels and wind turbines makes economic sense. But they still need electricity when the sun and wind does not oblige. Battery storage is still very expensive, so there are fossil fuel power stations to make up the gap. So the differential between renewable and fossil fuel electricity generation is between the cost of coal in China's case and the cost of solar panels and wind turbines and connecting them to the grid. I would expect China to continue burning large quantites of coal as well as increasing renewables, is a bid to generate ever increasing amounts of electricity.
At one time, petroleum made economic sense--cheap and plentiful--though it never made environmental sense. Today it doesn't even make economic sense, in light of wind and solar development. It's only through the political power it has built up over the decades that it is able to retain its prominent place in the world, through bribery, deceit, and war.
Hey Daniel, That's interesting about all of the electric vehicles in the early 20th century. I reckon that Ford and the oilmen nipped EVs in the bud way back then. Maybe they whitewashed the history along the way too...
"In 1897, the bestselling car in the US was an electric vehicle: the Pope Manufacturing Company’s Columbia Motor Carriage. Electric models were outselling steam- and petrol-powered ones. By 1900, sales of steam vehicles had taken a narrow lead: that year, 1,681 steam vehicles, 1,575 electric vehicles and 936 petrol-powered vehicles were sold. Only with the launch of the Olds Motor Works’ Curved Dash Oldsmobile in 1903 did petrol-powered vehicles take the lead for the first time."
A lot of it was psychological. But The consumer killed the early electric. Aided by Charles Kettering.
"Early electric cars were expensive. The cost of batteries, the technology of which has changed little to this day, was extremely high, putting the price of electrics at a serious premium to gasoline-powered cars. The good news was that automobile owners were rich, because most gasoline cars cost about two year’s wages for the average worker, and most electrics were 50% higher than that. The folks who bought these things were the upper-class, and they could afford any car they wanted." Enter the depression.
I'm originally from WPa, 50 miles from Titusville, where oil was first disciovered. Rockefellers made oil a necessity and via the legal concept of the trust, virtually controlled the economy until TR and Taft divided Standard Oil. .Rockefeller and his business partners gained control of the rapidly growing petroleum industry.. In 1909, the Department of Justice also sued Standard Oil for its monopolistic practices, resulting in a 1911 U.S. Supreme Court decision that broke the giant corporation into 37 separate companies. Standard Oil’s disaggregated parts still constituted many of the largest and most important oil companies in the world, including Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon), Standard Oil of California (Chevron), and Standard Oil of New York (Mobil).
Rockefeller also was in ther real estate business -- viia gas stations. The auto companies had oil people on their corporate boards. Many companies had lobng term contracts with Rockeffer. .
++++++
I lived across the street from a collector who had electric cars and a Stanley Steamer.
Thanks for sharing that history, Daniel. I remember seeing Model Ts when I was a kid. It was rare, and I was always fascinated when it happened. They were so different from the cars of the 50s and 60s that I grew up with. But I don't ever remember seeing an old electric car. Maybe the batteries had a shelf life that expired and they quit making replacements?
My hybrid got 51 mpg going home the other night. I hope to get an EV eventually. This small area has abundant charging stations now.
Another consideration, it is wise to get rid of gas in your home. It is rare to go a week when a huge explosion isn't on the nightly news.
All burning of fuels, including "natural" gas takes a toll on lungs, yours or your child's. This comes from recent studies. When we know better, we should DO better.
Thanks Thom, now I'm happier with my Mustang EV. It's a rolling computer that does things for no apparent reason. Sometimes the windshield wipers will come on when its not raining. The first 2 times I put it in reverse I was looking for a backhoe as the warning ding dong sounds just like heavy machinery. The air blower will mysteriously go on full tilt perhaps simulating a hurricane, just for driver entertainment I suppose. Driving by every gas station makes all of its quirks worth it. Saving money and time.
When I read Thom's question, I started to chuckle because I had a single-word answer: "grooming."
