New York State passes new law: zero emissions vehicles required by 2035

[RBGtaycan]

It appears that, while we may be at the bleeding edge, at least we electric car nuts are going in the right direction:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-gas-vehicle-sales-ban-2035/

 

[XLR82XS]

This is why I advise friends to buy as many cool/rare ICE cars they can. (and they do) EVs will benefit from evolving battery tech in terms of range, charging, cell longevity. In the future cars, semis, transport trucks, etc... will all be DC charging during peak hours.

Unless America does something about power plants and power production NOW there will be a giant strain on the electrical grid.

 

[Windpower]

Unless America does something about power plants and power production NOW there will be a giant strain on the electrical grid.

Where I live, much of the electric power comes from hydro (Niagra Falls). And there's a new offshore wind farm which is the final stages of permitting. So there is something happening. Whether this will create enough electric power to support a rapid change from ICE to EV, only time will tell.

This past summer there were so many disasters (flooding in Europe, hurricanes in the South of the US, drought on the West coast resulting in rampant forest fires) that my friends who are climate change non-believers are coming around. So I'm hopeful.

I'm going on my third EV. Though my wife still drives an ICE, I see a time in the not too distant future where my household will only have EVs.

As they said when I was in college: "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem". EV owners are part of the solution. If you're not buying an EV now, you are part of the problem.

 

[atebit]

Way back in the mid ‘10s, I lived in NC and got to participate in a 2-year LEAF EV study. We were able to lease the LEAF for a stupid $150/month in exchange for letting the research company install a telematics box in the car. Also came with a free L2 EVSE install in my garage. Unreal!

Anyway, the point of this post is that one of the reps from that research firm claimed that if everyone in the USA owned an EV and charged it during off-peak hours, the existing US electrical infrastructure would require no upgrades. I’m not sure I believed that (then or now) but it seems like a firm in the EV research business would have access to & know how to interpret the relevant data.

 

[XLR82XS]

This past summer there were so many disasters (flooding in Europe, hurricanes in the South of the US, drought on the West coast resulting in rampant forest fires) that my friends who are climate change non-believers are coming around. So I'm hopeful.

Climate change is BS. In the 19th Century, Henry's Law discovered relationships between gases and liquids. Once again, people will be familiar with 3 examples. Climbers find the lower pressure at high altitude makes it harder for their blood to absorb oxygen gas, and they get dizzy and sick. A diver, on the other hand, finds their blood saturates with oxygen and nitrogen gas more easily under pressure, but if they rise to the surface too quickly, the sudden release in pressure risks creating bubbles, which we call decompression sickness or the bends. A carbonated drink (soda) builds up gas above the surface of the liquid inside the can. If this pressure rises above the atmospheric pressure outside the can, then releasing the cap causes it too fizz out dramatically.

Understanding Henry's Law tells us why the CO2 in our Atmosphere is mostly influenced by the temperature of our Oceans. Human-generated CO2 is estimated to be about 4% of the total in our Atmosphere, but the Oceans hold 50 times more CO2 (as a solution) than our Atmosphere. So human CO2 is a very tiny part of the equation.

The real action is called the Ocean-Atmosphere Interface because Solar activity heats and cools our Oceans where most of the CO2 resides. Like a fizzy drink, if solar activity increases temperature, more CO2 escapes into the Atmosphere, but when solar activity cools the temperature, more CO2 is dissolved and trapped.

The human-cause of climate change is absurd. Solar activity interfacing with our Oceans is the relationship that matters. It's also important to know that CO2 is food for plants, so the combined effect of more solar activity and release of CO2 is more photosynthesis, more plant-life, which then consumes the CO2. This is how our planet has been adjusting and self-regulating for billions of years, and there is no reason whatsoever to panic about 'imminent climate catastrophe'. It is another scare story being used by politicians for power and money-grabs.

 

[Windpower]

Climate change is BS.
The human-cause of climate change is absurd.

While everyone is entitled to their opinion, what happens if you're wrong and in 20 years, if humans don't make significant changes to the way we live, the entire planet is uninhabitable? What if in 20 years the forest fires on the west coast consume the entire western part of North America? What happens if annual hurricanes are so bad that parts of the US can't be lived in (like Louisiana)? What happens if the melting of the polar ice caps continues so that sea levels rise so that parts of Florida are uninhabitable? What happens the increase in carbon dioxide causes a the decline in the quality of our food (see the work of Dr James White of Rutgers University who finds that increases in carbon dioxide lower the nutritional quality of the food we eat) so that humans become sicker and less able to fight off disease?

What's the worst thing that will happen if we all do something NOW to prevent climate change from making the planet uninhabitable?

You might not believe this will happen, but what if you're wrong?

