Barack Obama’s Energy Policy: Unicorn Farts as the Fuel of Tomorrow

[Stephanie]

links in article at site

SNIP:
Posted by Erick Erickson (Diary)

Monday, March 19th at 4:46AM EDT

15 Comments On Friday, the President of the United States accused his Republican opponents of being members of the Flat Earth Society because of their demands that the nation increase drilling.

In no small bit of irony, the President who bitterly lamented the rise of ATM’s and internet travel options accused the GOP of wanting to bitterly cling to the past.

But what of Barack Obama’s energy policy? He likes to tout wind and solar technologies and batteries, but it seems while he accuses the GOP of being flat earthers, the reality is that the President is himself anti-science when it comes to the reality of domestic energy needs.

His solution to fueling our cars amounts to using unicorn farts as gas — which has just as much a chance of happening as the mythic battery powered cross country run.

The facts are pretty simple. As a matter of both science and reality, battery technology is neither good enough nor cheap enough to supply American needs relating to transportation. Even were there batteries available for vehicles, the cost of conversion for the tens of millions of cars on the road right now would be cost prohibitive and increasing fuel standards, resulting in smaller and smaller cars, penalize families. Try piling a family of four in a Prius for a trip to grand mom’s house for Spring Break. The luggage and leg room will make for an exciting time.

Even beyond the family car, a battery will not put an 18 wheeler on the road, a 747 in the air, or a locomotive on its rails. Americans depend on crude oil right now and in the future. To cling to the hope of a battery that can meet American automotive needs is anti-science and as realistic as fueling our future with unicorn farts. See Charles Lane at the Washington Post for more on the President’s crusade against science.

read it all with comments..
Barack Obama’s Energy Policy: Unicorn Farts as the Fuel of Tomorrow | RedState

 

[Seawytch]

Hmmm...now let's say only 10% of the vehicles on US roads were electric vehicles...how much less oil would that be? What if, say, another 10% were alternative fuel vehicles?

Man...a reduction in demand of 20%? My guess is that it would translate to a lot of fossil fuel, yes?

This is bad because?

 

[Conservative]

There are two major roadblocks to increasing the number of all electric or even hybrid-electric vehicles in the US.

We do not have the charging infrastructure yet.

Battery life is still too short for the average driver (sorry, 40miles before a charge isn't going to cut it).


If we could trim the budget enough in other areas, I'd like to see some of those savings applied to setting up the infrastructure for charging. We didn't have the infrastructure for the gas engine at the beginning either, but it came eventually.

As for the battery life, that is coming. Private industry is making that happen. As the technology improves, so will battery life and charge time.

 

[Conservative]

I saw something on tv last night, saying that San Diego or someplace like that was using 20% bio-fuel as a pilot program, and doing quite well with it.

 

[Old Rocks]

Charging infrastructure is quick and easy to develop, and better batteries are on the way. The Leaf doubles your figure, and the Tesla does 8 times your figure. There are batteries that have been lab tested that would give that Tesla legs of over 1000 miles on one charge. And the materials are cheaper than present batteries. Of course, lab built is sometimes hard to translate into manufacturing, but with the prize so great, we will see a battery developed with much higher energy density at a much cheaper price than the present batteries.

'Electric Highway' opens in Oregon | Fox News

In fact, there is already a short section of the electric hiway on I-5.

 

[Seawytch]

40 miles is plenty sufficient for most people's commutes...even mine if I could charge at work.

For what Americans spend on fossil fuels in a week, we could have battery swap stations from coast to coast.

 

[Conservative]

Charging infrastructure is quick and easy to develop, and better batteries are on the way. The Leaf doubles your figure, and the Tesla does 8 times your figure. There are batteries that have been lab tested that would give that Tesla legs of over 1000 miles on one charge. And the materials are cheaper than present batteries. Of course, lab built is sometimes hard to translate into manufacturing, but with the prize so great, we will see a battery developed with much higher energy density at a much cheaper price than the present batteries.

'Electric Highway' opens in Oregon | Fox News

In fact, there is already a short section of the electric hiway on I-5.

