Subj : Re: Dr Oz! To : Mike Powell From : Jeff Thiele Date : Sat Jun 11 2022 18:39:44 On 11 Jun 2022, Mike Powell said the following... MP> > There are people who cannot afford a fossil-fuel-powered vehicle. Where' MP> > your sympathy for them? Or is your "sympathy" for those who cannot affor MP> > electric vehicle just a disguise for your personal opposition to the MP> > transition? MP> Part of the reason they cannot afford them is that, at some point, most MP> of the older affordable fossil-fuel-powered cars disappeared. There was MP> some government program... what was it and who implemented it... that MP> assisted in this disappearance, but what and who escapes me now... The smaller, more affordable (and more fuel-efficient) cars were a response to the oil crisis of the late '70s/early 80s. Once the crisis was over, they started to disappear in favor of the larger vehicles that Americans preferred. Well, preferred when there wasn't an oil crisis, of course. As for SUVs, those are an unintended consequence of breaks given to automobile manufacturers for pickup trucks, which were generally considered to be largely farm vehicles at the time. Increased government regulation of fuel efficiency standards went easy on farm vehicles in order to not disrupt American agriculture. However, because these more lax standards applied to pickup trucks and anything built on the same chassis as a pickup truck, vehicle manufacturers could produce them at a lower price point than cars which had to comply with the increased standards. MP> Must have been Trump because everything is his fault. I do have sympathy for them but transitioning to even more expensive MP> vehicles does nothing for them, and just makes their group grow bigger, MP> not smaller. That growth might be something that leftist see as MP> progress, but I don't. As electric vehicles become more common and less of a specialy item, their prices will go down. And the transition isn't going to happen overnight. MP> I bought an electric lawnmower. It has the "latest and greatest" battery MP> tech and was an affordable one. So, instead of using a 3/4ths-quart of MP> gas each week to mow, I spent nearly $400 to get it down to a MP> half-quart... that is, on weeks the battery does not overheat and refuse MP> to recharge. I could buy another battery but that is another $200 and, MP> since they are only guaranteed for 3 years, I would never see my MP> investment returned. Perhaps it's time to invest in a newer electric mower. MP> This mower was one of the highest-rated by Consumer Reports in the MP> non-professional, and non-self-propelled/non-riding, class. MP> I personally still like it (except when the battery overheats) because it MP> is not as loud and is easier to adjust the height on, but I very much MP> doubt the environment is thanking me too much for not burning that MP> 1/4-quart of gas. It will be thanking me even less when the battery MP> fails after 3 years and has to be disposed of. Every little bit matters. Jeff. --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32) * Origin: Cold War Computing BBS (1:387/26) .