Throughout my 79 years on the planet, I have been exposed to a steady stream of advertising, TV shows, and movies aimed at linking gasoline-powered cars to my personal identity (e.g., Route 66). Rich people drive Cadillacs and Corvettes. Richer people drive Bentleys and Rolls Royce's - unless they are cool, then they drive fancy Italian Racing cars or German Porsches. THE working-class vehicle of choice is an $80K and way up souped-up pick-up truck - F150 or Dodge Ram. The higher it is raked above the axels, the better. The bigger the tires, the better. The louder the engine, the better. If it can burn coal (create a clout of smoke that blinds the drivers behind you), the better.
Only wimps, nerds, and old ladies drive EVs. I drive a hybrid Mercedes SUV, so I am a closet rich nerd because its hybrid status is invisible. My gasoline bill is like $10/week. The options for EVs today are Teslas that say "I'm rich and cutting edge cool." Remaining options, not many, say "I'm cutting-edge cool or cheap."
So, the #1 barrier to EVs in the US is neither cost nor options, but overcoming how personal identity is reflected by the cars we drive.
Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays changed the world. Before they came along, virtue played a big part in what made people happy. Edward took his Uncle Sigmund's ideas and created the advertising industry. The American people have been groomed, like you say Tom, ever since. Now it's mostly things and the power to buy them that make people happy.
Too true. The P2P culture for the middle class is usually due to vehicle debt. I just read a story a few days ago that about 30% of new vehicle sales absorbed unpaid debt on the trade-in. That is the interstate highway to self-indenturement.
Most Americans seem to always wanna-have-more regardless of income. In contrast, in Europe most people seem to live like they have-enuf.
The joke is that in the industry more money is made from financing, maintenence, sale of parts than from car sales.
Historically, car manufacturers treated everyone, even their own dealers as marks. The Automobile Dealers' Day in Court Act (ADDCA) is a federal law enacted in 1956 (15 U.S.C. §§ 1221–1225) protects franchised car dealers from unfair or coercive practices by automobile manufacturers. Still, in sales of franchises, manufacturers require dealers to lien up their homes. Dealers rarely "own" any cars.
Key Drivers of Sales Cycles
Interest Rates: Higher rates increase monthly payments, causing many buyers to "sit out" the market.
Inventory Levels: Excessive inventory often leads to aggressive discounting to move stock, which can artificially pull future demand forward.
Credit Availability: Trends in the auto-lending sector, such as tightening credit or rising delinquencies, often signal a turning point in the cycle.
That is true, which is why I always pay cash for my wheels. It definitely gives one the upper hand in negotiating because if I walk out the door, they know a competitor will get the sale, and my low-mileage trade-in is worth more.
Hi, Thom. My hubs and I are leasing a Chevy Blazer SS EV. We love it! Last month we only spent $17 on charging. Last summer we drove it to Santa Fe, NM, and our favorite part of the trip was driving the EV. We met all kinds of interesting people at the charging stations. It was a real adventure! Take care. Elizabeth (Vancouver, WA)
The "purchased" ignorance of elected officials is stunning. This past week, I attended a briefing by our electric cooperative's board of directors. Our co-op is rather large, with around 185,000 customers, and spans suburban and rural areas. It's a co-op, so there is a strong orientation towards the member owners rather than the stock market.
The director presented the results of a study of EV charging behavior. The data comes from an incentive program that offers home chargers at a discount in exchange for charging-time data. The results showed that most charging occurs during the low-usage period from after 8 p.m. to around 3 a.m. The behavior reflects the rate structure, which has a higher time-of-use rate from 4 to 8 p.m. and that 70% of EV users charge from home in the service territory.
So, where's the problem? Most utilities have excess capacity late in the evening through the night and must "curtail" capacity with different costs depending on the type of generation. A bit of hair-dryer-types of demand during this time is no big deal. In fact, it could reduce the overall cost by avoiding the stopping and starting (cycling) of gas turbines, which drives scheduled maintenance.
If we have elected officials with ignorance of the mechanics of electricity generation and distribution, there is no excuse. A key part of the job for these folks should be to understand how critical infrastructure works.
