Absolutely, because there's no carbon footprint!

But if you wear a face mask while driving alone in your electric car, you are doing double plus good value signaling!

Bonus Prius meme

Lithium stonks about to go craZy.

We will run out of rare earth minerals needed for batteries long before the oil runs out...

When the left shuts down coal production and nuclear power then what is going to recharge those lithium batteries. Hydroelectric energy can only be produced in mountain states. Solar and wind just cannot produce at the levels needed when all cars are electric.

In 2030 when Biden mandates that all cars be electric then even with our current electric output we are going to put a massive strain on the grid with everyone charging their cars overnight. Not to mention, they are very expensive and they do not go as far, about 200 miles per charge. The batteries are very expensive and only last at most about 10 years, less if the car is used a lot.

If we don't stop the Democrats our lives are going to radically change for the worse.

Well said. I'm an "all of the above" when it comes to energy sources, including nuclear. Switching to renewables, eventually, makes sense but the technology isn't there for renewables to economically carry the load. That's just fantasy. We've got to gradually get there and making people pay exceedingly higher prices for fossil fuels isn't the way to get there.

I think everyone is for renewable energy but only if it can provide the same or better output than our current sources of energy.

What scares people is when people start talking like they want to pull the plug on everything else except for wind and solar. And they talk like we have to do it right now because the planet will burn in tomorrow if we don't. If they do that then it will cause such a devastating effect on the nation that people will quite literally will die. Either they won't have a source of heat in the winter or they won't be able to get food or medicine because food and medicine production was shut down.

Actually the safest and most renewable source of energy is nuclear. Oil is not a fossil fuel, it is a product the earth produces and it is renewable. It may not be as green as the left wants but we have done a whole lot to clean up the burning of gasoline to the point were places like Los Angeles haven't had a smog alert since around the year 2000 and their population is growing by leaps and bounds which means more cars. California's growth has slowed down a bit because now people are moving out of California in record numbers but even with all of that the population is still growing.

I only mention LA because that is where I grew up. I remember when I was a child walking to school in the 60's with my lungs burning and my eyes watering because of the smog. By the mid 70's I never felt my lungs burning or eyes watering ever again.

Spot on, as usual.

The other thing that I find funny about shutting down domestic petroleum production as quickly as we did is that it's entirely symbolic. We're still using as much as ever, just now importing it from our friendly neighbors in the mideast and Russia.

The other factor is that petroleum is used for so many other things other than gasoline and diesel production. For example, you mentioned food production. Not to mention the fuel used to plant, harvest, and get crops to market, but fertilizers and pesticides use a lot of petroleum.

Denver's a lot like LA in that we're essentially a basin with downtown in the center of the basin. 30 years in the winter we would get a "brown cloud" that you could see from the suburbs and foothills. So thick that you couldn't see the buildings of downtown. Now, even though we've had unprecedented growth, we don't get that anymore.

The entire nation (I thought) has been demanding to get off of foreign oil ever since I can remember. We finally get a president to do that and 2 seconds after he is out of office the next president puts us right back on foreign oil. The government is no longer representing the will of the people. The left is dancing around this issue trying to figure out some way to justify Biden's puppet masters actions.

I now live in Utah. We get an inversion layer that traps pollution in the winter. Which is weird to me because in LA the inversion layer is always in the summer. I grew up thinking it had something to do with the heat.

The Wasatch front which extends from about the Idaho border down to the middle of the state, passing by Ogden, SLC and Provo gets that inversion layer every winter. I haven't seen it bad enough to hide buildings but I certainly saw that in LA. There was a mountain range just to the north of where I grew up (the Pomona, Ca. area) that used to disappear in the summer. If you went up into those mountains it would take you above the smog layer. The first time I saw that I almost got sick to my stomach to think that is what I was breathing down in the valley.

I've been to Denver a few times and I like it there. I have a nephew on my side and a cousin on my wife's side who lives there. I just don't like the politicians in Denver who are passing all sorts of gun legislation in a state that is full of hunters. Utah is a lot like Colorado in that respect but at least we have a mostly conservative governor.

