re: #966 justdanny

Put enough hydro plants on the Mississippi, windmills from Texas to North Dakota and Nuclear plants scattered about the country and You can produce enough electricity to power cars. Let big trucks and planes use gas.

But, just like most things in this country, since we lost our spine in the sixties, we would rather stick than switch.

“Oh no,oh no, what if it hurts and requires work!… waaaaaahwaaaah.” We’re like a bunch of frikken limp wristed babies these days. Lookin for momma to poke a tit in our mouths or wipe our asses.

To unquote what the wife of the green snake oil salesman said, Maybe for the first time in my life I’m not so proud of this country anymore.

The energy content of the oil consumed in the US on a daily basis is roughly equivalent to 3.6 million megawatt-hours per day.

Current US electrical generating capacity is roughly 10 million megawatt-hours per day.

So you’ll need to increase generating capacity by a minimum of around 35% of current capacity to replace all oil. Considerably more than this when you start taking various real-world inefficiencies into account. So let’s just say you’ll have to double current electrical capacity to match current oil usage. Close enough for a ballpark estimate - let’s say within a factor of two either way.

This is a Big Damn Increase. Considering that nuclear plants are currently impossible to build, thanks to excessive regulation, and that coal-fired plants are on the verge of being phased out because of concerns over mercury emissions, it’s hard to see where all that electricity is supposed to come from. Wind energy is much too diffuse; hydroelectric is already near maximal capacity.

I’m all for building nukes coast to coast - I’d like to see about a thousand nuclear power plants built over the next couple of decades, which would just about meet the needs outlined above in addition to projected demand for normal growth. But just wishing for electric cars to magically appear based on “Well, it’ll happen” ignores reality.