Progress on climate change has stalled on multiple fronts, for example:
The Carter administration put solar panels on the White House roof, then the following, Reagan, administration removed them.
In the late 1970s Mobil Oil bought Tyco Laboratories, a company that produced solar panels, and did little, to nothing, with the company... Shut Mobil Tyco down 19 years later.
In order to bring all the truck and train transportation capacity o'er to renewable energy operations one needs to use intermediate steps, because there is not, nor will there soon be, sufficient renewably generated electricity; nor will there soon be infrastructure to get that electricity from where it is generated to where it will be put to use.
The
first, already available, solution is FSHEV technology. Everywhere
there are FSHEVs (Full Series Hybrid Electric Vehicles) there is V2G
(Vehicle to Grid) electricity generation capacity available! This
would come in handy not just in a war zone, like Ukraine, it would
help in areas where natural disaster, or terrorist(s), have recently
disabled electricity provision.
FSHEV technology has
been around for decades... A list of companies, and their vehicles,
that have already demonstrated the feasibility of FSHEVs are in the
next paragraph. The company efforts referred to are the work of
industry insiders who've already invested billions in developing and
building military, civilian and commercial vehicles.
What's
already been done, by and for: Nissan's Note E-Power; DARPA/ONR:
General Dynamics Land Systems' RST-V (a.k.a., Shadow) and Georgia
Tech Research Institute's Ultra AP; Lotus' Evora 414E; BAE's proposed
upgrade to the Bradley Fighting Vehicle; etc...
This could
have created progress towards significantly increased fuel economy;
less associated Green House Gas (GHG) emissions; obviate diesel fuel;
less Lithium, because onboard electricity generation means smaller
battery capacity is needed; fewer, to no, Rare Earth metals required
by electromagnetic systems; etc...
The application of this technology is being stopped by hugely wealthy and powerful oil and gas industry players who care much more about increased profits than responsible behavior requisite to limiting global climate change.
Even
more modest intermediate steps use older technology like: replacing
the accessories belt with an electric motor/generator (EM/G), and
batteries, to power electric accessories; moderated supercharging to
allow the use of smaller displacement internal combustion engines
(ICE); combining the aforementioned to require an even smaller ICE...
In
short, holding oil, gas and coal industries, plus current vehicle
manufacturer's, feet to the fire... Using charges of criminal
negligence, for playing a huge part in creating, and denying (for
decades), that their efforts were, in fact, a major reason for the
severity of global climate change; the cause and effect of burning
fossil fuels. RICO charges might also be considered. This could be
the most important way to bring the world closer to taming the
effects of transportation on Climate Change...
Also, reducing the need for oil and gas to be extracted to produce products for which demand would be significantly reduced.
A total of more than 50 years have passed and this inactivity from the Oil and Gas industry cartel, combined with the activity, lack thereof, from vehicle manufacturers and Republican lackeys, has assured that we have made incredibly minimal progress in the battle against Global Climate Change.
Now is the time to accelerate efforts, because we've lost too much time to the Hydrocarbon industries, and their cohorts, that have (continue to) put profit, kick backs, far above responsible behavior.
Unfortunately, one must imagine how much better we would be doing against Climate Change without the aforementioned, probably criminal, irresponsible activity.
P.S., Bracket research 'twixt and 'tween:
The History of the Standard Oil Company, by Ida M. Tarbell, originally published in 1904.
Blowout, by Rachel Maddow, copyright 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment