Higher Energy Prices: The Goal Of Biden’s Green Team

Whatever.

Green Energy is a nice goal… but it is not ready for Prime Time.
It has to be phased in as more Green Energy is available at a competitive price.

Tesla is doing fine without this nonsense.
The left needs patience. If this is to happen, it will naturally occur because it is a better way, not because of the heavy foot of Government.

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Remember when utilities conducted Energy audits and subsidized insulation etc. The rationale was that building new sources of energy cost far more than existing energy so it paid to try to better utilize the existing production.

Obviously that thinking is out the window.

Does your car have airbags? Is the mileage pretty decent for a car it’s size? Are your odds of surviving a crash better than they were in 1975? I only ask because all of those were made possible by the heavy foot of government. Oh.,…we bitched about it then, but we wouldn’t think of going back to the way things were.

Price shouldn’t matter to lefties who are pushing for green energy, they need to put their money where their mouths are.

Which is why the average price of a new car is over $45,000.

New Car Price Keeps Climbing, with Average Now at Almost $47,100.

There is an old saying that the cure for high oil prices is high oil prices. I may be in the minority here but I like the notion of higher oil prices because I think it will spurn more innovation. As an EV driver for years, I see a lack of adoption in the US consumer coming from low oil prices. The higher oil prices will promote investment upstream to produce more supply. The same high prices will decrease demand at the consumer level as people make conscious choices. Finally, if we get a movement to reduce our dependency on foreign oil that is also a good thing. I wished Biden has been proactive on this front but he failed miserably as he is really just a figurehead. The US as a whole needs to re-invest in being an independent nation and stop funding terrorist governments via imports.

This is the same principal that drove the innovation in digital music via Napster and created an entire new industry.

I’ll put you in the column of “My next car won’t have airbags or get decent mileage”. You okay with that? Wati…I’ll save you the trouble…I’ll find a 40 year old article about airbags killing infants in the front seat.

Since I have retired, I ride a bicycle a lot. It’s great exercise and it’s very efficient. And I use it more than my car. But I could never use one for commuting to work here because the US is very car centric. When we build a road, it’s cars first. We don’t take much alternative transportation into account when planning new roads. If we could have the infrastructure to provide safe ways to cycle, we could reduce the number of cars. If we reduce the number of cars, we reduce the demand for gasoline. Now, a bike isn’t the total solution, but how many more people might use it when they could if the infrastructure was in place. Look at the Netherlands. They put bikes first.

I saw a youtube video a while back that was a challenge (in LA) to see which transportation got them to work quicker…a bicycle, a car and public transit. The bicycle was the fastest. But we won’t consider them as viable transportation.

Airbag laws and backup camera laws did not go retrofit the MILLIONS of older cars. Most cars today have airbags but there are plenty out there that still don’t. Automakers can’t make historically normal production levels but what they would need to do is produce enough to replace every vehicle on the road. That is going to take 15+ years to do.

You use your bike for grocery shopping, doctors and dentist appointments, going to visit your daughter and grandson, etc?

Most in here won’t get it but this is a very good point. I do think there was a time and place for EPA to mandate better mpg in cars but ultimately the open market will take care of this stuff. As gas gets more expensive, it’ll drive demand for better mpg and EVs.

I didn’t know had a wider view of things…well done butler!

All nice thoughts. How am I going to get my groceries and pick up my kids on the way home from work? How and I going to bundle the kids up and get them to daycare on a bike? Wait, I got to pick up my kid from football practice on my bike. Naw. He is old enough to bike the 8 miles home with his football pads on. I must live in a utopia with unlimited free time.

I guess you missed this part of my post

I admit that a bike isn’t a total solution. So does that mean we continue to do nothing with infrastructure to encourage cycling when it’s possible? I mean, how many F250’s do you see on city streets where the only cargo is a laptop bag? But…we will do everything we can to encourage that. But very little to provide a safe commuter lane for bikes. As for groceries and kids - there are things like this:

Commuting by bike works in a very limited number of areas and is difficult with children. When I lived in Chicago my roommate used public transportation or walked 90% of the time, it’s the other 10% that was a pain in the ass.

So while we COULD focus on what to do for that last 10%, we should just ignore any alternatives and dismiss that 90%

Living without a car works in very limited circumstances. My roommate took the train to work and in the neighborhood we lived (Lakeview) there was a bar or restaurant on every other corner, we could walk to Wrigley Field, walk or ride our bike to the lakefront, walk to a couple movie theaters but going to the grocery store or laundromat was a major pain in the ass.

They built a new grocery store next to my subdivision 2 years ago, several neighbors will ride their bike to go shopping and use their stroller trailer but they only do that when they have that time and weather permitting.

Did I mention that I live 60 miles from work? Yes that is a choice and If i could get the wife to sell her horses, we could easily move closer to work but then we move far away from grandma that babysits while we are at work.

You better leave early.

Bikes are fun to ride but are very limited for everyday transportation. They’re fine in a big city where everything is clustered and there’s public transportation, but aren’t very good in other places. I’m in downtown Chicago right now and for the people that live here they can walk from their job to the grocery store to dozens of restaurants and bars, hospitals, doctor and dentist offices, etc and they don’t even need a bike. If you live a few miles away you’re screwed because nothing is nearby.

I have motorcycle too. Fun to ride but not suited for family. My bike gets 40 MPGs BUT tires only last about 5-8K miles. As many miles as I commute, that is a tire change every 2-3 months and motorcycle tires are much more expensive than car tires. Also, the rain, heat, and wild temperature changes makes using my bike as a commuter not practicable. Then, how do I drop kid off at school and pick them up from grandma’s after work.