New California classic car survey

[Larry Brooks]

Several years ago I had the opportunity to drive Teslas brand new Model S Plaid edition. I was absolutely blown away by the acceleration of that car, 0-60mph in under 2 seconds and 0-100mph in just over 4 seconds. I was astounded by how quickly we hit 100mph but it was strange because it was eerily quiet. I joked with the Tesla sales person (my neighbor) that someone might make a few bucks offering different sound tracks that played through external speakers. We speculated that a Formula 1 engine sound track would be most popular but a Ferrari V12 and a "built" big block(complete with lumpy idle) should also be offered.

[Brian R Adams]

I was absolutely blown away by the acceleration of that car, 0-60mph in under 2 seconds and 0-100mph in just over 4 seconds.

Impressive. (Jotting that down.) ... Now: How about elapsed time from zero to 600 miles, driving as fast as you dare? On, say, the most ideal stretch of interstate highway for an EV available in the US.
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[Brian R Adams]

The Constitutional Court in Germany has put a hobble on the administrative states's saving of the planet using sleight-of-hand (Bloomberg):

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s financial planning has been thrown into disarray by yesterday’s Constitutional Court ruling that struck down the transfer of €60 billion into an off-budget fund for tackling climate change. As well as threatening initiatives like the rollout of heat pumps or the expansion of hydrogen infrastructure and stoking tensions in the ruling coalition, it may also mean the end of most of the special funds that have enabled both federal and regional governments to circumvent borrowing restrictions. Overall, it could put about about €770 billion of state spending at risk, we’ve been told. One exception is the €100 billion fund to bolster the nation’s armed forces, which got written into the constitution. Scholz has pledged a swift budget overhaul, but the court judgment is likely to lay bare the decision-making tensions and escalate the fighting in an already weak coalition.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newslett ... black-hole
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[C J Murray]

The numbers just don't add up and never did. It makes you wonder who benefited by ignoring the obvious reality. Politicians and lobbyists possibly?

[Brian R Adams]

Leon Simons, Executive Director of The Netherlands Association for the Club of Rome:
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Sir David Attenborough, activist filmmaker:
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And how would you reduce world population Sir David? Lead the way ...
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[C J Murray]

Davos again. Meeting place of the evil people from all over the planet.

[Brian R Adams]

Yahoo News Flash: Elon Musk just told Joe Rogan that you can power the entire US with 100 x 100 miles of solar — and it’s "not hard".

... according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, there’s a great energy source that can fulfill all our needs right above us: the sun.

“You could actually power the entire United States with 100 miles by 100 miles of solar,” Musk said during a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.

Host Joe Rogan was intrigued by the idea, asking, “Really? So you could just pick some dead spot, cover that sucker up with solar panels and charge the whole country?”

“Absolutely,” Musk responded. “We need batteries, but yes.”

Doh! There he goes again - blithely, with the wave of a hand, letting the elephant out of the bag - that whole darn grid-scale storage thingy. If we could just store all the solar and wind energy we already capture (fleetingly) right here on terra firma, we'd be, oh, one tenth of the way to Paradise as we speak. But it ain't going to happen.

Francis Menton:

"When you do the simple arithmetic to calculate the storage requirements and the likely costs, it becomes obvious that the entire project is completely impractical and unaffordable. ... California Public Utilities Commission has ordered the state’s power providers to collectively procure by 2026 some 10.5 GW (or 42.0 GWh) of lithium-ion batteries for grid-scale storage: The additional 10.5 GW of lithium-ion storage capacity, translating to at most about 42 GWh, would take California all the way to about 0.17% of the energy storage it would need to fully back up a wind/solar generation system."

Isaac Orr prepared this simple graph, which shows the entire battery capacity of the world as projected in 2030 against the electricity consumption of a single state, Minnesota, four years ago:
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[Harlan Halsey]

Leon Simons, Executive Director of The Netherlands Association for the Club of Rome:
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Net_Zero.jpg
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Sir David Attenborough, activist filmmaker:
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People_Problem.jpg
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And how would you reduce world population Sir David? Lead the way ...
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Well Brian, the way things have gone since Truman fired MacArthur, suggests the old fashioned way.

[Brian R Adams]

Well Brian, the way things have gone since Truman fired MacArthur, suggests the old fashioned way.

I had in mind Sir David as "lead lemming".
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[Brian R Adams]

Today in IBD.com (emphasis added):

Warren Buffett is known for holding onto his S&P 500 stocks forever. ... Buffett usually likes to add to positions when they're down, so it's interesting when he sells some losers. General Motors is the most telling example. Berkshire Hathaway unloaded 100% of its 22 million shares ... in the third quarter. That position was valued at $848.3 billion on June 30. Shares of GM are down 16% this year. That makes it the worst performer among all the stocks Berkshire Hathaway sold off completely in the period. GM, struggling to compete in electric vehicles, is expected to post 3.6% lower profit in 2023 and nearly 8% less in 2024.

I guess those massive government subsidies, grants, and tax credits to GM (over $65 billion since 2000) aren't feeding the bulldog.
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[Alan Klingen 2]

I guess the party is over!!!Alan The Stable.

[Brian R Adams]

I guess the party is over!!!Alan The Stable.

It didn't help that Honda recently announced canceling a joint project with GM to develop an "affordable EV". If EVs remain only for the well-heeled, how will even 50% of Americans ever buy one?
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[Harlan Halsey]

I guess the party is over!!!Alan The Stable.

It didn't help that Honda recently announced canceling a joint project with GM to develop an "affordable EV". If EVs remain only for the well-heeled, how will even 50% of Americans ever buy one?
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The same question was probably asked and answered about 1900. Henry Ford did everything he could to reduce the cost. Henry Rolls probably thought "who cares, there's sufficient demand for my cars".
A friend of mine, not wealthy, has 2 EVs. A Prius and a Leaf. She charges at work, and only occasionally takes a 200mile trip.
If you are asking, "How will the Federal/State government meet it's goals, I can only point out that they usually don't, and usually it doesn't matter-unless you are sucking off the government tit.

[Brian R Adams]

If you are asking, "How will the Federal/State government meet it's goals, ...

I wasn't, I already knew as well. Perhaps a better question today is "How will a 100% EV General Motors survive?"
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[Harlan Halsey]

Maybe Stellantis will buy them and make only Corvettes.