Do you support the US federal E-BIKE act?

It's all a scam . C02 makes up less then 4% of our total atmosphere . If it falls below 2% . Everything including us dies . Which is the intention anyway . Zero C02 by 2030 ?? That means we are all dead . LOL Seriously it's what they have in mind
Are you serious? I'm sorry, but this is a truly ludicrous statement. No one is suggesting that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere fall to zero! No one is trying to make everyone die! Zero CO2 by 2030 refers to the PRODUCTION of EXCESS CO2 through industrial processes. We are no NOWHERE NEAR critically low CO2 in the atmosphere - we are currently experiencing the very real and very damaging effects of EXCESS CO2. Ignorance and the advancement of extremely faulty pseudo-science idiocies like this are much more likely to be the death of us all than efforts attempting to address the very real problem of excess CO2 by reducing production to a more sustainable level.
 
I saw somewhere the ships that transport 'stuff' across the oceans spew much more stuff into the atmosphere than vehicles ever will. Maybe targeting the wrong avenue.
i’m not sure where “somewhere” is, but while
shipping stuff around the world isn’t great it’s a tiny, tiny fraction of CO2 emissions.

gigantic boats are shockingly efficient once they get moving - they move slowly, water has very little friction, they carry a LOT of stuff. shipping heavy things by air is very bad.

Shipping accounted for nearly 3% of global human-caused CO2 emissions in 2018
 
Are you serious? I'm sorry, but this is a truly ludicrous statement. No one is suggesting that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere fall to zero! No one is trying to make everyone die! Zero CO2 by 2030 refers to the PRODUCTION of EXCESS CO2 through industrial processes. We are no NOWHERE NEAR critically low CO2 in the atmosphere - we are currently experiencing the very real and very damaging effects of EXCESS CO2. Ignorance and the advancement of extremely faulty pseudo-science idiocies like this are much more likely to be the death of us all than efforts attempting to address the very real problem of excess CO2 by reducing production to a more sustainable level.
So, what is the target level of CO2? What are the "very real and damaging effects"? What is "net zero" vs "reducing production to sustainable levels? Does this mean totally eliminating fossil fuels? How do EV's (RPV's) with battery materials sourced from high polluting countries like China, mining rare earth materials with total environmental disregard further this cause?
"Science idiocies like this are much more likely to be the death of us all," I'm sorry, but that is a ludicrous statement as well. Is this an existential crisis with mere years left to correct or die, as the green zealots state? Is it a complete BS hype that has been perpetuated for the last 40 years where all the predictions have never come to fruition that the deniers claim? Or is there a level of truth and concern that should be addressed in a responsible and reasonable manner that doesn't disrupt, discriminate or devolve society? We all have our beliefs and most of us tend to support those beliefs through confirmational biased sources. The trouble for me is that I've lost all faith and/or trust in anything coming from the governments or scientist of the world. In my opinion, we've been lied to far too many times for them to have any credibility. YMMV
 
Ive started watching velomobiles now, what a beautiful world it would be with everyone scooting around in super lightweight, electrically assisted carbikes and only each other to have accidents with , 99% pedestrian survival rate, silent streets handed back to communities.
We would only fear the wind.
 
I live in rural Pennsylvania, surrounded by family farms, Amish farms, Mennonite farms and some corporate farms. Not a lot of the latter... yet. Rural America is nowhere near ready to go EV. And I'm not talking years away, I'm talking half century plus, away from that goal.

If we want to take family small farms away and give the land to corporations to farm, that would speed up the process a little. I'm not for that. This time every year there are gangs of combines and grain hauling tractor trailers roaming the roads and harvesting the fields. Small farms (<1000 acres) don't have the money to purchase combine harvesters, so that work is contracted out.

These machines are massive; a typical John Deere combine is 36 feet long, 17 feet wide, 16 feet tall and weighs 9000 pounds (plus attachments). Cost is 300k, just for the machine. Then there are all the support vehicles. Several grain hauling tractor trailers, that run constantly catching the grain and running it to a local grain elevator. This is a 24 hour a day process, where all the machines and vehicles never stop for a couple of months. Add in the pickup trucks that haul equipment, trailers and people.

These local farmers care about the land and the weather more than most of us could ever imagine.

Not long ago there was a hoax story that John Deere was going all electric with their farm equipment. The hoax took on a life of its own and even effected the stock market. Farmers were asking what happens when these massive machines, that are run 24 hours a day, need a charge, and are 20 miles out in the fields, nowhere near any power lines, much less charging infrastructure. And what about the days lost harvesting due to charging? There is a small window of dry, good weather to harvest crops. That is the obvious problem, there's also soil compaction that damages the land. How heavy would an electric combine be? Would rural roads and bridges even carry that load?

