We will always give money to our industries to make up for the lack of long term planning in our system. I certainly do not understand what concept of fucking justice that is related to.
I certainly do not understand what concept of fucking justice that is related to.
This concept of justice:
higher scores will be given to projects that are likely to retain collective bargaining agreements and/or those that have an existing high-quality, high-wage hourly production workforce, such as applicants that currently pay top quartile wages in their industry.
neoliberalism in a nutshell
Should be fining the fucking companies instead of cuddling them with more money. “Oh, you’ve been constantly fighting this thing I want you to do, here’s some money so maaaaaaaaaayyyyybe you’ll do it now, pretty please?”
Having the feds $15.5 billion on EVs is a waste unless you nationalize the railroads.
15 billion to private companies to retool and whatever. But then they sell us what they make. None of that goes back to the tax payers.
If you work for someone else in this country you are a joke it seems.
While I agree with your sentiment, ~2/3rds of it according to the article isn’t being given to them but being available in loans. So the article should say $5.5 given away, and $10 billion made avaliable to pay back.
Loans are costs too. It’s tying up capital that could be used elsewhere
It’s more like investment, especially if it saves jobs. It can be a win-win. Companies have it easier time switching to EV manufacturing, which helps those companies and the environment. Manufacturing jobs are saved, both giving a living to a lot of people and helping communities and saving on benefit payments.
Could of course backfire or go to shit but investments like this from states seem like a very wise move imo.
Take loan
Spend it on stock buybacks
Buy a senator or 50
Profit
I wouldn’t exactly be surprised if that happens but I’m not pessimistic enough to think it will hah. I’d imagine plenty of them will actually use the money for EV transition since that really is the direction things are going anyway.
I really want to go electric, but the milage just isn’t there yet for me, and add in the charging time and new maintenance routines of swapping out those batteries. I just haven’t done enough research.
I don’t think there’s anything bad with giving the manufacturers money to switch their entire production facilities to electric, I just hope the government actually understands what those funds are being used for, unlike the money they gave our ISPs for infrastructure upgrades that went to waste.
The shells may be similar or the same but inside it would be like asking an apple orchard to change all their trees to oranges, and these funds will help expedite that.
Mileage seems fine to me. My gas car gets 260-280 maybe. Electric hits similar numbers.
Charge times are getting pretty low too. 20 minutes is becoming common to hear a new car doing 20-80%. That’s slower than gas but also I’ll only do that in a pinch. Most charging will be at home during the night.
The maintenance differences are a mixed bag though. I think a lot of EVs will be essentially disposed of once the batteries are showing age.
If the phone industry can reach us anything it is manufacturers will make it expensive to change or not make the batteries.
With all that said. Giving car companies money to help them mine rare metals in 3rd world countries, buy motors from China, assemble cars in Mexico and the US…idk how that makes financial sense.
And before anyone tells me the money is only for US plants…I’ll ask you to get real.
I really don’t want an electric car.
Edit: I really didn’t expect such a response to my comment or I would have elaborated. Primary factor is cost, cost of replaceing the battery and initial cost of the vehicle purchase.
I do not have money to buy a new vehicle and there is no way I’m going to buy a used electric vehicle. A used electric vehicle will probably Also need a need battery. Until longevity can be proven I’m going to take that gamble.
Also repairability is another very big factor in not getting an electric vehicle for me. I am going to be buying a used car I don’t think I will ever buy a new car even if I had the money and a used electric vehicle is not in the cards until they can prove longevity and you can’t do that with a lithium ion battery.
In addition the electronic parts including the battery use rare, precious metals that are becoming increasingly rare. We don’t even have a way to recycle those batteries as far as I am aware. I’m not saying we don’t need a better alternative, but, I don’t think that’s it.
I can understand the sentiment. It might help to explain why, though.
You are right I updated my comment as I mentioned in the update I really didn’t expect to have that kind of a response so I didn’t bother putting more work into it and I should have.
Great thoughts on the situation!
Thank you, that’s very kind
I prefer electric bikes.
I’d really like to try out some E-bikes. There are so many models these days, and I already enjoy cycling. Unfortunately I think the potholes all over my city might disagree with any decision to buy one.
They make some pretty rugged fat-tires nowadays. I think they’re kind of overkill for most people but if you live in a place with poor infrastructure it could be useful.
I really don’t want an electric car.
Then buy a hydrogen powered one?
Or possibly look into alternative forms of transportation.
I would drive a hydrogen powered one, but, unfortunately there’s no place to fill it.
15B is a drop in the bucket. Throwing money at things doesn’t solve problems. Especially that small an amount. Only better policy decisions solve problems.
While Congress is perpetually locked down by Republicans from doing any real legitimate progressive legislation, this seems like the most Biden can do. And I think it could be argued it’s not terrible considering how absolutely fucking immovable our entire political system is for the past 3 decades.
Isn’t support for EV transition a policy decision…?
A policy decision would be to mandate that no new cars use combustion by the end of the decade and for the government to use its regulatory powers to approve electrical grid infrastructure project, approve new nuclear plants asap, and incentivize the creation of battery recycling businesses, such as through making alternative energy companies tax free entities instead of mega churches.
I’m sorry, English isn’t my first language but what does policy decision actually mean? From what I understand it both are policy decisions, but I might not understand the proper meaning of the term.
Policies typically are ongoing. A one-time distribution is an action. It could be a policy to provide distributions of money on a cadence, however I don’t feel that would be as good of a policy as one that doesn’t cost anything directly and enables companies to proceed at something good for society expediently.
