We were told that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) would give us cheap “green” energy for “only” $400B in subsidies. In reality, the IRA has a limitless price tag.
General Motors is offering an EV van (BrightDrop) for the short haul delivery van market...picture a UPS or FedEx delivery van you see running around your neighborhood. The model number is E600 and it has a range of 250 miles on a full charge, has a 2200 lbs. payload, 600 cubic feet of cargo space, and costs $85,000 a copy.
An example of a current UPS or FedEx delivery van would be a Freightliner MT-45, which has a 300 mile range on a full tank of diesel, has a 10,000 lbs. payload, 1150 cubic feet of cargo space, and costs about $40,000.
1/4th the payload, 50 miles (or more, depending on terrain) fewer miles of range, 1/2 the cargo space, and over twice the cost.
And, this is only ONE example of the idiotic economics behind the IRA. Here are more...
"Green" steel from Steel Dynamics is being produced using a "non-coal" coke made from bio-mass. It boasts 1/2 the BTU content and 5 times the cost per ton of regular coal based coke...so they need to burn twice as much make the same amount of steel at 10 times the cost.
Valero Energy produces bio-diesel from waste oils derived from soybeans and corn at over 4 times the cost per gallon than from crude oil. Bio-diesel is blended with #2 diesel at concentrations up to 15%...more than that causes jelling problems and damage to fuel injection systems due to low lubricity.
Bio-diesel's BTU content is lower than #2 diesel across the board, but for soybean oil it's BTU content is about 13% lower. For every gallon of blended diesel fuel you are losing right around 7% of it's energy content...and the blended fuel costs about $0.05+ more per gallon.
Ethanol blended gasoline is worse...straight gasoline has about 32% more energy per gallon than straight ethanol. Blended at the current rates increases fuel consumption by about 10%...and it adds about $0.05 per gallon in costs.
Anyone who thinks this makes any economic sense needs their head examined. Not only are taxpayer footing the bill for the subsidies, they are absorbing the higher costs due to the inefficiencies of technologies that are clearly inferior.
When you look at all of these initiatives in terms of "carbon cost" the economics move from being simply idiotic to being outright stupid. Each electric vehicle that rolls off of the dealers lot is already responsible for more carbon than a fossil fueled vehicle will be during its entire lifespan; from raw materials in the ground to the crusher...where most of it is recycled. This includes the 10's of thousands of gallons of fuel that the fossil fueled vehicle burns during its lifetime. If you want to save the planet from too much carbon dioxide, stop building electric vehicles!
Apparently Alex forgot that the fossil fuel industry has been getting ~ $130 billion annual federal subsidies for decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_subsidies
Looks like he also forgot that fracking has never been profitable unless a barrel of oil is trading over $100.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/072215/can-fracking-survive-60-barrel.asp#
It's always worth turning money into energy. There is no economy without cheap energy.
I'm not saying the IRA is good policy, but neither is whatever Alex is peddling.
It's a complete scam. My electricity rate this winter is .34 per kilowatt hour, ridiculous
Just want to alert those interested in property law that the basis of property ownership in the US was repudiated this week by the Vatican. Read here what I think it all means: https://open.substack.com/pub/profvictoria/p/doctrine-of-discovery?r=bpwpi&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Just want to alert those interested in property law that the basis of property ownership in the US was repudiated this week by the Vatican. Read here what I think it all means: https://open.substack.com/pub/profvictoria/p/doctrine-of-discovery?r=bpwpi&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
General Motors is offering an EV van (BrightDrop) for the short haul delivery van market...picture a UPS or FedEx delivery van you see running around your neighborhood. The model number is E600 and it has a range of 250 miles on a full charge, has a 2200 lbs. payload, 600 cubic feet of cargo space, and costs $85,000 a copy.
An example of a current UPS or FedEx delivery van would be a Freightliner MT-45, which has a 300 mile range on a full tank of diesel, has a 10,000 lbs. payload, 1150 cubic feet of cargo space, and costs about $40,000.
1/4th the payload, 50 miles (or more, depending on terrain) fewer miles of range, 1/2 the cargo space, and over twice the cost.
And, this is only ONE example of the idiotic economics behind the IRA. Here are more...
"Green" steel from Steel Dynamics is being produced using a "non-coal" coke made from bio-mass. It boasts 1/2 the BTU content and 5 times the cost per ton of regular coal based coke...so they need to burn twice as much make the same amount of steel at 10 times the cost.
Valero Energy produces bio-diesel from waste oils derived from soybeans and corn at over 4 times the cost per gallon than from crude oil. Bio-diesel is blended with #2 diesel at concentrations up to 15%...more than that causes jelling problems and damage to fuel injection systems due to low lubricity.
Bio-diesel's BTU content is lower than #2 diesel across the board, but for soybean oil it's BTU content is about 13% lower. For every gallon of blended diesel fuel you are losing right around 7% of it's energy content...and the blended fuel costs about $0.05+ more per gallon.
Ethanol blended gasoline is worse...straight gasoline has about 32% more energy per gallon than straight ethanol. Blended at the current rates increases fuel consumption by about 10%...and it adds about $0.05 per gallon in costs.
Anyone who thinks this makes any economic sense needs their head examined. Not only are taxpayer footing the bill for the subsidies, they are absorbing the higher costs due to the inefficiencies of technologies that are clearly inferior.
When you look at all of these initiatives in terms of "carbon cost" the economics move from being simply idiotic to being outright stupid. Each electric vehicle that rolls off of the dealers lot is already responsible for more carbon than a fossil fueled vehicle will be during its entire lifespan; from raw materials in the ground to the crusher...where most of it is recycled. This includes the 10's of thousands of gallons of fuel that the fossil fueled vehicle burns during its lifetime. If you want to save the planet from too much carbon dioxide, stop building electric vehicles!