 

[ciaranob]

Climate change is BS .........

Man, the hot air in this thread might be enough to tip the balance for climate change !

The oceans are carbon sinks - yes indeed the oceans, their cirulation patterns and temperature profiles, and as you mention, their interface with the atmosphere, are critical components and by far arguably the biggest direct influencer’s on earth’s climate.

The impact of decades of direct atmospheric release of large volumes of CO2 from human inductrial activity coupled with deforrestation and agricultural expansion etc. however does in fact have a very significant effect (and btw, you can’t use forest/jungle/plant growth as an offset to harvest CO2 if humans (or ongoing climate change) manage to remove them at a rate far faster than the earth replaces them!).

The ‘natural’ or a relatively ‘stable’ CO2 level in our atmosphere is what in part aids in reflecting transmitted solar heat back to the planet to keep us warm - critical to our ecosystem’s existence - but also in maintinaing a critical balnce of sequesterd vs atmospheric CO2. However increase this atmospheric CO2 by relatively small percentages (e.g. human activity) and you tip a delicate balance whereby you now increase the heat being retained close to the planet’s surface. This in turn helps elevate the temperature of our oceans, creating a major issue or knock-on effect as it causes increasing emissions to the atmosphere of dissolved, previously sequestered CO2 in the oceanic sink, which in turn amplifies atmospheric heat retention i.e. the greenhouse efect.

There are numerous such analogous climate change events documented in the geological record, events which were caused by many, many other contributing ‘triggers’ e.g. globally widespread or individually extraordinary volcanic eruption activity etc. But in the recent ‘human’ era (Anthropocene), arguably no equivalent (global) scale triggers have occurred other than burning of fossil fuels on a massive scale for multiple decades, a key (and I’m not saying the only) contributor in exacerbating the currently imminent greenhouse period. There are of course many other inter-related controls in earth’s complex climate equation (beyond scope here) and one could argue that the earth’s climate cycle is today simply in the process of ‘natural’ (non-human spiked) change due to these alone but here again, human generated CO2 activity is at the very least helping to accelerate this change.

Throwing out ballpark percentages for trapped CO2 in ocean sinks to compare to direct atmospheric contributions by human activity complerely misses the point i.e. being, what triggers trapped heat to tip to a state that causes release of increased amounts of oceanic CO2 for one. For ref. I am a Ph.D geoscientist that has fairly extensive experience in researching climate events in the geological record over a 30+ year career and yes I (ironically) worked in the oil industry and no, I do not intend to open up this ‘can of worms’ discussion any further on this forum - just the wrong place and TBH I was just bored - your contribution just needed a counterpoint imo - so apologies but will be leaving it there

 

[Raek]

Where I live, much of the electric power comes from hydro (Niagra Falls). And there's a new offshore wind farm which is the final stages of permitting. So there is something happening. Whether this will create enough electric power to support a rapid change from ICE to EV, only time will tell.

This past summer there were so many disasters (flooding in Europe, hurricanes in the South of the US, drought on the West coast resulting in rampant forest fires) that my friends who are climate change non-believers are coming around. So I'm hopeful.

I'm going on my third EV. Though my wife still drives an ICE, I see a time in the not too distant future where my household will only have EVs.

As they said when I was in college: "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem". EV owners are part of the solution. If you're not buying an EV now, you are part of the problem.

This made me feel good, as I got into a quite heated thing with a lifelong friend that showed me where he's headed (started spewing off the typical "EVs are just as bad as ICE cars because yadda yadda, production, yadda yadda electronics). I did my best not to be judgmental, and lay out facts...but, I got called all of the typical names in the book in regards to EV owners (he drives a 87 911SC that pours blue smoke at each start).

Either way, I'm also on LI, and have started to feel weird about going to GTGs where a bunch of boomers sit around revving engines and such. We should start our own little Long Island EV owner's GTG...just sayin!

 

[Raek]

Climate change is BS. I

Says the guy who will be underwater in 10-15 years. Sell your house now, homie...it's going to be impossible to get anything near it's current value soon. Those methane feedback loops started waaaaaaay earlier than predicted. It's cute to live in alternate realities, but at some point, you're going to have to stop being so...Floridian. In both physical and mental aspects.

 

[Windpower]

We should start our own little Long Island EV owner's GTG

Next summer we'll do a road trip to Montauk.

 

[RBGtaycan]

Next summer we'll do a road trip to Montauk.

and they have a fair number of EA chargers now (in Montauk) !

 

[Windpower]

Indeed they do and in a great location (downtown Montauk behind Naturally Yours sandwich shop).
But they are not particularly fast: the best I've been able to get is about 75kw.

 

[Raek]

Good to know. I'm heading out there tomorrow just to get out of the house for a bit.