I have heard about Tesla's battery. I'm a little skeptical, until they support their press releases on this by letting outsiders test the battery, or until they sell the technology and it's duplicated. I think an ideal way to set up the charging infrastructure is to set up quick charge stations at typical gas stations. Swipe your ATM, charge, and go. Between the power company and the station owners, I'm sure they could come up with a plan to cover the cost of the installation/maintenance of the charging stations.

 

[Conservative]

40 miles is plenty sufficient for most people's commutes...even mine if I could charge at work.

For what Americans spend on fossil fuels in a week, we could have battery swap stations from coast to coast.

Not sure about the swap thing. Those batteries are 10 times the size of a typical car battery, and are not easy to swap out. I've heard the cost of a new battery for those cars estimated at 7,000 and higher. Anyway, they are supposed to last for 10 years or something, so I think the quick charging stations would work out better.

 

[Wry Catcher]

As usual the left coast will lead the nation in new ideas and technology and the rest of the nation will follow in time. Every major car manufacturer is selling a hybrid or all electric car now, and many start ups are ready to go to market.

 

[Seawytch]

Charging is often too slow. Even on a fast charge it takes close to 20 minutes to charge a battery. Swapping stations are the way to go...

A Better Place

 

[Seawytch]

40 miles is plenty sufficient for most people's commutes...even mine if I could charge at work.

For what Americans spend on fossil fuels in a week, we could have battery swap stations from coast to coast.

Not sure about the swap thing. Those batteries are 10 times the size of a typical car battery, and are not easy to swap out. I've heard the cost of a new battery for those cars estimated at 7,000 and higher. Anyway, they are supposed to last for 10 years or something, so I think the quick charging stations would work out better.

I heard that too about the cost of replacing the batteries, but then I also read that you don't have to replace the entire battery and that the cells can be replaced individually instead of replacing the whole battery. I've got a 2005 Prius and (knock on wood) haven't had to do anything with them yet.

 

[Conservative]

Charging is often too slow. Even on a fast charge it takes close to 20 minutes to charge a battery. Swapping stations are the way to go...

A Better Place

Yeah, I read that. This part concerns me...

While some automakers like what they’ve heard about Better Place’s plan for charging stations in cities like San Francisco and throughout Hawaii, they’re skeptical – if not dismissive – of the swap station technology.

Two leading automakers developing electric vehicles told us privately the idea will never fly because batteries are key components and asking consumers to swap them out is akin to asking them to replace the engine when the car runs out of gas. They also say the plan will require a level of standardization automakers aren’t likely to embrace.

Ford, Toyota and Fisker Automotive offered their own reasons why the technology won’t work during the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference last month, according to The Business Insider. They range from the technical – repeatedly removing batteries could damage their protective seals – to Henrik Fisker’s observation that Better Place’s gadget may not work beneath his low-slug sedan.

That, and the $500,000 investment in equipment. I think getting that type of system up and running in enough convenient places all over the country would be a lot more expensive and time consuming than setting up the quick charge stations. Just from an installation perspective, it's like the difference between installing an automated car wash vs. an automatic air pump.

 

[Seawytch]

When it comes time to replace my Prius...I'd like to replace it with one of these...

Air Powered Car

 

[Seawytch]

Charging is often too slow. Even on a fast charge it takes close to 20 minutes to charge a battery. Swapping stations are the way to go...

A Better Place

Yeah, I read that. This part concerns me...

While some automakers like what they’ve heard about Better Place’s plan for charging stations in cities like San Francisco and throughout Hawaii, they’re skeptical – if not dismissive – of the swap station technology.

Two leading automakers developing electric vehicles told us privately the idea will never fly because batteries are key components and asking consumers to swap them out is akin to asking them to replace the engine when the car runs out of gas. They also say the plan will require a level of standardization automakers aren’t likely to embrace.

Ford, Toyota and Fisker Automotive offered their own reasons why the technology won’t work during the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference last month, according to The Business Insider. They range from the technical – repeatedly removing batteries could damage their protective seals – to Henrik Fisker’s observation that Better Place’s gadget may not work beneath his low-slug sedan.