Yes, we have net metering. Capacity is limited by the two-way transformer network to around 20% of a household's demand. Cars such as the Ioniq 5 and 9 can feed into the network. Most Teslas not.
Utility-scale solar is more efficient, better managed for peak, and can leverage onsite storage. If we took an area of open fields around the Denver airport, the PV cells would be sufficient to power the entire Denver metro. The ability is limited by current battery technology.
Yes, I am hoping one of the unintended consequences of this insane war, along with getting the Trump/Project 2025 regime hammered in the midterms, is that this will really push the next big shift toward renewables and EVs. At the No Kings 3 rally in rural Prineville, Oregon, people were talking about how they were upping their investments in renewables.
Some 25 years ago a Chicago ComEd guy got excited when our eco-group mentioned EVs. It seems though they mainly use nuclear power, they also need 20% from "coal peaking plants" for peak hours, since they have to run nuke at constant rate day and night. He said if enough people had EVs and were charging them mainly at night they could increase nuke and greatly reduce use of coal peaking plants.
Another thing, ICE pollution also harms/kills people from local and regional pollution, acid rain affecting lungs, etc. A 6 yr old girl died from leukemia from a 33-acre benzene plume underneath from years of oil leakage. The benzene seeped up & people in the schools and neighborhood could smell it for years. The family won their case in court.
Lynn--You raise a similar point to what I heard from the board of our electrical coop. The difference is that they use mostly gas-fired turbines for peaking. We were told that the maintenance of these turbines is triggered more by the number of start-stop cycles than by hours in operation.
If the load can be kept higher after the time-of-use fall-off (for us at 8 p.m.), the turbines can keep spinning and avoid downtime and maintenance expenses.
Regarding green electricity generation, be aware that the lower costs to produce it will, if you have a private energy utility, be offset by the utility's requests/demands for approving rate increases.
I FULLY support getting rid of gas, oil and coal to generate electricity. But private utilities are screwing ratepayers over and state utility commissions rarely do anything to rein them in. PSE, here in Washington State, now gets quite a bit of its juice from renewables, having switched away from importing juice powered almost entirely by coal and gas from the mountain states. Also impacting local rates is the Bonneville Power Admin. and AI data center growth south of Seattle. The net effect has been recent increases of 12-20% in residential electricity rates.
If renewable energy-powered mass transit were improved and expanded it would take a bite out of global warming and make transportation affordable for people who have a hard time putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads. It all could happen someday if the government's reoriented to do what's in the best interest of the people and the planet instead of what's in the best interest of the fossil fuel corporations and their owners.
Here in the sunshine state we know that stuff like solar roofs and even painting all roofs white, planting more trees, setting up wind socks, could cut our already comparitively low bills, but our legislature is bought by the fossil fuel industry.
Solar-owning homeowners save an average of $1,500 to $2,000 per year through net metering and solar energy use in Florida. While net metering itself is a billing mechanism rather than a direct tax subsidy, it is the primary driver that allows these individuals to offset their electricity costs at full retail rates.
EVs cost less to drive, but we can't afford one. We're still driving a combustion-engine van and an old Chevy S-10. We have an e-bike for when there is no gas at any price.
Oh no ,Thom, now you've gone and done it. The coolest car you've ever owned! I bought a 2025 Lexus Hybrid 6 ES months ago, the coolest car I ever owned although my gas guzzling limited edition Lexus covertible was pretty cool too. I was strongly leaning towards checking out and likely trading it in for the 2026 all electric version which will be available next month. Ann visted her son in Providence a few months ago and they drove many times in his Ioniq and she said it was even more impressive than our Lexus hybrids. (She bought the RX SUV when I got my new car.)
Now she says, and I agree, that I should check out the Ioniq and the Lucid before I get the Lexus and see how much of a trade-in I can get on a new car with only a few thousand miles on it.
If we get a chance perhaps we can talk about it and you can show me the car when we see you on April 9th.
