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No one will get any sympathy from me about oil prices. From the beginning of the automobile industry, oil hasbeen a dirty, dangerous business. The same goes for nuclear power. If the men who plowed money into oil, gas and nuclear power had invested in solar energy jnstead, we wouldn't be in this stupid mess.

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I agree. Global warming and it's causes were well understood and under discussion in the public domain at least 50 years ago. The oil companies had it all figured out but denied it for years as their profits kept rising. That oil (and gas) continue to be the main source of international instability, leading to death and destruction on a massive scale, is the direct result of human ignorance and stupidity. It seems we will never learn anything.

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"It seems we will never learn anything" - You're right: we have not seen any idea of how to recycle solar panels, wings from wind mills, LED-lamps... What will we do with all the lithium when there is a better battery technology based on some other metal that is not so dangerous to extract, and so rare as lithium? Battery technology is developing very fast as I understand it, and China's monopolies on rare earth metals is not pointing towards less conflicts. It seems to me that we are running into the future looking backwards, satisfied to see that we are distancing ourselves to the old problems.

I agree of course that global warming is problem on a new scale, as is the deposit of nuclear waste so far.

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So agree. We never seem to learn.

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Propaganda runs rings around the truth

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Anybody remember cigarette companies, deny, deny, deny, kill, kill, kill

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This is exposed in the book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes. It is quite a read ... and not only about tobacco

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And, greed.

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Yup, the big three: Ignorance, stupidity and greed.

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... yes, but ... guaranteed business for the health care industry & population control ...?

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Drive around in Texas, Oklahoma, wyoming, Montana, and other petrol states and it is clear from rebranding efforts, oil companies are now Energy Corporations. Guess who is buying up leases and shares in solar and wind technology?

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And wind and tides and geothermal and storage batteries and. . . Mess, missed opportunity, crime against humanity. . .

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It is little known that electric and gasoline vehicles were developed at the same time in the early 1900s, but the gasoline vehicles were preferred because they made more noise!

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And I suspect that's the main attraction of macho, huge, honking and guzzling mega-pickups. I aspire to an EV once economies of scale make them more affordable, but for now I'm pretty happy with my little Fiat Panda 4x4 which gets about 50 mpg with a tiny, hightech, clean-burning diesel. It's zippy, too.

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David, is it yellow?! We should mention that these cars are hugely popular in Italy, in part because government policy of high taxes on fuel has for years influenced peopleтАЩs buying decisions towards smaller, more efficient vehicles. My husbandтАЩs very snazzy Alfa Romeo Giulia gets better mileage than my Honda CRV. We think gas prices are high here? TheyтАЩre above $8/gallon in Italy.

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Hi Kathy! Actually, it's Halloween pumpkin orange. Just an hour ago I filled the tank at a cost of тВм 1.99/liter. So... 1.99 x 3.9 = тВм 7.76/US gallon, so ... with the exchange rate at about 1.09 USD per EURO, let's see, that gives us.... $$ 8.46 per gallon!!! Yikes.

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I like the orange one! My sister-in-law has a yellow CNG Panda. I don't know what her mileage (kilomiterage?) is - but it's a lot.

We in the US have not used policy to impact consumption the same way that the Europeans have. The lack of a tax policy to reduce consumption is a big reason that energy is so much less expensive here than in Europe.

Further, people do not seem to understand that electric vehicles are only truly low emission if the electricity used to charge them was generated using clean (not fossil fuel) energy - nuclear, hydro, solar, wind etc. If the power you use to charge your EV comes from coal or natural gas, that car's environmental impact is not less than a combustion engine's. If we only measure emissions at the tailpipe, it might seem that it is, but that is not an accurate way to measure a vehicle's carbon impact. We need to be measuring emissions over the life cycle - from power generation through consumption - instead. Don't get me wrong, I'm very pro-EV, and my husband has spent his career researching alternative energy for vehicles and is now almost exclusively researching batteries. It's interesting how much "hotter" his field is under the Biden administration than it was under Trump's.

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The machismo of the big rig protests, combined with white supremacy bull Schitt. Puke

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Transporting a large load requires a large engine. You sure I couldnтАЩt convince you to try it out? Ah well, you have to be a driving fool who likes big vehicles, I suppose. ЁЯШШ

Of course if you were trying out a big rig and if I were supporting you from the passenger seat, no white racist convoys and no sexist machismo would be in evidence. Goddess Convoys Only ЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗжЁЯЗйЁЯЗкЁЯзСтАНЁЯОдЁЯжЬ ЁЯХК

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And thank You for That!!

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Barf!

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My son liked his little Porsche Carrera for the same reason. Sold it, but he said he'll get another one of these days!

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That's a cute little car!

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I agree. Too bad they don't sell them in the States. It's hellishly good on snow and ice. Perfect for a Vermont winter!

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Snow and ice R us!

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I have a photo of my grandmother sitting in her electric automobile circa 1910-ish (I think, without going to find the photo).

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No one has yet mentioned lead in gasoline. One hundred years ago Thomas Midgely was hired to find an additive for gasoline to reduce engine knocking. He discovered that ethanol would work but that was rejected because adding lead provided more profit. The lead in our environment that will not ever disappear. This is the story:

http://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead

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Well, THAT was interesting - it wouldnt come up from your link, but I copied/pasted & got it online. Only read about 3/4 of it, but frankly its par for the course, isnt it? Oil companies, car companies, "public" health?????? Its the same as almost any other "new" wonderful product - cigarettes, nuclear energy, fracking, on and on. Jump into it & make a profit which keeps the industry - whichever one it is - continuing to make a profit - no matter what!

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If the "men who plowed money into oil" had possibly comprehended what the future would be? Maybe if there had been more women involved at that point - there might have been a bit more looking into the future!

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