Yes, Colorado has gone from red to blue in the 30 years that I've live here. Hopefully it will start to balance out this year. The governor & one senator are up for reelection and hopefully they'll go down.

I hope so also. I've always liked Colorado. I think it is one of the most beautiful states in the union. I'd hate to lose it to Marxist like California has been lost. California has the best weather in the country but the Marxists have made it impossible to live there. Why would I want to hand over that much of my paycheck to the government just so they can further restrict everything I do.

Seal of Approval - 4z05qo.jpg (click to show) Upvoted!

eyyy oil industry op alert. not gonna defend tesla or evs, but just gonna say that electric trains are far superior

Yeah, the diesel trains that I ran in my basement kept setting off my smoke alarms.

those are battery electric trains. you'll see "actual" railroad companies purchasing those.
65znuk.jpg (click to show)

electric trains (actual ones, not the crappy battery alternative) look like this
65znyh.jpg (click to show)

no need to refuel, much stronger in horsepower than their diesel, steam, and battery counterparts, and they don't explode.

But like I have said before, with public transportation you lost the freedom to go exactly where you want to go and when you want to go. You can only go to the approximate location at the time the train leaves.

That is just not a world I want to live in.

"you lost the freedom to go exactly where you want to go and when you want to go"

with a car you lose the freedom to go where there aren't parking lots or the required space for a car. parking lots are one of the reasons why american cities suffer. there are more parking spaces in the average american city than there are sky scrapers.

"You can only go to the approximate location at the time the train leaves."

this is the effect to which that american suburban lifestyles have spoilt its residents. back in the days before general motors and our government killed our streetcar companies, railroads were everywhere. now they are virtually nowhere.
the reasons why trains are so effective is due to capacity and because we can walk/bike the last mile. we have evolved to be functional of doing that. with car dependence, however, we lose that efficiency. not only do we need a specific license (that can be impossible to get under certain conditions) and hidden payments just to use it, but we have to drag a large clump of metal 4 times our size just to get to places (places that have probably been demolished for another freeway or parking lot).

trains have also evolved to compete with car travel.

for a person to leave whenever they'd like, trains have a metric to abide by called "frequency," which is how often a train comes through. usually commuter trains, regional trains, and subway trains have higher frequencies than long-distance, intercity, and high-speed trains. frequency helps in that it allows a person going to work leave whenever they wish.

5tvl20.jpg (click to show)
train speeds are almost always greater than a car's. a commuter train usually tops 70 mph. might not seem that great at first, but it competes well enough with car travel time since where a commuter train operates is usually where cars have to deal with intersections & other drivers, and the speed is limited to 35 mph. a regional train usually reaches 90 mph. the freeway limits cars to 60-70 mph by comparison. yes, commuter trains & regional trains do have to stop at stations, but that even take as long as one would think. courtesy of frequency, trains stop and start very quickly. with that, cars can never compete with high-speed rail either due to overall travel time.

"That is just not a world I want to live in."

ok, but it's a world where enough other people do want to live in. that complaint is not the rest of the country's problem.

I HATE big cities. I don't ever want to live in one ever again. I'm a country boy. I want to drive out in the middle of nowhere and enjoy the sites.

I don't care about parking lots in big cities. That is for those who love cities. I'll never understand that mentality.

So you can have all the public transportation you want in the cities. I don't care. Just don't force me to live there.

"I HATE big cities. I don't ever want to live in one ever again. I'm a country boy. I want to drive out in the middle of nowhere and enjoy the sites"

ok have fun. just don't complain when the city dwellers decide they need a high-speed train to get from their place to the next city over and it may or may not involve government funds.

Why does the government need to build high speed trains? Why can't private industry build high speed trains. Private industry had no problem building air transportation. Private industry built the first intercontinental railroad (although, to be honest there was taxpayer dollars involved as well as private investment). Private industry has always been building railroads.

Ever since the 20th century, government has built all of the commuter rails. Why? For that matter, why does the government need to build roads?