I'm not proud of this, but I can't help wondering how and why people can be such sheep, cowards, and fools to continue buying gas run cars. Someone enlighten me, please. Now I only stop at gas stations to pee--and I save a lot of money not buying those unhealthy snacks too.
Brilliant - love this and the comparison with a hairdryer, Even thought have so little hair, I don’t need one :)
Being bald as a Q-ball, I agree.
...and the buffer used to shine my head uses much less electricity.
yes the hairdryer comparison is great communicating.
The problem? The message to voters is that Brown illegals picking your lettuce are a crime threat even though they are hundreds of miles from your home.
Just ignore the wildfire smoke. Pay no attention to our atmospheric rivers, the heat domes. Who cares about weekly Katrinas, Andrews, and Melissas? Donald needs a billion, then oilmen can "Drill, baby, DRILL !!!"
The real problem is that Satanic forces are trying to stifle our Orange Jesus. He who was sent by Jeffrey Epstein to violently rape our children and grab our wives' lady bits whilst teaching the Yellows, Browns, Blacks, and Reds a caged-up, violent, lethal lesson.
Mesothelioma? Schmesothelioma.
VOTE. #Barron to Boot Camp. Eric to the strait.
yes it would be funny if it was not also true. black humor for dark times. There are now some red-brown people (fascists in left clothing) saying what we need is to end democracy, as people cannot be trusted to vote sanely. They forget that the lower third income ethno-majority quantitle who voted for Trump felt enraged, felt abandoned by the Ds and along comes Trump with the opium about "Real Americans". What would have saved the situation is jailing Trump after 2020, and the Democrats giving a real alternative, instead Biden was too timid. Got to laugh.
GREAT piece, Thom! Note also that China, not in the thrall of Big Oil, is far and away the world leader in EV technology (wherefore art thou, America?). Most recently, the Chinese have developed an EV battery that replaces rare and costly lithium with cheap and ubiquitous sodium. SODIUM! Short sighted, unfettered capitalism is ringing our death knell in so many ways.
Tom, my understanding is that sodium batteries tend to be cheaper and easier on the environment to manufacture, but lithium batteries perform better—at least for now. Like you said, "Wherefore art thou, America?" If we were a world leader like in days past, we'd be the tip of the spear figuring out how to make the sodium thing work. These days it's more like we're the butt of the shaft, thanks to the fossil fuel industry and their cabal of cronies in government.
Yes, the Chinese have been mining and burning a lot of coal, but I believe that that extra boost was what was required to get them off of the coal and concentrating their efforts now on solar panels and EV's. We have relinquished the goal (that we never really had - since Reagan,, anyway) of
being the planet's friend and savior, and China is gladly taking it on with gusto.
I do not believe the motives of Xi Jinping's China are much different or better than Trump's America. Neither are concerned about the climate. For China electricity generation from solar panels and wind turbines makes economic sense. But they still need electricity when the sun and wind does not oblige. Battery storage is still very expensive, so there are fossil fuel power stations to make up the gap. So the differential between renewable and fossil fuel electricity generation is between the cost of coal in China's case and the cost of solar panels and wind turbines and connecting them to the grid. I would expect China to continue burning large quantites of coal as well as increasing renewables, is a bid to generate ever increasing amounts of electricity.
Can use hemp as a substitute.
At one time, petroleum made economic sense--cheap and plentiful--though it never made environmental sense. Today it doesn't even make economic sense, in light of wind and solar development. It's only through the political power it has built up over the decades that it is able to retain its prominent place in the world, through bribery, deceit, and war.
In the early 20th century, electric cars were actually more common than gasoline in many urban areas.
Power Source Market Share (1912) Typical Range
Steam 40% Varies by boiler size
Electric 38% 60–100 miles
Gasoline 22% Effectively unlimited (via gas stations)
Hey Daniel, That's interesting about all of the electric vehicles in the early 20th century. I reckon that Ford and the oilmen nipped EVs in the bud way back then. Maybe they whitewashed the history along the way too...
