re: Tesla to source battery materials from a new Vidalia, LA processing plant

Not a fan that the only way jobs in North LA are created is a rival to O&G. At the end of the day, high paying jobs in very poor regions of LA is good.

Glad it’s in Vidalia and not a part of the state that is already over crowded.

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Isn't that just another word for Coal?

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No. Coal and graphite are two different things.

I've always heard Bill Gates owns a lot of land near Vidalia through various companies. Not sure if true, but always found that quite odd.

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The irony of it all just astounds me. Do you know how they get the massive amounts of graphite for all of these electric car batteries? Using machines like this. This is an actual graphite mine by the way. What do you think these machines run on? Good ol' dirty diesel.

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Do you know their are different ways to mine materials for EV (or any battery for that matter) batteries? Look up Standard Lithium for instance.

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just wait until JBE gets his hand in that pocket. Elon gonna walk away.

You think JBE can get over on Musk?

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The company...has received a $107 million federal loan

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"We need to quit subsidizing oil and gas! It's corporate welfare!!1!"

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The irony of it all just astounds me.

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That's not irony unless you are pitting one source of energy against another.

And never forget that electricity is free and there is no shortage of it in high density areas like CA. It magically comes out of the walls from nowhere. And forget about driving from NO to Shreveport in one day; you didn't really need to go there anyway.

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LOL, solar, wind and thermal. Infinitely small and will remain so.

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Roughly 10-15% of total US consumption and growing. Far from "infinitely small" and far from remaining (not) so.

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The facts are that fossil fuels and nuclear generation will provide most electrical power for the next 50 years at least.

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And that's fine with me. Why are you still not understanding this diversity of energy sources?

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There will be a large increase in demand for electrical power if EVs become the dominant means of transport. This is a fact that there is no way of getting around.

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Even the most aggressive EV adoption projections would mean a roughly 1% increase in electricity consumption per year. And most of that demand will be during off-peak hours.

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Do I need to say it again? Electrical power consumption will go up greatly. Hint: Demand for fossil fuels will go up.

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Do I need to say it again? Who fricking cares? But swapping an ICE for an EV is a net reduction in FF demand.

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Additionally, EVs will need to be as light as possible in order to increase their efficiency. Battery technology will get better but lighter materials (plastics) will have just as big (if not bigger) an impact. Hint: this means an increase in demand for, you guessed it, fossil fuels.

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I don't care if the entire car is made of plastic, it'll be less than the ~3,000 lbs of gasoline an ICE will burn in its first year. Then it'll burn another 40,000 lbs over the rest of its useful life.

But also I don't think anyone has a problem using oil to make shite, and I don't have a problem with burning it. I'm just telling you that it's dumb to continue to rely on a specific fuel for the majority of our transportation needs.

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Lastly, you're going to have to provide some sources for your claim that electrical power generation is more efficient than the IC engine. Be sure to account for the loss via heat due to miles upon miles of power lines.

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After all the bullshite you've put out here, you're going to press me for sources?

How about you put in the bare minimum of effort to try to verify your claims, and you will run across my sources which refute them. Physics dictates that large heat engines are more efficient than small ones, and the one at the power plant is much larger than the one in your car and is about twice as efficient. Line losses are roughly 5%.

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Apparently you think EVs are some kind of panacea

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No, I've been pretty clear that I think they are the only way to diversify our transportation energy sources, and that this will stabilize and decrease costs for every industry.

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I equate them with the corn / ethanol scam, in that you cannot increase the amount of inputs that are necessary to produce something and thereby gain efficiency. It just isn't possible.

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What the frick are you talking about? Efficiency of what? And what inputs? Raw materials, fuel, or both? And what do you mean by an increase? I don't think you'll like how that math turns out for ICE vehicles. You don't seem to have any idea whatsoever about what's possible or not.

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And never forget that electricity is free

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Of all the stupid anti-EV talking points this one might be the stupidest.

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and there is no shortage of it in high density areas like CA.

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Ah yes, let's pick the state with the most EVs per capita and with the most "progressive" energy plan with the highest reliance on solar and which has its fair share of natural disasters like earthquakes and droughts and wildfires, and then ignore the fact that Cali still doesn't rank at the top of state power outage rankings, with states like West Virginia and Idaho having more average annual hours of outages whether you include or exclude major events.