That is just one industry. I wish everyone looked within their own lives, and the things we can control. Consumerism and the pollution that produces is a plague. All the plastic bags, plastic drinks bottles. Were paper bags and glass bottles so bad? Most of us are old enough to remember when we got along with a lot less, and we were happy. We also should think about other's lives and livelihoods and not just the ones we see out our front window.

When I was a kid on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, there were 9 inhabited islands in the Bay, now there are 2. There are nearly 12,000 miles of shoreline. A lot of shrinking, sinking and disappearing land. I still have a lot of family there. The highest hill on the DelMarVa peninsula is 300 feet, most people live on land less than 10 feet above sea level. I've had family farmers and fisherman; working poor and middle class. The topic is personal, yet none of the people I know talk in absolutes. This is their life, livelihood and land.

We are changing and making a difference. Air and water is much cleaner than when I was a kid. We farm better, with newer practices, like no till planting that helps retain the top soil. Cars are cleaner than ever, and the cars we have now last twice as long. A 10 year old car in the 70s was on its last legs. The average age of cars on the road today is 12.5 years. That's a lot less in the landfills. Don't let anyone kid you, we are making a difference. I wish some countries, like China, could say the same.

Both the government and the citizenry are debt spending; there's no money in the bank. I want to know the cost of every proposal. I never buy anything for myself without knowing the cost first. That's why I believe tax credits should only go to low income and needy families. I'm far from wealthy, I still work, but I do not need help buying an ebike. No one able to buy a 100 grand Tesla should get any tax credit to do it. That credit is just going on our kid's and grandkid's credit card.
 
Yup, my utopia could only exist with a backdrop of heavy machinery kept out of sight.
tbh, all the stop oil protests have exposed the actual futility of abandoning oil in the short term.

They have just scrapped them in the UK and the donors are turning back to political activism at the ballot box and they will completely fail there as well.

Another house was burned out by an electric van in england last week, luckily only the charging circuit caught fire, they managed to put it out before the battery went up, but the fire spread to the house.
It seems it was also mounted incorrectly right by the front door, blocking the escape .

Its nothing on the scale of things but a massive blow to the confidence of people in them , neighbours will start expressing concern at your charging vehicle.
They will start parking away from your electric car.

Ice cars catch fire after accidents all the time, but they practically never burst into unistinguishable flames in the middle of the night by themselves, and thats the time people feel and are most vulnerable with their kids in bed.
 
There are some serious issues to address, in London housing developments are being held back because they cannot be supplied with the electrical capacity to feed the mandatory charging point capacity.

More and more apartments are banning them charging or even being parked in underground parking.

To turn the UK electric for all vehicles would require massive pylon installation, and funnily enough theyve just started changing the style to these 'worlds first' T pylons and actually asked us if we like them, which im pretty sure is a fallback for when they start covering the country in them.

Im always amused by claims that they will be able to control your car, well they dont have to be electric for that.
Home charge points are programmed with random start times, just to make sure everyone doesnt set them for an exact time like 7pm or when cheap tarriffs kick in , and its obviously a next step to control them completely to balance the grid ...and it will no doubt be a premium service to override that.

To context what we are up against, Oxford uni calculated to run the country completely on electricity and only use wind turbines, would require the worlds turbines offshore and every lake turned into hydro storage.
Parked hundreds of miles out..
Just for the UK ..
Probably why germany has announced another fusion investment.

Ebikes as an alternative.
It rains all the time and a lot of cheap ebikes arent even safely waterproof.
Theft is treated as a joke.
You cant insure them against theft without ten locks and an armed guard.
Companies wont let you park them inside .
The roads are like death race 2000, but with drivers scrolling phones added in.

I would love a world where everyone scooted around in those car form velomobiles.
Germany doesnt need fusion( pie in the sky) they need tp bring the fission reactors back on line, we now have many safe and efficient fission reactor designs that basically consume all the long lived radionuclides, this fusion nonsense is just misdirection, within 10 years we could be harnessing the ZP energy( don't think so? what powers the"tictacs" and other UAPs)
 
I live in rural Pennsylvania, surrounded by family farms, Amish farms, Mennonite farms and some corporate farms. Not a lot of the latter... yet. Rural America is nowhere near ready to go EV. And I'm not talking years away, I'm talking half century plus, away from that goal.

