We are on the cusp of a new age in America, the Age of Alternate Fuel Sources. It’s an exciting time to be alive!
I have to admit, I lived through the cusp of the Computer Age, and I fell off that cusp. I converted from pen and paper to the computer, but I never became an expert at computing. So I mean to get in on the ground floor with the conversion to the electric cars that we’ll all soon be driving.
The world vision of our current liberal government is “death to the fossil fuel industry.” They see electricity as the vehicle fuel source of the future, and electric cars have some advantages. They create less pollution and less noise, and promoters say they are ultimately cheaper to run. I’m all about cheaper!
I can’t wait to get my very own electric car, and I’ve done some research on what to buy, though I have some reservations.
First, we’re going to have a transition period where we continue to need gas and oil to make our petroleum powered vehicles run while we’re converting to electric vehicles. Everybody can’t buy an electric car at one time, especially since they won’t be able to sell their gas-powered cars. So some of us will still be buying gasoline for awhile.
Biden’s shut down of American gas lines has decreased our supply of fuel, so we’ll have to keep buying from unfriendly nations like Iran and Venezuela to get through the transition. And the release of our Strategic Petroleum Reserves is just a temporary ploy to lower gas prices a little in time for the mid-term elections. So if we keep releasing reserves, what happens when we really need them, like when Iran and Venezuela won’t give us any more oil?
But I get it. Depleting our oil resources is part of the liberal plan — just run out of gas and sources for it, and people will be forced to convert to electricity and the cumbersome natural gas. Pretty smart, huh?
Though I’m all about whirring through Magee in my quiet electric car, I have a few questions.
First, the fuel range concerns me. the Nissan Leaf, which is the cheapest electric at about $21,000, is big enough for two adults and two small dogs. It has a charged range of 143 miles. There are no electric charging stations in Simpson County at this point, but fortunately Jackson has two stations and Hattiesburg one. Both are about 50 miles from me. So a trip up and back to charge my Leaf would use 100 miles of charge, leaving me with a whole 43 miles to get my errands done here, but I would go dead before I could get back to charge it again. No problem, I’d just pay to get a home charger.
The cars come with a cable that plugs into a wall outlet and provides me 3-6 miles of charge per hour, so all I have to do is leave my car charging in my carport for 33 hours to get 100 miles of charge. That would get me to Jackson and allow me to do my errands and pull into the charging station to “top up” before scooting home to plug in again. Oh, and I would have to hope there weren’t too many other cars charging there or I would have to spend the night.
My husband would want the Ford F150 Lariat for $62,000 with a whole 230 miles of charge. If you’re richer than we are, you could get the Porsche Taycan for a mere $182,000, and you’d get 202 miles on a charge, a real bargain, it seems to me.
I don’t think they even make the big SUV that holds a family of seven, though, because of the amount of power it uses up. Maybe you could pull your five kids in a trailer.
I see a few other problems for some folks.
The environmentalists are going to scream when every river in the country has to be dammed up to create enough hydro-electric power to meet our increased need for electricity. Farmers will be converting their farm land to the very attractive metallic solar power farms. I’ll miss the food they were producing, but I need to go on a diet anyway. And perhaps Iran and Venezuela will throw in food packets with the oil they do sell us for awhile.
I don’t know where we’ll get the $83K for our two new electric vehicles because no one will buy our gas powered car or truck. But the junkyard dealers will get a windfall of useless Impalas and Camrys for scrap!
Mechanics who work on petroleum powered cars will have to re-train for electric cars, or sign up for plumbing school. Owners of gas stations will have to pay for expensive conversions to charging stations, or they and gas tanker truck drivers will be in plumbing class with you mechanics, so that should be fun.
AOC and her Merry Band of Malcontents are already cruising in their $150,000 Teslas, I’m sure, and I’m going to get right behind them, just whirring along to the charging station in my E-Mobile!
How fun to be on the cusp of change again! I just hope that cusp, whatever a “cusp” is, has a charging station attached to it!
