In order to achieve “carbon-free” electricity generation by 2035 and nearly fossil fuel–free energy by 2050, technologies will need to be built that include millions of weather-dependent wind turbines, billions of unreliable solar panels, millions of half-ton battery modules for vehicles, billions more modules to back up intermittent electricity generation, millions of transformers, and tens of thousands of miles of new transmission lines. All these technologies must be manufactured from metals, minerals, and petroleum extracted from the Earth, via mining on scales unprecedented in human history. It would cost $29 trillion in initial outlays for battery backup to replace current US ‘fossil fuel’ electricity and convert vehicles, furnaces, water heaters, and stoves to electricity. Professional engineer Ken Gregory determined that grid-backup battery costs could reach $290 trillion (12.6 times the USA’s 2021 GDP). https://needtoknow.news/2023/05/net-zero-grid-batteries-would-bankrupt-america/
I have some experience in fleet vehicle maintenance/service/repair. In our fleet we had a number of nat-gas small/medium vehicles. I never did understand why the local/state/fed governments did not get further behind promoting that fuel. It is clean,dry and in my experience the vehicles themselves ran just fine. Maybe just a-bit down on power , but that can be corrected if desired. I assume the reluctance is the fact that it is a derivative of a fossil [source] an extract of oil ? And that is a toxic thought to the liberal-left ?
Last night on one of my conservative radio programs, a chef/owner of a new restaurant opening in Palo Alto, CA went thru hoops to keep his gas stoves in his new restaurant. The control freaks and CA controllers are relentless. He said his prices are higher than normally due to where we are NOW.....
Carbon free anything doesn’t make any sense to me. If it is being manufactured or harvested, it is generating a carbon footprint. Human activity of any kind produces a carbon footprint. They tout electric vehicles as carbon free. That’s total BS. They don’t just appear, already manufactured, out of thin air.
If they really wanted to clean things up, they would get the plastic and garbage out of the oceans, make laws to waste less. Not force electric cars by a set date.