the environmental movement and the role of government

[TEG]

History

 

[vfx]

Chrysler unveils new electric minivan for the US Postal Service

Chrysler is celebrating Earth Day today by unveiling the first four of what will be a fleet of 250 battery-powered minivans for the U.S. Postal Service.

I wish that number had a few zeros on the end of it.

 

[dpeilow]

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | From the space race to human race

 

[bobw]

Postal Service to Test Electric Truck | Autopia | Wired.com

 

[dpeilow]

FT.com / Global Economy - Green stimulus hit by slow spending

 

[dpeilow]

BBC News - French government backs down on carbon tax plan

 

[TEG]

washingtonpost.com

 

[Tdave]

washingtonpost.com

I'm getting tired of reading that a $33,000 or $40,000 electric car is expensive and only for "upscale motorists". If they would just make this comparison:

ICE car payment + gasoline cost + oil/etc expenses
BEV car payment + electricity cost

... they would realize these BEVs are quite comparable to an affordable ICE car.

 

[vfx]

Elon says the Model S price is equivalent to a Ford Taurus.

 

[dpeilow]

Much-drilled bill signals climate endgame

 

[vfx]

Carbon Tax

Social Cost of Carbon Has Wide-Ranging Impact | Smart Journalism. Real Solutions. Miller-McCune.

The social cost of carbon, or SCC, is the value in today’s dollars of the stream of damages caused by adding one metric ton of CO2 into the atmosphere; a ton is the amount a typical family car will emit every 10 weeks. The SCC figure adopted last February by an interagency working group is $21. The value has already been applied to standards for fuel efficiency and tailpipe emissions. It will be figured into any carbon mitigation strategy, whether cap and trade, cap and dividend or carbon tax.
Why is this particular number so important? It establishes “how much you should be willing to spend to get rid of a ton of CO2,”said to Robert O. Mendelsohn, the Edwin Weyerhaeuser Davis Professor of Forest Policy at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. A high SCC tells regulators and decision makers that removing one ton of CO2 from the atmosphere has significant value. A low SCC justifies doing nothing — or at most very little.

 

[JRP3]

Elon says the Model S price is equivalent to a Ford Taurus.

Guess that didn't quite work out, unless the price of a Taurus is going up next year.

 

[Lloyd]

Guess that didn't quite work out, unless the price of a Taurus is going up next year.

He is correct if you factor the total cost of ownership, ie the cost of maintenance, fuel etc. over the life of the car.

 

[JRP3]

Did he actually use those qualifiers in the original statement?

 

[dpeilow]

Yes he does.

 

[JRP3]

There you go.

 

[dsm363]

Did he actually use those qualifiers in the original statement?

I think he said something like 'if gas was $5 a gallon, the car would become a $35,000 car in 5 years' or something like that.

 

[mt2]

Did he actually use those qualifiers in the original statement?

From a newsletter I can't find on-line

The ownership cost of Model S, if you were to lease and then account for the much lower cost of electricity versus gasoline at a likely future cost of $4 per gallon, is similar to a gasoline car with a sticker price of about $35,000.

 

[JRP3]

That's quite a bit different than saying it's the same cost as a Taurus. Ownership costs of a vehicle during a lease period including driving expenses are not the same as vehicle purchase costs. However, looking at the cost of a Taurus SHO model, if you load it up with everything and compare it to a base model Model S with the rebate, you'd be pretty close. http://www.ford.com/cars/taurus/trim/?trim=sho So technically you could say the Model S will be the same price as a Ford Taurus since you aren't saying which Ford Taurus.

 

[dpeilow]

Doug will like this story - Schwarzenegger Calls Out Climate Skeptics | ARPA-E Talk Demands Termination of Carbon Economy | InnovationNewsDaily