If we want to take family small farms away and give the land to corporations to farm, that would speed up the process a little. I'm not for that. This time every year there are gangs of combines and grain hauling tractor trailers roaming the roads and harvesting the fields. Small farms (<1000 acres) don't have the money to purchase combine harvesters, so that work is contracted out.

These machines are massive; a typical John Deere combine is 36 feet long, 17 feet wide, 16 feet tall and weighs 9000 pounds (plus attachments). Cost is 300k, just for the machine. Then there are all the support vehicles. Several grain hauling tractor trailers, that run constantly catching the grain and running it to a local grain elevator. This is a 24 hour a day process, where all the machines and vehicles never stop for a couple of months. Add in the pickup trucks that haul equipment, trailers and people.

These local farmers care about the land and the weather more than most of us could ever imagine.

Not long ago there was a hoax story that John Deere was going all electric with their farm equipment. The hoax took on a life of its own and even effected the stock market. Farmers were asking what happens when these massive machines, that are run 24 hours a day, need a charge, and are 20 miles out in the fields, nowhere near any power lines, much less charging infrastructure. And what about the days lost harvesting due to charging? There is a small window of dry, good weather to harvest crops. That is the obvious problem, there's also soil compaction that damages the land. How heavy would an electric combine be? Would rural roads and bridges even carry that load?

That is just one industry. I wish everyone looked within their own lives, and the things we can control. Consumerism and the pollution that produces is a plague. All the plastic bags, plastic drinks bottles. Were paper bags and glass bottles so bad? Most of us are old enough to remember when we got along with a lot less, and we were happy. We also should think about other's lives and livelihoods and not just the ones we see out our front window.

When I was a kid on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, there were 9 inhabited islands in the Bay, now there are 2. There are nearly 12,000 miles of shoreline. A lot of shrinking, sinking and disappearing land. I still have a lot of family there. The highest hill on the DelMarVa peninsula is 300 feet, most people live on land less than 10 feet above sea level. I've had family farmers and fisherman; working poor and middle class. The topic is personal, yet none of the people I know talk in absolutes. This is their life, livelihood and land.

We are changing and making a difference. Air and water is much cleaner than when I was a kid. We farm better, with newer practices, like no till planting that helps retain the top soil. Cars are cleaner than ever, and the cars we have now last twice as long. A 10 year old car in the 70s was on its last legs. The average age of cars on the road today is 12.5 years. That's a lot less in the landfills. Don't let anyone kid you, we are making a difference. I wish some countries, like China, could say the same.

Both the government and the citizenry are debt spending; there's no money in the bank. I want to know the cost of every propottttsal. I never buy anything for myself without knowing the cost first. That's why I believe tax credits should only go to low income and needy families. I'm far from wealthy, I still work, but I do not need help buying an ebike. No one able to buy a 100 grand Tesla should get any tax credit to do it. That credit is just going on our kid's and grandkid's credit card.
Pretty good( isnt Piedmont Highlands almost an oxymoron except above the "fall line?) anyway newer cars are better except for repairability,it seems like the farm land in the Shenandoah Valleyis fast disappearing,I suppose we will start eating drywall and 2x4s, farm equipment needs a certain amount of weight to be viable, using electric equipment could probably work in certain instances( you could always pull a large constant speed diesel generator power bank on site( more expense)we have many new techniques that are generally dissed by the NIMBYs and gated community crowd, one thing that never seems to be addressed is the luminosity of that huge fusion furnace called the Sun( maybe somebody is not telling us something( btw beware of Ares)
 
Ive started watching velomobiles now, what a beautiful world it would be with everyone scooting around in super lightweight, electrically assisted carbikes and only each other to have accidents with , 99% pedestrian survival rate, silent streets handed back to communities.
We would only fear the wind.
To paraphrase FDR from 90 years ago:
"The only thing we have to fear is air itself"

I'm all for some steampunk future with velomobiles and airships, but sadly, I think Blade Runner depicts a more likely path for us. At least Elon's chosen will get to live the good life in the off-world colonies?
 
We all breathe the same air, so means-testing is just a social justice argument and not one that gets ICE's off the road. As such a means restriction is well-meaning but short-sighted.

If you want to see ICE's off the road, give credits to EVs and quit crying about who gets them. As the installed base of EVs grows, supply capacity will grow and manufacturers can use economies of scale to offer larger-scale, lower-cost EVs for a wider market. We are seeing this happen now with Volkswagen and the various Chinese manufacturers. But supply constraints continue to keep prices high. This is not a plot of the rich but how supply and demand works. Nothing will change that.
SMH, that anybody thinks RPV's will have any meaningful impact.
With that attitude, we should just give up.
 
