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Comment by __loam | Hacker News Reader

People will blame climate policy on this but this is evidence that we've failed to move off our fossil fuel dependency.

Texas is better at this because they don't restrict solar with “enviromental” nimby lawsuits.

Nor have restrictions on refining oil or require a special blend of gasoline. It does seem strange to call out Texas as doing something right environmentally.

We've had decades to do something about it, but if Trump deciding to step into a completely unnecessary war and blundering the entire thing is what makes everyone wake up then I guess that's a silver lining.

4D chess baby. He's a genius. All of his oil investing friends think so.

He's the best, the best at everything. Including tanking the world economy...

It is funny that propaganda has somehow convinced conservatives, people who used to idealize self reliance and independence from government dependencies, to move away from solar and EVs.

A EV and a home solar setup with a large battery bank, is the ultimate in self reliance.

I remember even 10 years ago you'd see the occasional right leaning homesteader talking about the benefits of being off grid with a solar setup.

Now days removing our dependencies on foreign powers is somehow a liberal conspiracy. O_o

A bicycle and moderate fitness is the ultimate in self-reliance but you never heard them promoting that either.

Bicycle doesn't carry a family of 4, or carry loads of dirt or pick up lumber or tow a trailer.

Also my e-bike needs more maintenance than my EV. Go figure.

carry a family of 4 where? if you rely on that other location exisiting, you are not self-reliant.

tow a trailer where? see above.

Pick up a load of dirt or lumber-- how did those materials get to the pick-up point?

And the road you are driving on, where did it come from?

Being conservative doesn't mean I don't want roads or businesses to exist.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how much my single cargo e-bike can handle. It is big, nearly the size of a tandem bike, but it served me well for 5 years of not having a car.

Curious about your maintenance needs. I have a guy that comes out once a year for service and tunes it up for me. After 3 years, I replaced the chain. I've upgraded to hydraulic brakes by the same guy. Other than that, it's been smooth riding. Or are you saying your EV needs so little maintenance that even the low maintenance on a bike seem high?

I haven't had to do any work on my EV in the 2 years I've had it.

I'm due for a cabin air filter change in another couple years.

So yes the bike is costing me more in maintenance! It is hard to compete with 0.

Does the eBike have a monthly payment plus a required insurance policy? The EV still costs way more to own which is the most important factor

Definitely, the car costs more.

But speaking purely in terms of maintenance, costs are nearly 0.

Assuming I don't but a pot hole, the tires will last me 7-8 years at minimum (I drive a bit under 3000 miles a year).

Brakes are barely used with an EV.

Insurance + tabs is my largest cost.

I bought my EV cash a few years back when prices were super low thanks to hertz offloading their fleet.

Maintenance should be amortized. The first time you do brakes and tires it will cost more than 5+ years of ebike maintenance. It adds nothing to the conversation to pretend otherwise.

It does carry a family of 4 in a lot of places. I've seen entire clothing stores set up on bicycles in places like Thailand.

>carry a family of 4

Why are you carrying them? They should be self-reliant too.

2 bicycles can.

I'm conservative and own an EV and ICE truck. I know many conservatives with Tesla's. I have solar and a propane generator as backups.

I think the propaganda would be whatever said we're all against it, that's untrue. We just want both, no gas bans.

Conservative bots are out strong in Pacific NW forums slop posting against new "green energy" energy projects. Blaming the (not yet built!) green energy projects for upcoming rate increases.

Nevermind that solar is why Texas has such cheap electricity prices.

> no gas bans.

I'm all for the free market.

Price into gas the expected increase in healthcare costs due to air and ground water pollution. Stop subsidizing it for non-critical uses.

Same for extra tire dust from EVs (that shit is toxic AF).

Right now I see astroturfing that EVs are why our electricity infrastructure is overloaded (rather than blaming 50 years of neglect), or that the cars burst into flame (no more than other cars and newer battery tech not any more).

Subsidizing EVs is interesting because it is obvious that EVs are the future (battery tech gets ~6% better year over year, compounding, ICE designs haven't seen improvements in decades), but recent removal of government support caused American car companies to basically give up on anything except the domestic car market, which spells their long term doom (which the Ford CEO has pretty much come out and admitted.)

There's already like 90c of gasoline tax in California and some of the highest auto registration fees, and that's on top of other rules that make it more expensive.

The gasoline and registration taxes pay for (most of the cost of) the roads. Change them all to toll roads and we can get rid of those taxes.

Somehow other states don't need to make them all toll roads, and their roads are better

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