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What Would It Take for YOU to buy a diesel car?
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I expect a full court press for the lawmakers, regulators to keep vilification only on US VW diesels. If the total truth, which is out already gains traction, it will show how all this is a total fairy tale. The major polluters are already tracked by air-quality a The major polluters are already tracked by air quality people agencies, like AQMD, that I have cited more than once. So the chicken little side continues to cluck.
Keep in mind that almost nobody got prosecuted during the far more serious banking, financial crisis during 2008 2009. Same held true for GM bankruptcy, and the various criminal cover ups.
I took Carlos' quotes to mean that Renault just needed three more years to be able to meet emissions regs.
Hey that guy , blamed for the Benghazi fiasco ,who made a bad video in Los Angeles is probably still on probation. Grab him and put him back in jail for the VW fiasco!
California gives VW Nov 20 deadline for technical fix in diesel scandal (Reuters)
It would seem that even if US lawmakers were able to get their prosecutorial "pound of flesh" German law prevents the revelation of the identity of the alledged software engineering types.
Let the broadcast of the "world wrestling drama " begin! Who is going to play Cain? Robert Downey Jr. gets my vote for Sergeant Schultz.
Are y'all ready for Hallowe'en? A little VW humor....
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
EU set to delay diesel emissions tests by two years (FT.com)
PS
Piriform CCleaner, did in fact find 151k cookies in Chrome and now all the sites wanting money are reset.
I got the free version, may opt for Pro.
Thanks Keith
Again, the major nexus here is AQMD is the local agency responsible for the smoggiest area in the United States ( areas in LA LA land). The "get out of jail free/exemptions" are defacto Fed,State,local guarantees that the area will not even come close to meeting OLD targets (2007?), let alone a 65% decrease into future targets ( easily 15 to 20 years of sanctioned (NON) compliance!
I don't want anybody to get the idea that I'm picking on them. They just happen to be the smoggiest place in the nation. The truth is the same for every other local agency in the nation.
This site says Bakersfield is the dirtiest air in the USA. LA is third. Some fertilizer is a source of NOx, which could be the cause of dirty air. California with all the regulations on diesel cars still manages to have 6 of the dirtiest cities in America. Leads me to believe cars are not or have not been the problem.
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20490855,00.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/house-votes-to-lift-oil-export-ban-1444411778
Agricultural waste and pollution is really just part of life. Yet at the same time, they try to utterly destroy agriculture, as they seek to put agriculture in their backyards & roof tops. It is as if because they do it, and in your backyard, it is somehow cleaner than the driven snow? "Sustainable" How sustainable would a food kitchen or free food line be if they actually had to charge the people getting the food, money ?
California has always prided itself on being the breadbasket to the figurative and literal world.
Fine, don't like that? Just stop feeding the world. So for example, leave North Korea to their own devices.
It should then become graphically apparent all those food stuffs we donate to various relief organizations are no longer as cheap or as free as they once were. Or make it for much more expensive @ market sales.
http://news.yahoo.com/vw-shares-jump-sparking-questions-over-mystery-buyer-154222788.html
I'm still fishing for the long positions. It was a great ride on the way down.
For the Porsche & Piech families with 52.2% plus control, (unspecified "better voting" majority?) one of the goals is probably accomplished. The above paragraph might be a nit for them.
Not much to do with diesel, other than burning carbon, but Dan Neil has a fun (to me anyway) column in the WSJ today about how US engineering is humbling the Germans.
How Tesla Leaves its Rivals Playing Catch Up
Got to LOVE Berkeley engineering! Go Bears ! Ok, Stanford is here also.
Outside of the hoorah!, You as an edmunds.com person probably know that the major German car companies and starting to catch on domestic car companies have some sort of R&D/think tank facilities in the "Silicon Valley" area. Honda & Toyota have for years been a fixture in the LA area. Unceremoniously, they got driven out, not too long ago.
Google & Apple are rumored to be interested in "software" cars, in addition to Tesla up the literal street.
We won't mention that Tesla's stock dropped 11% this week.
I'm not entirely sure why this is true, but I get into the farm far more often than my old haunts @ CAL.
I think the last time I was on campus was going to an alumni night where a couple of professors were honored in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. (Berkeley is @ # 4 in # of Nobel prizes) After the normal dinner, pleasantries and ceremonies, a bunch of us went down to Top Dog and promptly ordered Polish dogs. It's pretty amazing that even after 43 years, (that I know of) Yelp.com still rates that place 4/5 stars!?
This article should help folks match up their energy fantasies with reality.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source
re: electrics, if only they weren't painfully awkward/dorky or unaffordable, even with the undeserved tax breaks. And don't ask where the juice comes from, nor the batteries.
There's really no suitable explanation/s from the environmental conservatives, why solar and wind sources makes electrical grid operations unstable. They act as though ignoring it makes it not so. More practically, there is no suitable problem-solving to make it less unstable. Indeed, many to most city projects can not support its own energy needs, from solar.
Lithium is corrosive and requires special handling to avoid skin contact. Breathing lithium dust or lithium compounds (which are often alkaline) initially irritate the nose and throat, while higher exposure can cause a buildup of fluid in the lungs, leading to pulmonary edema. The metal itself is a handling hazard because of the caustic hydroxide produced when it is in contact with moisture. Lithium is safely stored in non-reactive compounds such as naphtha.[133]
That Lithium used in Electric cars comes from the worst polluting mining operations, worse then Oil wells.
