And when the policy behind the government involvement is ill-advised and/or ill-informed, then picking winners and losers and forcing one industry’s product ahead of another’s is an assault on the free market and freedom of choice.
I suspect we will have to agree to disagree in this regard because I firmly believe my statement above is inarguable.
All those development were done at a high level, not to the immediate direct public like electric cars. A happy customer is an informed customer or, there is no bad tech just bad applications of it. The public is more than likely misapplying the tech over informed higher level users in those earlier examples.
I’m all for seeing what the periodic table of elements can do for batteries, but mis representing the true cost of electric after the honeymoon period is over isn’t the best way to make friends.
Throwing money into the wind (ha!) isn’t going to “invent” anything. Solindra didn’t invent better solar panels and uttlerly failed. The Chinese stepped in with cheaper panels that don’t last and all panels are a mess to recycle (most just stack-up as solid dangerous waste). Hardly the full monty on cradle to grave efficiency.
Higher level government involvement usually works best with more oversight, but the feds are terrible towards the consumer level and the reason electric isn’t more factually understood. Early adopters tend to know this and accept the risks, so we have that.
Regarding true costs of vehicle ownership, considering government subsidies for the oil, coal and rare minerals industries, IC vehicles have a hidden subsidy, so to speak. Yeah, those costs do apply to both EV and IC. This ramble is not intended to allocate those costs, I just want to add to the discussion.
While EV batteries are disposed one at a time, strip mined mountains and fracked ground water may never be cleaned up because some say it will be to expensive. Same could be said of spent uranium, it seems society is still groping for a meaningful solution.
While I claim to be an observer, I suspect that I will not live to see proper solutions when big industries and governments are involved.
No and it is the 1200 pound gorilla at the crash scene. It is a very difficult problem especially if the Jaws of Life or something like that is needed for an extrication.
I remember reading (along time ago) about one that kept dying out after lots of water, then chemicals, then again water, then reigniting, burning down the flat bed that it was hoisted on while it seemed to be out. At that time, the final recommendation was to let it burn itself out, the better part of a week later.
I guess it comes down to whoever last burned dinner at the firehouse, who gets to go “under the hood” to cut the thingy. I can just picture it: “not me, man”