"In 1897, the bestselling car in the US was an electric vehicle: the Pope Manufacturing Company’s Columbia Motor Carriage. Electric models were outselling steam- and petrol-powered ones. By 1900, sales of steam vehicles had taken a narrow lead: that year, 1,681 steam vehicles, 1,575 electric vehicles and 936 petrol-powered vehicles were sold. Only with the launch of the Olds Motor Works’ Curved Dash Oldsmobile in 1903 did petrol-powered vehicles take the lead for the first time."
A lot of it was psychological. But The consumer killed the early electric. Aided by Charles Kettering.
"Early electric cars were expensive. The cost of batteries, the technology of which has changed little to this day, was extremely high, putting the price of electrics at a serious premium to gasoline-powered cars. The good news was that automobile owners were rich, because most gasoline cars cost about two year’s wages for the average worker, and most electrics were 50% higher than that. The folks who bought these things were the upper-class, and they could afford any car they wanted." Enter the depression.
I'm originally from WPa, 50 miles from Titusville, where oil was first disciovered. Rockefellers made oil a necessity and via the legal concept of the trust, virtually controlled the economy until TR and Taft divided Standard Oil. .Rockefeller and his business partners gained control of the rapidly growing petroleum industry.. In 1909, the Department of Justice also sued Standard Oil for its monopolistic practices, resulting in a 1911 U.S. Supreme Court decision that broke the giant corporation into 37 separate companies. Standard Oil’s disaggregated parts still constituted many of the largest and most important oil companies in the world, including Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon), Standard Oil of California (Chevron), and Standard Oil of New York (Mobil).
Rockefeller also was in ther real estate business -- viia gas stations. The auto companies had oil people on their corporate boards. Many companies had lobng term contracts with Rockeffer. .
++++++
I lived across the street from a collector who had electric cars and a Stanley Steamer.
Thanks for sharing that history, Daniel. I remember seeing Model Ts when I was a kid. It was rare, and I was always fascinated when it happened. They were so different from the cars of the 50s and 60s that I grew up with. But I don't ever remember seeing an old electric car. Maybe the batteries had a shelf life that expired and they quit making replacements?
Yeah, read "Internal Combustion," by Edwin Black.
Burning down the house and your lungs....
My hybrid got 51 mpg going home the other night. I hope to get an EV eventually. This small area has abundant charging stations now.
Another consideration, it is wise to get rid of gas in your home. It is rare to go a week when a huge explosion isn't on the nightly news.
All burning of fuels, including "natural" gas takes a toll on lungs, yours or your child's. This comes from recent studies. When we know better, we should DO better.
Great explanation, Thom. See you in the streets.
Thanks Thom, now I'm happier with my Mustang EV. It's a rolling computer that does things for no apparent reason. Sometimes the windshield wipers will come on when its not raining. The first 2 times I put it in reverse I was looking for a backhoe as the warning ding dong sounds just like heavy machinery. The air blower will mysteriously go on full tilt perhaps simulating a hurricane, just for driver entertainment I suppose. Driving by every gas station makes all of its quirks worth it. Saving money and time.
When I read Thom's question, I started to chuckle because I had a single-word answer: "grooming."
Throughout my 79 years on the planet, I have been exposed to a steady stream of advertising, TV shows, and movies aimed at linking gasoline-powered cars to my personal identity (e.g., Route 66). Rich people drive Cadillacs and Corvettes. Richer people drive Bentleys and Rolls Royce's - unless they are cool, then they drive fancy Italian Racing cars or German Porsches. THE working-class vehicle of choice is an $80K and way up souped-up pick-up truck - F150 or Dodge Ram. The higher it is raked above the axels, the better. The bigger the tires, the better. The louder the engine, the better. If it can burn coal (create a clout of smoke that blinds the drivers behind you), the better.
Only wimps, nerds, and old ladies drive EVs. I drive a hybrid Mercedes SUV, so I am a closet rich nerd because its hybrid status is invisible. My gasoline bill is like $10/week. The options for EVs today are Teslas that say "I'm rich and cutting edge cool." Remaining options, not many, say "I'm cutting-edge cool or cheap."
