Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

So who's going to do something about the billions in government waste, in whatever form that takes? That's right, nobody.

And yet, we have scores of homeless people and children living in poverty.

For a country whose annual federal budget is in the trillions, that's a fucking embarrassment.

 

Yet we send 10 bil a month to Afghanistan and split 4 bil a year with Egypt / Pakistan/ Libia.

That would feed and house a lot of homeless.

 

Not being snarky, but your scale struck me as funny. "Scores"? Really? A "score" is 20. When you say "scores" rather than "hundreds", "thousands", or "millions", I think some number in the range of 20 to, say, 200. While it would certainly suck to be a member of that group, if a country with a population of 311 million has only "scores" of people homeless or living in poverty, I'd say that country's doing pretty well. I know that's not what you're trying to say, but it struck me as funny nonetheless.

 

Opening more stores:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/chi-2nd-tesla-store-coming-to-chicago-soon-20120921,0,5468972.story

 

If 340 of those 380 weren't because of gasoline, you might have a point. But since the Volt only goes 40 miles on a 10-hour charge before it has to switch over to the gas-powered engine, your point falls apart.

 

Not really.

The daily driving average in the US is 29 miles a day.

By simply plugging into a wall outlet at night, a Volt owner who drives the national average can go months without ever buying or using gas.

 

Global Warming Effects and Causes: A Top 10 List
June 7, 2009 By Derek Markham

Global Warming Effects and Causes: A Top 10 List

1. Global Warming Cause: Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants

Our ever increasing addiction to electricity from coal burning power plants releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 40% of U.S. CO2 emissions come from electricity production, and burning coal accounts for 93% of emissions from the electric utility industry [EPA, pg. 10]. Every day, more electric gadgets flood the market, and without widespread alternative energy sources, we are highly dependent on burning coal for our personal and commercial electrical supply.

Planetsave (http://s.tt/12tkS)

 

I was promised 'clean coal' by any number of politicans.

But Boom raises an interesting point - must a Volt buyer be a tree-hugger?

Also, what's the break-even on carbon emissions by taking internal combustion cars off the road and building new power sources? Especially if those power sources are clean?

Why shouldn't every garage in America have a solar array on the roof for charging electric cars?

Why shouldn't every city bus be a hybrid?

 

Tree huggers see what they want to see and tend not to think in the big picture.

What I would love to see is a big picture master plan that takes into account all aspects of
energy and environmental impact.

Too many of our plans now and in the past end up with unintended consequences that leave us worse off and skeptical of new ideas .

As example look at the opposition to nuclear power plants or the development of ethanol.

If we had built the nuclear power plants like Shoreham on Long Island we would be a lot farther along in a better energy plan.

 

First off, you'd have to charge the car during the day. Second, you gotta have a ton of panel capacity, way the hell more than is feasible. I've done this in the past (but don't have the hard numbers handy, so you'll just have to trust me) but the numbers don't come close to working. The newer Volts have battery capacity of 16.4 kWh. I'd estimate that, ballpark, you'd need to spend around $10K minimum (and have about 325 square feet of roof space), and that's only if you're in a perfect place for generation (e.g., southern Nevada). If you're not in that perfect place, then your costs are going to go way the hell up. And that's if you're going to charge during the day. If not, you gotta build in that battery capacity to store and then transfer, and that's godawful expensive.

 

"Two Volts in every garage and a solar panel on every roof"

The sun will come up tomorrow.