If there is a need for something, let the free market handle it. It will be done MUCH less expensive, on time and better quality. That way the next time you drive by a road construction crew and see a few of them just standing around doing nothing, then you won't think, "the government is stealing my money to pay for those guys just to stand around!?!?"

If the free market took care of building roads, maybe they would be toll roads, maybe not. However you paid to drive on those roads would be much less than what the government steals from us.

"Why does the government need to build high speed trains?"

a lot of the time the government runs them because high-speed trains are risky. if the public want HSR within reasonable reach, and no company is willing to provide it, politicians do it instead. this is more commonplace in europe since politicians use rail as a method to gain voters, such as in Spain & even China.

"Why can't private industry build high speed trains"

never said they couldn't. they can, and i'd support it. high-speed rail is actually profitable, and some companies are starting to develop. I'd recommend you look into Brightline, a private train-operating entity in Florida developing a line between Miami & Tampa.

there is one thing, however...
https://www.railwayage.com/news/part-4-of-5-is-this-the-end-of-the-line/
a landowner wants the government to end a private project. if the court took his side, this would threaten all future private rail prospects in texas.
video here:
https://youtu.be/hJfyuoIWhm0?t=495

"Ever since the 20th century, government has built all of the commuter rails. Why?"

commuter rail, along with regional and urban rail, doesn't profit quite as well as HSR does. the margins of profit are much lower. for smaller networks to make a profit, they'd have to be densely connected on day one of opening instead of one singular line opening every few years. when the government uses taxes to operate it, at the very least a good portion of people are using it.

"If there is a need for something, let the free market handle it. "

i would agree, since due to regulations and monopolies the free market has been struggling. however, the free market is also beating around the bush with haphazard promises. one example is the Hyperloop technology. it's been talked about since the early 2010s and has been experimented on since. however, the only thing worth of note from Hyperloop is two people riding in a pod at 100 mph back in 2020, and nothing of value since. what worse, it's depended on government subsidy to perform these tests.

yeah, i understand the frustration with CAHSR, which has done a terrible job of constructing the High-speed line efficiently.
https://youtu.be/hJfyuoIWhm0?t=284
that video i posted earlier also shows Brightline's activity in Cali. you might like this YouTuber.

"However you paid to drive on those... much less than what the government steals..."

with the flaws and costs with cars, they couldn't compete with the railroads and go bust

1225x1028 res:

https://preview.redd.it/505hz1hzrmz71.jpg?auto=webp&s=d1cb1cdf21ae55005a5d40b53c30e081984ad0c2

I live in the Bronx, so no convincing on trains needed. Won't be having any high speed though, too many stations to warrant it.
'Progress' round here was to add Amtrak stops in Morris Park and Co-Op City near here. They were talking about beginning work in 2016, didn't happen. They've been talking about this for decades, but this was supposed to be a go.

That tentacled mess of highways to the right is both exceedingly creepy scary yet fascinating in a puke-ish way,,,

I will say that those pics in the context of rail brought back some memories. Ten years ago when I was going to college I took lite rail to the campus. Why? The pass was built into our tuition bills & fees. So, it cost me nothing whereas driving to the campus would have cost me gas, wear & tear, and parking to boot, so economically it just made sense to ride the train.

Despite what The_Knight says, the train stopped at our campus, so there you were, it took me where I needed to go. Yeah, you had to wait for a few minutes to board a train, but it was no big deal. Since the train ran parallel to I-25 in Denver you always saw the major backups that you were passing by whilst realizing that, overall, you were not only saving money but time as well. Instead of gritting my teeth in traffic jams, I was reading, studying for a test, or chatting with my fellow passengers.

Me Modda.
Me not the The_Other_Abby_Normal AKA The_Knight...

It's ok, you can disagree with one of your 'team' directly, I'll protect ya!

