Tag: electric vehicles

Bill Gates and the Secret Push to Save Biden’s Climate Bill

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Bill Gates and the Secret Push to Save Biden’s Climate Bill

Gates started wooing Manchin and other senators who might prove pivotal for clean-energy policy in 2019 over a meal in Washington DC. “My dialogue with Joe has been going on for quite a while,” Gates said. “Almost everyone on the energy committee” — of which Manchin was then the senior-most Democrat — “came over and spent a few hours with me over dinner.”

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Also at Manchin’s insistence, automakers also will see new strings attached to electric vehicle tax incentives so they will have to be made in North America and, by 2024, can’t use batteries sourced from China. Labor leaders bemoaned that the final package doesn’t contain much support for workers who lose their jobs in the green transition.

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There’s been such whiplash from 2016 when, as Gates puts it, green spending from the US government “had dropped to near zero.” Six years later, American climate finance has been “reinvigorated,” and Gates now sees innovation “going way faster than I expected. That’s why I’m optimistic that we will solve this thing.”

The working class is going to be thrown under the bus, but at least Bill Gates is happy. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The climate bill could short-circuit EV tax credits, making qualifying for them nearly impossible

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The U.S. Senate passed a far-reaching climate, energy and health care bill on Aug. 7, 2022, that invests an unprecedented US$370 billion in energy and climate programs over the next 10 years – including incentives to expand renewable energy and electric vehicles.

The climate bill could short-circuitEV tax credits, making qualifying for them nearly impossible

Chevy Offers Bolt Owners $6,000 to Waive Right to Sue Over Battery Fires (Update)

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Chevy Offers Bolt Owners $6,000 to Waive Right to Sue Over Battery Fires (Update)

GM statement: “The agreement for the reimbursement program does contain language that waives claims against GM and identifies existing litigation. This is a common practice when it comes to programs like this. It does not waive claims involving any potential recalls in the future.”

H/T: Steve Lehto

Rep. Massie Tears Apart Buttigieg’s Argument That Electric Cars Would Save Americans Money

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

“The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access afford electric vehicles,” [Pete] Buttigieg

Rep. Massie Tears Apart Buttigieg’s Argument That Electric Cars Would Save Americans Money

Related:

Pete Buttigieg says ‘pain’ of high gas prices increases ‘benefit’ for electric car owners — and then denies he said it

Pete Buttigieg smugly says OUR pain at the pump is THEIR gain with electric vehicles and pisses EVERYONE off – even the Left (watch)

MoA: This New Import Law Will Hurt U.S. Consumers

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

This New Import Law Will Hurt U.S. Consumers

For small importers it will be impossible to do the above. Only big companies [Congress’ gift to Big Corporations] can afford to research and provide all that data and to take the risk of importing products that may get confiscated at the border. They will of course ask their customers to pay for all that.

Previously:

US Crackdown on Forced Labor in China Risks Further Supply Chaos

MoA brings up some things that I hadn’t.

Domestic Crude Oil Peaked at $145 a Barrel in 2008. It Closed Yesterday at $118.50. So Why Is Gas at the Pump at All-Time Highs?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Domestic Crude Oil Peaked at $145 a Barrel in 2008. It Closed Yesterday at $118.50. So Why Is Gas at the Pump at All-Time Highs?

Part of that, as the above stories illustrate, is just plain ole price gouging. But the big picture is more complicated than that. According to the EIA, in addition to the 61 percent of the price of a gallon of gas that comes from the cost of crude oil, the other 39 percent shakes out as follows: the costs of refinement (14 percent), distribution and marketing (11 percent), and taxes (14 percent).

And refining* looks to be a particular problem right now. The EIA reports that as of January 1, 1982, the U.S. had 301 refineries in operation. That compares to just 129 in operation as of January 1, 2021.

Related:

*Chevron CEO says there may never be another oil refinery built in the U.S.

Previously:

More Oil From U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Heads To Europe

Elon Musk Is Not a Renegade Outsider – He’s a Massive Pentagon Contractor

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Elon Musk’s proposed takeover of Twitter has ruffled many feathers among professional commentators. “Musk is the wrong leader for Twitter’s vital mission,” read one Bloomberg headline. The network also insisted, “Nothing in the Tesla CEO’s track record suggests he will be a careful steward of an important media property.” “Elon Musk is the last person who should take over Twitter,” wrote Max Boot in The Washington Post, explaining that “[h]e seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.” The irony of outlets owned by Michael Bloomberg and Jeff Bezos warning of the dangers of permitting a billionaire oligarch to control our media was barely commented upon.

Elon Musk Is Not a Renegade Outsider – He’s a Massive Pentagon Contractor