Matt Wuerker for April 13, 2012

Ah… progress!

Any of you anti-electric people know anything about the early internal combustion automobile? The Mount Washington race was founded in part to show off cars. Electrics and steam cars made it up, gasoline cars didn’t. Gas cars also required huge infrastructure (GAS stations every few miles! Complex, processed petroleum-based fuel!). They got better, in part because people kept buying them. You cannot judge a first-generation technology by a fiftieth-generation technology. Hybrids are instructive here. Toyota is on its fourth generation of its hybrid engine. Every generation is more powerful AND more efficient. The Prius has improved in performance, size, and efficiency in each generation! Why? Because it is new, and there is still plenty of room for innovation as we learn more. We definitely need more work on battery tech, but in fact there are a lot of people doing just that — finding ways to store power in large amounts and discharge it and recharge it rapidly. Compare the lead-acid battery with lithium-ion, for example.But if you simply abandon it and do no research into it, it will NOT get better. That is what happened to the electric car between after Reagan cut all the research funding back in the 1970s. Had we kept that up, we would not be having this discussion now!

As the saying goes, “dogs bark, but the parade goes on.”

If you don’t like electric cars, don’t buy one.If it was up to me, I would require luddites to continue using fossil fuels, and only fossil fuels, for the rest of their days, or until fossil fuels become so expensive that the luddites have to live in caves with stones knives and bear skins.

Keep trying… Electric cars have been available since the 70’s… they are more practical now, but still not viable.

It takes a lot of petroleum to get the Rare Earth elements to make the batteries for an Electric Car.Of course Outer Mongolia is a different shopping mall, if their air smells bad, it doesn’t affect the fresh scents of the America shopping mall.

“Why would anyone buy a car that uses Coal to power it??”It’s a win-win situation.Both the greenies, and the fossils fools win.The greenies get a cheaper cost per mile, and less pollution in their neighborhood.The fossil fools get to keep their jobs in the mines and power plants, and more of the CO2 and other pollution they prefer over clean air, in their own neighborhoods.

Call me simplist, but I still think the real reason the electric car hasn’t caught on yet is because men rarely shop their second d*ck with their brains.

harley, I’m going to answer you seriously and without snark here, please believe me. The phrase “starve the horse” is cute, but not accurate. Only two things have consistently driven fuel efficiency improvement by the auto industry in this country: regulation to force change and research funding to enable better technology, both of which have been consistently driven by government. Every time the fuel efficiency standards are regulated, the car companies unite in their chorus of “it will kill the auto industry! It is impossible!” And then they do it. The one other factor is a change in the market. During the first gas crisis, suddenly Japanese cars got their first big boost, because they were already more efficient. American car companies responded slowly and badly. Yes, they can do R&D too, but breakthroughs are rarely driven by companies trying to pay a dividend every quarter, and they are often slower to create real change because they (not unreasonably) protect their current approaches into which they have sunk their money and experience.If we lower gas prices significantly — something I don’t think is possible, but even assuming we do — we remove the impulse to change. We remove the “demand” element of supply and demand, artificially propping things up. We already have abnormally low fuel in this country. Shouldn’t supply and demand be allowed to take its course?We had a golden opportunity in the 1970s and 1980s, which Ronald Reagan threw away. The solar technology created in the US, for example, moved to Japan and Germany and now China, who are advancing it without us.“Starving the horse” is not accurate because it implies you are killing the horse. Not so. We are evolving it.

“but his record stands as anti carbon based”I really don’t see how you can claim that;because U.S. oil production is up since Obama came into office.————————————————————http://www.petrostrategies.org/Graphs/crude_oil_production.htm————————————————————There was a temporary ban on gulf oil operations, but that is lifted now, although companies have to prove the ability to contain a spill.

Oil production is up on onshore federal lands from the Bush years. (down slightly offshore because of the temporary moratorium.")————————————————————http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/eia-federallandsales.pdf-———————————————————The number of rotary oil rigs in operation is higher than ever. It was never above 500 during Bush’s years. Now it’s over 1200.Gas rigs are down, but that’s because there’s a glut of gas right now.-————————————————————————http://www.petrostrategies.org/Graphs/rig_count.htm-———————————————————

It sure looks to me like Obama is a true “all of the above.”

I see that a poster is pro-tar sand pipeline. This oil, if the pipeline is built, is promised for exportation. that is WHY it is going to PORT Arthur, an area that isn’t charged tax. The danger to the Oglala aquifer is too great, considering it will go across it. This aquifer provides drinking water to about 7 states. WHen we run out of water, THAT is when WE are in big Trouble. Already Texas has to import water from Mexico! They don’t have enough! I live near where the pipeline to export oil is planned to go. It’s not going to make thousands or millions of jobs. The jobs it will provide are temporary! We need To SAVE our WATER!

Looks like yous needs a Volt!

….not to mention that Hummers are ugly as well. I may drive a Box (Honda Element), but at least my SUV looks good and gets good gas mileage (for its age – it’s an ’03).

Yeah! Wouldn’t want to confuse someone like offbase with silly facts.

The arguments against hybrids and electrics come from the same folks, and mentality, as the argument against condoms. Just keeping getting screwed the same old way and ignore the easily preventable STDs that have wiped out whole societies (like HIV). Don’t change culture in any way to decrease profits, until the primary resources are COMPLETELY gone, then worry about it!

Electric cars are no “silver bullet”; there is no easy answer. But, I haven’t owned a car in years. I choose to live where one isn’t necessary, and I do have access to one when I really need it. “We had a golden opportunity in the 1970s and 1980s, which Ronald Reagan threw away.” Truer words were never written Motivemagus, but not primarily regarding electric cars. .The cost of gasoline will always drive innovation and efficiency. The only thing wrong with letting the markets take care of it, is that markets don’t account for economic externalities. In the case of cars, that’s what comes out of the exhaust pipe and noise and having to build highways through your neighborhood or design cities around them, etc. etc. etc.

Baloney. No one is against electric cars per se.

Green initiatives won’t work until the people who preach it are willing to practice it. When I see a city ban private ownership of a gasoline powered engine within the city limits, I’ll believe it just might be possible, as long as their electricity isn’t generated by burning some other fossil fuel.