Pretty good( isnt Piedmont Highlands almost an oxymoron except above the "fall line?) anyway newer cars are better except for repairability,it seems like the farm land in the Shenandoah Valleyis fast disappearing,I suppose we will start eating drywall and 2x4s, farm equipment needs a certain amount of weight to be viable, using electric equipment could probably work in certain instances( you could always pull a large constant speed diesel generator power bank on site( more expense)we have many new techniques that are generally dissed by the NIMBYs and gated community crowd, one thing that never seems to be addressed is the luminosity of that huge fusion furnace called the Sun( maybe somebody is not telling us something( btw beware of Ares)
Some call the region Piedmont Mountains, or Piedmont Plateau. As the region tops out at around 1200 feet above sea level, it's really the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Part of the Appalachian Mountain range; I like the term Piedmont Highlands, and it is the historic name, and a curiosity that tends to have people do a search to find out what it means. A teaching moment 🤔

The Appalachian and Blue Ridge have a lot of named mountains under 1500 feet. Polish Mountain is 1300'.

As for the farm equipment, maybe a diesel electric hybrid, like train locomotives could work, but it seems we've abandoned hybrids for the all or nothing approach. We should be looking at all the above, incremental changes that work. People in power have taken sides and dug in. People and their lives are no longer a factor. We should all be welcome to the table and power needs to listen to the people. A perfect example of why we are stuck is the world abandoning clean, nuclear power. I've lived in the shadow of 3 nuclear power stations; 3 Mile Island (TMI), Peach Bottom and Calvert Cliffs. I understand all the concerns, I lived through the TMI scare. Now that TMI has been fully shut down, we are back to burning coal. The same is going on all across Europe. Some countries are burning wood to generate power. I don't understand what people are thinking.
 
If you want to see ICE's off the road, give credits to EVs and quit crying about who gets them.
Yes, fiscal responsibility is crying. That is how we got to 2.2 trillion in debt. A baby born this minute in the US is $99,600 dollars in debt. Every person in the US owes that much. I'll never be okay giving welfare to any company or individual that doesn't need it.
 
Yes, fiscal responsibility is crying. That is how we got to 2.2 trillion in debt. A baby born this minute in the US is $99,600 dollars in debt. Every person in the US owes that much. I'll never be okay giving welfare to any company or individual that doesn't need it.
With respect to solving that problem, that train left the station LONG ago. To fix it we essentially have to stop all government spending, likely for decades, which is never going to happen. Citing it as a reason to pare back something that has such obvious benefits to society is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

If nothing else, EVs not reliant on petroleum are part of a strategic goal for the USA in terms of creating energy independence - and an economy - free of foreign entanglements. Europe got this lesson right up the ass a year or so ago after relying on Russian energy and suddenly realizing the spigot is getting shut off and without it they are screwed.
 
We subsidize EVs to the tune of $7500 each, even after many car companies have adjusted prices accordingly after a change in vehicle eligibility.

e-bikes are a far better way to reduce emissions than EVs so it's a little absurd that we don't already have a federal incentive.

If you support the E-BIKE act, please sign your name below!

REI:
"If 15% of today's carbon-emitting car trips were made by electric bicycles (e-bikes), America's carbon emissions would shrink by more than 11 percent.

That's because in addition to providing safe and convenient ways to get from place to place, battery-powered e-bikes displace carbon emissions from vehicles and lower pollution levels. E-bikes are increasingly popular for people looking to commute to work, run errands, or enjoy the outdoors without needing a car. But we need to make sure more people - of all income levels - can access and enjoy this form of low-carbon transport.

The E-BIKE (Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment) Act would offer a 30 percent tax credit of up to $1500 on the purchase of new e-bikes. It's time to build support for this exciting new bill that can make climate-friendly transport more affordable for everyone."

Sign your name: https://www.rei.com/action/network/campaign/e-bike-act
How about everyone just pay their own way? We run a 2 trillion deficit. Where do you think this magical money comes from, to by a product that is almost 100% made in China? It gets passed on as debt to your neighbors and children, and grandchildren. No matter how you cut it, it doesn't make economic sense. Oh, and by the way, China is building your ebike with coal fired power plants that pollute the air and water. They don't have an EPA
 
The USA was a net energy exporter under the last administration. The strategic goal of being energy independent had been met until the current admin reversed it under the guise of environmental protection while concurrently drawing down the strategic oil reserves to dangerous levels.

