Depression

[ultrarunner]

It is good for security.

Now how about those European trains!

There has not been significant track laid in the U.S. of A. since WWII.

Train travel continues to fall in Western Europe... the trains don't even stop at some of the smaller stations anymore...

I was with a group of students returning from Vienna to Denmark... the cost to go by train was more than double that of going by air and the train trip required the better part of a day...

 

[alchemysa]

As an aside, very few US businesses compete with China these days - look at the stats of manufacturing as a proportion of the US economy. Its already long gone.

Thats a pretty sweeping statement. Detroit might disagree.

What's stuck me lately is how the Chinese are really chasing the small, low volume, short run jobs that have traditionally always been done by very small (almost cottage size) industries in the US. These little businesses probably barely even register as 'manufacturers' and perhaps never thought China could be cost competitive for such small runs. I'm thinking particularly of moulded plastic stuff.

Anyway, we are ALL competing with China everyday now, for the fuel we use.

 

[SPYDERLK]

lot of wisdom above. World would probably be a better place if tractor owners had more voice

Two things on electric cars - the battery technology is the hangup currently, and it will take money to solve it. I beleive it can be done now that the will is out there - at cheap gas it cost to much and provided too little. People need an incentive to trade in their hummer.

Secondly, there is plenty of power in the grid for electric cars - just requires a scheme to get them charged at night - off peak pricing has been proposed. Currently the grid is really stressed on peak days, but nights is well under capacity.

Once you have taken a hard look at this sweeping statement you will not be able to support it. Car use is prevalent among the entire population whereas energy hungry electrical appliances are not. Even the guy that uses 1kwhr a day in his tiny apartment for a small fridge and lights, uses several kwhrs a day doing errands or going to and from work in his car. Keep in mind that just running a car at a steady 40mph for 10 minutes will use about 1kwhr of energy at point of use. Thats with no acceleration or lights or AC or heat. Crank in charging and storage inefficiencies and the supply side problems are shown even more vividly. Then of course there are the many that would use more than ten kwhrs per day commuting without heat or AC.
You start making transportation demand on grid electricity universal and the current grid will overload.
larry

 

[N80]

I still don't think the condition of the current power grid is a valid argument against electric cars. If everyone got an electric car tomorrow then it might be an issue. But that's not the way its going to happen and never the way any major economic/infrastructure changes take place.

The change would be gradual and the grid would either keep pace or the electric car market would die. The latter would be an unfortunate thing to let happen in my opinion.

 

[scott_vt]

I still don't think the condition of the current power grid is a valid argument against electric cars. If everyone got an electric car tomorrow then it might be an issue. But that's not the way its going to happen and never the way any major economic/infrastructure changes take place.

The change would be gradual and the grid would either keep pace or the electric car market would die. The latter would be an unfortunate thing to let happen in my opinion.

Afternoon George,
Very good point and lets not forget the fact that inhancements in electric generation, whether that be solar or otherwise, could potentially release the constraints of our present infrastructure as we know it today !

 

[Bird]

I was just reading what you guys were saying about electicity when mine went off here. It came back on after 45 minutes, but had me worried a bit. The good news was that we got a very small shower this morning, so the temperature is only 86 this afternoon instead of being up in the 90s. I don't know what happened with the power company, but my wife had gone to Walmart, about 2 miles from home, for a couple of grocery items, so I called her on the cell phone to tell her to not rush home with stuff that needed to go in the refrigerator and found Walmart's power was off, too.

 

[Soundguy]

One power co. in our city will drop power if the sky even clouds up!

soundguy

 

[MicroPilot]

What's with the doom and gloom about the power grid? Why aren't the electric co.s doing something about it? Every so often I'll see an article about the power grid being overworked, threatening rolling blackouts, and brownouts, etc. Isn't the electric grid just a capitol cost of business expense for the electric companies? Are they waiting for the gubberment to finance the upgrading the the infrastructure required for them to sell their product? I know it will be an expense for the companies, but I would venture to say that they are always certain to make money. They need to spend some of it to keep making money.

Instead of complaining about the grid the electric companies need to fix the grid.

 

[N80]

Instead of complaining about the grid the electric companies need to fix the grid.

Amen. And Duke Power is doing just that. They're starting on the first new nuke plant to be built in years.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Thats a pretty sweeping statement. Detroit might disagree.

What's stuck me lately is how the Chinese are really chasing the small, low volume, short run jobs that have traditionally always been done by very small (almost cottage size) industries in the US. These little businesses probably barely even register as 'manufacturers' and perhaps never thought China could be cost competitive for such small runs. I'm thinking particularly of moulded plastic stuff.

Anyway, we are ALL competing with China everyday now, for the fuel we use.

I'm sure detroit would disagree with their own impact, but the data remains the data. Google it.

Most of the problem with electrical infrastructure is NIMBYism. We also need to change generation and add a lot more nukes. Both are as doable as switching from gas lighting to electrical lighting, which also stretched the infrastructure of the time. Or building the gasoline delivery infrastructure, which is much more complex