So, the #1 barrier to EVs in the US is neither cost nor options, but overcoming how personal identity is reflected by the cars we drive.
Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays changed the world. Before they came along, virtue played a big part in what made people happy. Edward took his Uncle Sigmund's ideas and created the advertising industry. The American people have been groomed, like you say Tom, ever since. Now it's mostly things and the power to buy them that make people happy.
Too true. The P2P culture for the middle class is usually due to vehicle debt. I just read a story a few days ago that about 30% of new vehicle sales absorbed unpaid debt on the trade-in. That is the interstate highway to self-indenturement.
Most Americans seem to always wanna-have-more regardless of income. In contrast, in Europe most people seem to live like they have-enuf.
The joke is that in the industry more money is made from financing, maintenence, sale of parts than from car sales.
Historically, car manufacturers treated everyone, even their own dealers as marks. The Automobile Dealers' Day in Court Act (ADDCA) is a federal law enacted in 1956 (15 U.S.C. §§ 1221–1225) protects franchised car dealers from unfair or coercive practices by automobile manufacturers. Still, in sales of franchises, manufacturers require dealers to lien up their homes. Dealers rarely "own" any cars.
Key Drivers of Sales Cycles
Interest Rates: Higher rates increase monthly payments, causing many buyers to "sit out" the market.
Inventory Levels: Excessive inventory often leads to aggressive discounting to move stock, which can artificially pull future demand forward.
Credit Availability: Trends in the auto-lending sector, such as tightening credit or rising delinquencies, often signal a turning point in the cycle.
That is true, which is why I always pay cash for my wheels. It definitely gives one the upper hand in negotiating because if I walk out the door, they know a competitor will get the sale, and my low-mileage trade-in is worth more.
Hi, Thom. My hubs and I are leasing a Chevy Blazer SS EV. We love it! Last month we only spent $17 on charging. Last summer we drove it to Santa Fe, NM, and our favorite part of the trip was driving the EV. We met all kinds of interesting people at the charging stations. It was a real adventure! Take care. Elizabeth (Vancouver, WA)
The "purchased" ignorance of elected officials is stunning. This past week, I attended a briefing by our electric cooperative's board of directors. Our co-op is rather large, with around 185,000 customers, and spans suburban and rural areas. It's a co-op, so there is a strong orientation towards the member owners rather than the stock market.
The director presented the results of a study of EV charging behavior. The data comes from an incentive program that offers home chargers at a discount in exchange for charging-time data. The results showed that most charging occurs during the low-usage period from after 8 p.m. to around 3 a.m. The behavior reflects the rate structure, which has a higher time-of-use rate from 4 to 8 p.m. and that 70% of EV users charge from home in the service territory.
So, where's the problem? Most utilities have excess capacity late in the evening through the night and must "curtail" capacity with different costs depending on the type of generation. A bit of hair-dryer-types of demand during this time is no big deal. In fact, it could reduce the overall cost by avoiding the stopping and starting (cycling) of gas turbines, which drives scheduled maintenance.
If we have elected officials with ignorance of the mechanics of electricity generation and distribution, there is no excuse. A key part of the job for these folks should be to understand how critical infrastructure works.
Excess capacity.
So...do you have "net metering?"https://www.fpl.com/clean-energy/net-metering.html
Also, what about co-energy? Are there businesses that could use that excess capacity?
Yes, we have net metering. Capacity is limited by the two-way transformer network to around 20% of a household's demand. Cars such as the Ioniq 5 and 9 can feed into the network. Most Teslas not.
Utility-scale solar is more efficient, better managed for peak, and can leverage onsite storage. If we took an area of open fields around the Denver airport, the PV cells would be sufficient to power the entire Denver metro. The ability is limited by current battery technology.
I like the low tech, hot water variation. Costs virtually nothing. Doesn't require PVs. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359431124024645
Yes, I am hoping one of the unintended consequences of this insane war, along with getting the Trump/Project 2025 regime hammered in the midterms, is that this will really push the next big shift toward renewables and EVs. At the No Kings 3 rally in rural Prineville, Oregon, people were talking about how they were upping their investments in renewables.