EV's are reliant on petroleum for their production, distribution and in most cases the energy source for charging the batteries. EV's are RPV's (Remote Polluting Vehicles) plain and simple. Overall, is an EV less polluting than an ICE vehicle? Yep, probably so, but we shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking they are pollution free. They can help reduce the carbon load but any significant reductions are a long way off.

The train didn't leave the station that long ago, ("with that attitude we should just give up"). Clinton had a balanced budget from '98-'02. You wouldn't have to shut down the government. You'd have to stop deficit spending and cut down the administrative state. The Federal government is the largest employer in the world, by far, surely there is plenty of bloat.

It's laughable to think EV's would free us from foreign entanglements. The USA has it tenacles everywhere, energy is just a small part of those entanglements.
 
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How about everyone just pay their own way? We run a 2 trillion deficit. Where do you think this magical money comes from, to by a product that is almost 100% made in China? It gets passed on as debt to your neighbors and children, and grandchildren. No matter how you cut it, it doesn't make economic sense. Oh, and by the way, China is building your ebike with coal fired power plants that pollute the air and water. They don't have an EPA
Boom #suckitgill

 
The USA was a net energy exporter under the last administration. The strategic goal of being energy independent had been met until the current admin reversed it under the guise of environmental protection while concurrently drawing down the strategic oil reserves to dangerous levels.
Curious by your use of the past tense 'had'. You do realize that the USA has continued to be a net exporter of energy under the current administration. No need to over-politicize it either, both Trump and Biden arguably have less to do with it than GW Bush and a virus.
1696828704763.png


(Table 1.4c and figure 1.4c in the Monthly Energy Review, latest version attached below)


The USA has it tenacles everywhere, energy is just a small part of those entanglements.
I suggest you read some Daniel Yergin if you care to go deeper on the subject. Energy has been a primary driver for a lot of the US's entanglements and policies.
 

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Some call the region Piedmont Mountains, or Piedmont Plateau. As the region tops out at around 1200 feet above sea level, it's really the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Part of the Appalachian Mountain range; I like the term Piedmont Highlands, and it is the historic name, and a curiosity that tends to have people do a search to find out what it means. A teaching moment 🤔

The Appalachian and Blue Ridge have a lot of named mountains under 1500 feet. Polish Mountain is 1300'.

As for the farm equipment, maybe a diesel electric hybrid, like train locomotives could work, but it seems we've abandoned hybrids for the all or nothing approach. We should be looking at all the above, incremental changes that work. People in power have taken sides and dug in. People and their lives are no longer a factor. We should all be welcome to the table and power needs to listen to the people. A perfect example of why we are stuck is the world abandoning clean, nuclear power. I've lived in the shadow of 3 nuclear power stations; 3 Mile Island (TMI), Peach Bottom and Calvert Cliffs. I understand all the concerns, I lived through the TMI scare. Now that TMI has been fully shut down, we are back to burning coal. The same is going on all across Europe. Some countries are burning wood to generate power. I don't understand what people are thinking.
thanx, I knew piedmont meant mtn foot,I consider an electromotive(diesel) as a "compound" system rather than a hybrid because there is no provision for recouping energy lost as heat, the electric motor is basically the transmission,which has many advantages a good engineer can make successful starts, where as direct drive system would just spin the wheels, the bean counters in my area tend to try to make fewer locomotives do the job on a long train resulting in many instances of the trains stalling on slight upgrades,then they have to call another locomotive or two to couple up and get the rain moving again, a RR flagman once lamented to me the lowering of standards on the, line, the signal lights running out of power due to defective batteries, the"sanders" in the locomotive not having any sand in them,etc, the only thing that has kept many lines running is federal obligations( same thing with little dinky airports- we have a small airfield on a plateau the feds pump money into from time to time, it is so windy there it literally blows small aircraft off the runway and usually so foggy plans have to redirect to woodrum field, at least the military gets good use out of it, they will keep screwing with this little field rather than find a good site, bring back the nukes!
 
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There is a lot of research going on right now to develop cleaner batteries. Technological development is not stagnant. We are in the process of transition at the moment, and a lot of things are in flux. The US has a lot of catching up and redesigning/reengineering to do. I think we CAN do it, but I'm not sure we WILL. Nitpicking aimed at maintaining the status quo is dooming us, but people fall for it because change is hard.
 
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