Can't even make this stuff up!
Here's a rebuttal to my Guardian link the other day, from no less a reputable source than NBC.
Are Other Automakers Cheating on Diesel? Not So Fast
As long as windmills and solar farms are in someone else's backyard its fine. Not in my backyard
So where is all the Lithium going to come from when you have majority of cars running on Electricity and uses "imported" Lithium for the batteries ?
Never seen a worse hypocracy. It is a Lithium vs Oil industry "battle"
http://news.yahoo.com/house-oks-lifting-40-old-us-ban-oil-192442381.html
The above article indicates that the Sierra Club is a HUGE proponent of continued importation of oil. Even the environmental types are against their own narrative!
"Nevada was chosen in part because of the location; it’s a direct shot to the Tesla car factory in California, there’s a lithium mine nearby (for the lithium-ion batteries), and it’s got no corporate income tax."
And from Fortune:
"Much of the world’s lithium comes from Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Australia and eastern China, and is shipped long distances to battery makers in Asia.
Construction has already started on the battery factory, where the assembly lines are to churn out enough lithium-ion batteries for 500,000 electric cars. Pure Energy Minerals said its lithium “will cover a portion of Tesla’s needs with the remainder to come from other sources."
The lithium that Pure Energy Minerals plans to mine in Nevada is in underground salty aquifers across an 8,000-acre area. To extract the lithium, Pure Energy Minerals plans to drill holes in the ground, pump the water to the surface, and extract the lithium from the brine.”
On topic with the VW diesel fiasco, I was reading that CARB wants VW to come up with many more "fix " options. This back & forth process could easily stretch "fixes" into 2018, or three years. For us, 2009'VW Jetta TDI, that would add 45,000 miles or 145,000 miles. A Fed,CA state, local, emissions warranty @ that point could be good for app 100,000 miles,or app 250,000 miles. This is sounding better & better as it unfolds. So even if it's worth nothing/zero, it would've cost eight cents a mile to own. Any residual value would drop cost per mile to own. (depreciation)
Polluting Nevada is fine as long as the LA LA Land remains clean and unpolluted
"Ozone goals give California trucks a tough road ahead
Tony Barboza
Technology being pioneered in cars -- to produce electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell autos -- must eventually be scaled up to trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles.
....The changes will fall heavily on vehicles because they are the dominant source of air pollution in California. The largest reductions must come from the heavy-duty sector that transports goods through ports, freeways, rail yards and warehouses. The diesel-powered freight system emits 45% of the smog-forming pollution in the state and lags behind passenger vehicles, which have reduced tailpipe emissions dramatically over 50 years of smog-fighting regulations...."
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-adv-ozone-transportation-20151011-story.html
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I can see it now, 2am Bill Gates pulls into a Tesla charging station in the middle of Kansas. Wind blowing 40 mph, sub zero temperature. Sign on charging station "out of order". Calls Elon, hey man this charging station is broken, the cafe is closed till 6am and I am using the last of my battery to keep this sucker warm. Send help!!!
When he gets a recording that says Please call back during business hours, thank you....
(And don't say the internet forum industry - thank you DARPA).
http://news.yahoo.com/falling-gas-prices-means-no-social-security-cola-120530721.html
So just a quick & dirty calculation for the 15k commute is app $1 per gal or $375 saved per year ULSD@40 mpg. Cola for social security was 1.7% last year. I am swagging the fuel savings is better per $1000 ss per mo.
"A 2011 study by the consulting firm Management Information Services, Inc. estimated the total historical federal subsidies for various energy sources over the years 1950–2010. The study found that oil, natural gas, and coal received $369 billion, $121 billion, and $104 billion (2010 dollars), respectively, or 70% of total energy subsidies over that period. Oil, natural gas, and coal benefited most from percentage depletion allowances and other tax-based subsidies, but oil also benefited heavily from regulatory subsidies such as exemptions from price controls and higher-than-average rates of return allowed on oil pipelines."
Wikipedia
How about some diesel news? Not sure that we've talked about the second VW "potential" cheat in this discussion yet.
EPA’s new VW probe may reveal failure to disclose (Detroit News)
I'm a bit contrarian on home solar subsidies - I think the current system props up higher prices for consumers and if we did away with the tax credits, the overall prices would drop. There'd be a lot of casualties from the solar installer companies but the ones who can figure out how to compete will act fast to get the payback back down to the 8 or 10 year timeframe that's claimed using the federal tax subsidy. I'd rather pay $13,000 now and be done with it than pay $21,000 and get the money difference back through a tax subsidy.
Interesting reading - Long History Of U.S. Energy Subsidies. (Chemical & Engineering News)
Further investigation shows significantly higher costs per mile driven fuel: RUG/PUG. If one factors in 15,000 miles per year avg , multiplied by 11.5 to 12 years avg age of the PVF (180,000 miles) the math +$$'s REMAINS compelling (like model).
@ current prices for 14 MB GLK 350/250BT, 22 mpg/35 mpg, PUG $2.65/ULSD $2.49=682 gal/429 gal per yr= $ 1,807-$1,068=$ 739 per yr. saved * 12 yrs=$8,868. When you put in the -$500 MSRP for the 250 BT =$9,368.