To those buying an electric vehicle, I’d ask do you already composte, fully recycle including clothes, books and household goods? Have you researched the type of batteries used and the waste as well? If cost is your primary consideration what will you do if many move to electric and electric goes go way up? Do you know what it costs to replace an electric car battery?
I’m big on green even shifted our house to geothermal recently. But electric car are a no for me for many reasons. Not sure I’m ever there’s going to be a net zero car in my lifetime but for now, I’ll use a gas powered vehicle. Would be interested in other technologies should battery tech change.
Second on the gas vehicle choice. We also moved to geothermal. Works great but very pricey to install.
And as far as electric vehicles go, do people understand how the majority of electricity is still generated in this country?
In addition, we are already stressing the electrical grid in many parts of the country and that’s before adding charging for hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles. For decades, there has been little to zero interest in fortifying the grid against overuse as well as cyberattacks.
Talk is cheap for some of people. When my kids were here visiting, I had to go turn off the lights in their rooms when they were no longer in the room. I bought all 3 new non EV vehicles last year, knowing that could be the last chance to buy them. I only drive about 3,000 miles per year, in 20 years, it’s still relatively new.
I also make every conscious effort not to throw anything away, yeap, I even compost my old bras that were not in a condition to be donated, if they are cotton, the worms would make them go away.
Geothermal was cost effective for us since our A/C was nearly dead, and we would have had to replace our furnace in the near term, we had a very large unused field and the Federal and state rebates were amazing. We will get our investment back in 49 months and then costs will be very low. Our next step will be solar. My spouse wants to use the field for solar panels but I’m hoping they get a little smaller and more powerful so the jump is cost and tech effective. Never know what tech is around the corner.
Goal is to have no heating, ac or electric expenses in retirement. If we get crazy we’ll even get a pool and have that heated naturally.
About 60% fossil fuel, but almost none from petroleum (<1%, versus about 40% natural gas and about 20% coal), which is more strongly tied to international markets and therefore trade balance issues and foreign policy problems. About 20% each from nuclear and renewables.
The proportions vary considerably in different regions.
How is that not insulting? You have just declared that people who were optimistic in the 1970s weren’t paying attention. That’s just not true. You don’t speak for every young person who was alive in the 70s. I was in high school in the late 70s. I’m the youngest of 3 kids. My sister was class of 76 and my brother was class of 73. The three of us watched world events unfold around us but it did not feel insurmountable. To us it felt like things were only going to get better.
This seems kind of off topic, but yes. Love our Chevy Bolt. Have composted literallly all my life. Recycle everything that can be recycled and that includes clothes. I try not to recycle books but do when it is no longer viable. Yes I know what it costs to replace an electric car battery. You can be completely off grid with an electric car if you have solar, btw. We will probably never go back to a gas vehicle.
FWIW our local electricity is provided by a nuclear power plant . Not that I love that but it is what it is.
Might I remind members of the forum rules: “Our forum is expected to be a friendly and welcoming place, and one in which members can post without their motives, intelligence, or other personal characteristics being questioned by others."
and
“College Confidential forums exist to discuss college admission and other topics of interest. It is not a place for contentious debate. If you find yourself repeating talking points, it might be time to step away and do something else… If a thread starts to get heated, it might be closed or heavily moderated.”
I love this response. With every energy source it’s a trade off. Hard but necessary.
We live in a place where it’s cold and dark much of the year. Don’t think we could be off grid with an electric car but I’ll take other options and keep my gas guzzler. Maybe someday. We don’t drive a lot except for long road trips.
We get tons of sun, have PV & solar and hybrid car. We don’t drive much and haven’t flown since 2019. Our state is working to reduce use of fossil fuels.
It had to get better after hiding under your desk waiting for a bomb to drop in elementary school and then later listening to the Viet Nam war body count daily at dinner time. And then hoping your HS classmates drew a decent number for the draft lottery so they wouldn’t end up in a body bag. Fun times. I don’t think climate change is what’s gonna get us. I can deal with that.
The draft lottery was truly insane. Everyone understands the concept that there are random things we cannot control-- but to watch a LOTTERY determine the course of someone’s young adulthood… No wonder so many people took the bull by the horns and enlisted in the National Guard. That was not a popular option in area- now I’m wondering why…
Others tried to stay in college as long as possible (which at the time allowed deferment as long as one stayed in college). Some people tried to get medical diagnoses that led to them being classified as unfit for military service. Wealthy families probably found other ways to legally get their sons out of the draft.
EVs are very popular with “preppers” and survivalists. Our family is not in that category (we’re more eco conscious in our decision to drive EVs), but think about it. As an individual you can generate electricity any number of ways — solar panels, small windmill (like a farm windmill), mini hydro you can put in a creek, geothermal, even tidal. There are lots of ways to go off-grid with electricity, but with gas unless you have your own oil well and refinery you are at the mercy of big oil and the infrastructure. When the Colonial Pipeline went down with that ransom ware attack last year people around us were panicking and you started to see long lines at the gas stations, but with an EV, no problem. Do a search on “electric vehicle prepper survivalist” if you want more info.
Now you can do biodiesel from veggie oil or even animal fat in a pinch, but that takes many more resources than generating your own electricity if you have to create the oil. You do have to refine the oil into fuel. You can just run straight oil in a diesel. We used to run biodiesel in our VW TDIs, but we got it from a local co-op, rather than making it ourselves. It’s doable for an individual in the Mad Max future, but it’s a fairly intensive process.
Wait until you have a flood, my daughter’s apartment had a flood in LA, all EVs were dead, they couldn’t get out when they were notified, but she’s managed to drive her car out. This is at least one reason that I don’t do all EV yet, I have a plug built in for high voltage when I bought my new house for EV.
The draft lottery ended in 1972, so during most of the 70s men were not being drafted for Vietnam. I grew up in a military town and my dad and all my uncles served in WWII, fwiw. My brother was class of '73 so he missed out on the draft.
But the original question was about 30 years ago, so the 1990s is when we are talking about. For sure I think there is more gloom and doom today than in the 90s.
Los Angeles or Louisiana? Did your daughter’s apartment have an underground garage? Flooding can kill a gas vehicle too, esp salt water. We live in NC where we have frequent hurricanes along the coast and flooding from them. Where we live doesn’t flood, but the creek behind us floods over the road once ever 5 years or so. Truly not an issue I’m concerned about with regards to my vehicle. I’d be more concerned about my house. BTW, been driving EVs for about 7 years now, haven’t had a flooding issue with the car yet. Have 77K miles on my current EV.
. Not that I love that but it is what it is.