Some 25 years ago a Chicago ComEd guy got excited when our eco-group mentioned EVs. It seems though they mainly use nuclear power, they also need 20% from "coal peaking plants" for peak hours, since they have to run nuke at constant rate day and night. He said if enough people had EVs and were charging them mainly at night they could increase nuke and greatly reduce use of coal peaking plants.
Another thing, ICE pollution also harms/kills people from local and regional pollution, acid rain affecting lungs, etc. A 6 yr old girl died from leukemia from a 33-acre benzene plume underneath from years of oil leakage. The benzene seeped up & people in the schools and neighborhood could smell it for years. The family won their case in court.
Coal ash spills, oil platform explosions, harms from extracting oil/coal (MTR), shipping/piping, processing causing "cancer alleys."
Of course, manufacturing & driving EVs has its harms/eco-costs, but not nearly to the level of ICE vehicle levels.
We are sure glad we have our Volt right now (charged on solar and wind). Plan to get a pure EV in the future.
Lynn--You raise a similar point to what I heard from the board of our electrical coop. The difference is that they use mostly gas-fired turbines for peaking. We were told that the maintenance of these turbines is triggered more by the number of start-stop cycles than by hours in operation.
If the load can be kept higher after the time-of-use fall-off (for us at 8 p.m.), the turbines can keep spinning and avoid downtime and maintenance expenses.
Regarding green electricity generation, be aware that the lower costs to produce it will, if you have a private energy utility, be offset by the utility's requests/demands for approving rate increases.
I FULLY support getting rid of gas, oil and coal to generate electricity. But private utilities are screwing ratepayers over and state utility commissions rarely do anything to rein them in. PSE, here in Washington State, now gets quite a bit of its juice from renewables, having switched away from importing juice powered almost entirely by coal and gas from the mountain states. Also impacting local rates is the Bonneville Power Admin. and AI data center growth south of Seattle. The net effect has been recent increases of 12-20% in residential electricity rates.
Hanford?
How would Hanford at this date be a cause of elec rate increases? The cleanup is a federal obligation.
If renewable energy-powered mass transit were improved and expanded it would take a bite out of global warming and make transportation affordable for people who have a hard time putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads. It all could happen someday if the government's reoriented to do what's in the best interest of the people and the planet instead of what's in the best interest of the fossil fuel corporations and their owners.
Here in the sunshine state we know that stuff like solar roofs and even painting all roofs white, planting more trees, setting up wind socks, could cut our already comparitively low bills, but our legislature is bought by the fossil fuel industry.
Solar-owning homeowners save an average of $1,500 to $2,000 per year through net metering and solar energy use in Florida. While net metering itself is a billing mechanism rather than a direct tax subsidy, it is the primary driver that allows these individuals to offset their electricity costs at full retail rates.
Unfortunately, I live in a condo......
EVs cost less to drive, but we can't afford one. We're still driving a combustion-engine van and an old Chevy S-10. We have an e-bike for when there is no gas at any price.
Oh no ,Thom, now you've gone and done it. The coolest car you've ever owned! I bought a 2025 Lexus Hybrid 6 ES months ago, the coolest car I ever owned although my gas guzzling limited edition Lexus covertible was pretty cool too. I was strongly leaning towards checking out and likely trading it in for the 2026 all electric version which will be available next month. Ann visted her son in Providence a few months ago and they drove many times in his Ioniq and she said it was even more impressive than our Lexus hybrids. (She bought the RX SUV when I got my new car.)
Now she says, and I agree, that I should check out the Ioniq and the Lucid before I get the Lexus and see how much of a trade-in I can get on a new car with only a few thousand miles on it.
If we get a chance perhaps we can talk about it and you can show me the car when we see you on April 9th.
I'm not proud of this, but I can't help wondering how and why people can be such sheep, cowards, and fools to continue buying gas run cars. Someone enlighten me, please. Now I only stop at gas stations to pee--and I save a lot of money not buying those unhealthy snacks too.