That, and the $500,000 investment in equipment. I think getting that type of system up and running in enough convenient places all over the country would be a lot more expensive and time consuming than setting up the quick charge stations. Just from an installation perspective, it's like the difference between installing an automated car wash vs. an automatic air pump.

The charging stations are great...if you have the time. Swaps are much quicker. The swap stations are obviously working so it will just take getting the auto manufacturers on board so they can make the swapping easier.

We'll have to see how it goes in Israel. Imagine an entire state (albeit a small one at first) using swapping and charging stations?

 

[Conservative]

Charging is often too slow. Even on a fast charge it takes close to 20 minutes to charge a battery. Swapping stations are the way to go...

A Better Place

Yeah, I read that. This part concerns me...

While some automakers like what they’ve heard about Better Place’s plan for charging stations in cities like San Francisco and throughout Hawaii, they’re skeptical – if not dismissive – of the swap station technology.

Two leading automakers developing electric vehicles told us privately the idea will never fly because batteries are key components and asking consumers to swap them out is akin to asking them to replace the engine when the car runs out of gas. They also say the plan will require a level of standardization automakers aren’t likely to embrace.

Ford, Toyota and Fisker Automotive offered their own reasons why the technology won’t work during the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference last month, according to The Business Insider. They range from the technical – repeatedly removing batteries could damage their protective seals – to Henrik Fisker’s observation that Better Place’s gadget may not work beneath his low-slug sedan.

That, and the $500,000 investment in equipment. I think getting that type of system up and running in enough convenient places all over the country would be a lot more expensive and time consuming than setting up the quick charge stations. Just from an installation perspective, it's like the difference between installing an automated car wash vs. an automatic air pump.

The charging stations are great...if you have the time. Swaps are much quicker. The swap stations are obviously working so it will just take getting the auto manufacturers on board so they can make the swapping easier.

We'll have to see how it goes in Israel. Imagine an entire state (albeit a small one at first) using swapping and charging stations?

I figure by the time I retire, I'll have the money for a good fully electric car. Also, by then, they should have the charging stations or swap stations all worked out. I'm 48.

Then again, maybe I'm rushing them all...lol.

 

[Conservative]

When it comes time to replace my Prius...I'd like to replace it with one of these...

Air Powered Car

I think that will be as popular as the rotary engine was

 

[Oldstyle]

I'm curious...since much of our electricity is produced by coal fired plants that Barry and his friends would like to see closed...when everybody plugs their electric cars into all those outlets? Where is all this new juice coming from? Ooops...was that a question we weren't supposed to ask? I guess we'll have to build more nuclear powered plants and burn oil in the others? Have we made provisions for that taking place because I haven't seen it.

 

[Dragon]

Oldstyle is right insofar as automobiles are not an isolatable part of our energy economy and it's the entire energy economy that will have to be retooled. The era of cheap oil is over and it's not coming back. (Unless we stop burning oil for fuel -- then the price will plummet, but then we'll no longer need it, except for chemicals and plastics.)

The cost of renewable energy has already dropped to the point where it's a great deal cheaper than nuclear, and slightly cheaper than oil, and on a par with natural gas. It's still a bit more expensive than coal, but when you factor in the environmental costs of burning coal, it's cheaper than coal, too (it's just that those costs are externalized and don't show up in the accounting).

The future will be:

1) Solar panels on roofs as a standard building feature of new construction.
2) Lower use of grid energy as a consequence, with such grid energy as is still used also coming from renewable sources for the most part (solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, OTEC).
3) All transportation methods either electric, hydrogen fuel-cell, or biofuel.

It will take two or three decades for us to get to this point, but that's where we're going.

 

[Katzndogz]

Charging an electric vehicle even if it worked, would only be suitable for someone with a home with a garage. It's not going to happen for apartment complexes. The idea is stupid the more obama gives speeches about the need to endure his outrageous and confiscatory gas prices because in 50 to 100 years we will all be on alternative energy the more votes he loses so I hope he keeps it up. Those long haul truckers who bring products to market will have to carry around their own unicorns to fart in the gas tank.

 

[Dragon]

Apartment complexes could put in charging stations, and residents could pay for the electricity in the usual way they do now (either it's part of their rent or it's separate). That's hardly an insurmountable obstacle.