"'Progress' round here was to add Amtrak stops in Morris Park and Co-Op City near here. "

things like this is why i worry about amtrak's 2035 plan; just not happening for unknown reasons. amtrak even has better access to ROW there since they operate on the NEC

Them buildings are Co-op City.
See that trestle in the middle (the bridges in the foreground and rear are for regular automobile traffic)? For some absolutely asinine reason I decided to go across on it when I was 17 or 18. Can't say walked all the way since a bit of a breeze might have sufficed to knock me into the water and that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing as it has undercurrents and is a bit stinky. It looks black from the muck beneath. Surprised I didn't pop a knee the way I hunkered down on all fours like a toad. No planks as I got closer to the middle, so it was tie to tie hunkere down. Seemed like near forever.

Anyways, made a mistake, the tracks are Amtrak, but the plan is for Metro North for the stations and a new route. That's a commuter rail that goes from Manhattan to Westchester to Connecticut to I don't know where it ends. It's not part of NYC's MTA. Anyways, the city & state are supposed to be responsible for the costs, nothing from Amtrak other than being allowed to utilize their tracks.

I had to look up that 2035 plan.
I don't know why they put dates on these things, it's like Sci Fi movies where we're gonna go skiing on Pluto come 2042 and have hedges with spiked tendrils for home security purposes,,,

"I had to look up that 2035 plan"

if they had the courage of their convictions, it'd be the 2023 plan with construction having starting now or in 2021. a lot of american rail infastructure is ancient; some of it pre-dating the civil war.

Well it's that immense amount of mileage that would have to be replaced for starters, then the trains and that which goes to operating them and so forth. Just what NYC has alone far exceeds that of most other entire countries, and few have a continent's worth of mostly open space to consider as well.

Given the car culture you previously addressed and that the oil & auto lobbyists pushing that being even more entrenched and fat pocketed than back when they killed mass transit in many locales to begin with, it would be hard to muster public support on the scale and for the funding needed for something that will be argued we have a functioning version of already, albeit a tad rusty.
How much will be federal and how will different states link up if they should and how much control/say they'll each have are other factors....

"Given the car culture you previously addressed and that the oil & auto lobbyists pushing that being even more entrenched and fat pocketed than back when they killed mass transit in many locales to begin with"

there has been pushback against the oil & auto lobbyists with rise of railroads in private sector coming back, such as Brightline. that being said, however, it's likely that governments will depend on the private sector to do the harder processes for them. younger generations are also a threat to the american automobile industry since millennials are far more likely to purchase an efficient vehicle from japan such as a prius rather than a gas-needy chevy.

i remember playing with battery trains when i was young. none of them work now (at least not most of them) due to the receptacle for the battery in them breaking surprisingly quickly, thus not powering them. if i can't trust a toy to bring me enjoyment, can i trust a battery-powered vehicle to get me to work?
undeniably an asinine comparison. it's like comparing aa's to car batteries. in my analogy, it is the principle that matters, not the size.
also, if there's anyone who has first hand experience with electricity, it's frank grimes.

*cough cough actually it was you that introduced toy trains into the discussion about real trains cough*

*cough cough Read it again Einstein, SM only said "electric trains" - didn't specify real or toy trains.

I know that you think you're the most clever MFer in the room so you won't admit that you're wrong, but you are. cough*

I mean, it's not like this was hidden from view a few scrolls up.

*crouches in wait of timer for somehow that not being respectful enough*

That's all well and good, but you've yet to show me WHERE SynthMant was talking about real trains in that post. I mean s/he didn't use a full sentence, so there's that.

An "electric train" is an electric train whether it's in your basement or on the streets of your city. Some people are just fixated on size, I guess.

Well ain't that another high fiver, you and I agree yet again!
Synth didn't, YOU did!

GPS next round, or we cool on this?

I'mma get a timer for this one, aren't I?

That was in reply to this:

▶️ "Rhymes_with_Scro__a

[[-AA A eistien einstien | image tagged in aa a eistien einstien | made w/ Imgflip meme maker-]]

*cough cough Read it again Einstein, SM only said "electric trains" - didn't specify real or toy trains.

I know that you think you're the most clever MFer in the room so you won't admit that you're wrong, but you are. cough*"

This site, I swear,,,