Saudis vs Canadians...?

[trailrunner]

If only the West would increase oil production become independent from oil so the Saudi's would not have such influence. 

Pray tell how would you become "independent of oil?"  I'm taking this as a mindless, knee-jerk leftist response.

I was in college from 79-87 right after the first oil crisis. My thesis advisor had started an energy center within our engineering department. He wrote a book comparing differing energy sources, based on objective calculations and practicality, and he taught a great class on the subject.

If I were president, I would make a Manhattan level project to eliminate our dependence on oil. I'm not a fan of big government spending, but our oil dependence is very costly.

How would I do this?  The only place we should burn oil is for aircraft. There is no practical alternative for planes. Electricity should come from nuclear. Electric cars are not ready yet, but hydrogen or natural gas could work. There isn't yet the infrastructure, which is where to government would come in, building or subsidizing stations.

[bbmike]

trailrunner 2020!

[OJsDad]

He'd have to have half his brain removed first.

[Gusington]

3/4 bigly

[OJsDad]

TR, am I correct in that the biggest thing holding back electric vehicles is not being able to charge them wireless while driving.

[Jarhead0331]

TR, am I correct in that the biggest thing holding back electric vehicles is not being able to charge them wireless while driving.

Not sure why they haven't addressed this issue in part through solar energy?

[OJsDad]

TR, am I correct in that the biggest thing holding back electric vehicles is not being able to charge them wireless while driving.

Not sure why they haven't addressed this issue in part through solar energy?

Toyota did have a Prius with solar panels at one point. I dont think they offer it any more.

[OJsDad]

Looks like Toyota brought them back.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/electrek.co/2016/06/20/toyota-prius-plug-prime-solar-panel/amp/

[Gusington]

Battery capacity is growing and evolving every year. BMW is introducing wireless charging with pads in Europe this year, coming to America next year.

[airboy]

Trailrunner - I understand your point of view.  There is another factor. 

High population density countries can go off of oil for transportation far easier than spread out countries.  For example, Pete's country (Belgium) has relatively high population density in a small geographic area.  The USA is continent wide and has far less population density.  The more diffuse the population, the harder it is to have transportation solutions without oil.

My physics professor always stated that Nuclear Power largely used stuff with no other value to man to generate power.  Oil is amazingly useful in chemicals and plastics. 

[trailrunner]

TR, am I correct in that the biggest thing holding back electric vehicles is not being able to charge them wireless while driving.

Sort of. The biggest problem is that they can't be charged fast. When my gas tank goes empty, it takes me 10 minutes to fill it up and I'm good for another 300 miles. We can't charge our batteries that fast. Wirelessly charging while driving sounds good, but I don't know much about that.

Not sure why they haven't addressed this issue in part through solar energy?

I haven't done the math for that particular case, but from what I recall from my class 35 years ago is a) there isn't that much energy in sunlight and b) the conversion efficiency of solar cells is poor (around 20 percent I think).

Trailrunner - I understand your point of view.  There is another factor. 

High population density countries can go off of oil for transportation far easier than spread out countries.  For example, Pete's country (Belgium) has relatively high population density in a small geographic area.  The USA is continent wide and has far less population density.  The more diffuse the population, the harder it is to have transportation solutions without oil.

My physics professor always stated that Nuclear Power largely used stuff with no other value to man to generate power.  Oil is amazingly useful in chemicals and plastics.

Sure, in the wide open west it would be a hard transition, but not impossible. As I said, I'm a libertarian at heart and don't like big government, but this is the thing I would force to happen.

Oil is a good chemical feed stock. So is coal, so I'd convert our coal industry into the chemical feed industry. America would be almost self-reliant.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

...Canada spoke up about civil rights repression in general in Saudi Arabia and got their ambassador kicked out and other economic sanctions for the trouble.  For whatever faults the Canadians have, they have been consistent supporters of basic human rights in other countries.  They put their wallet where their hearts were and provoked this reaction.

The Trudeau government has been pretty inconsistent on human rights issues.  They refused to condemn the UN's move to put the Saudis on the HR commission.  They blocked motions in the Commons to recognize the Yazedi genocide being carried out by ISIS.  They've been reluctant to condemn, let alone act against various terrorist groups around the globe and are often seen to be somewhat sympathize towards them.  Trudeau has made remarks talking of his admiration of dictatorships such as China and dictators like Castro.  He's met and supported people with ties to Sikh and Muslim terror groups (and gives some nice cash payouts and welcomes them back to Canada with open arms and poetry classes after they've been caught fighting overseas.)

[Gusington]

Solar technology, like electric cars, wireless charging and battery capacity, is another area that improves year by year.  Current solar tech can't be compared to the solar tech of 35 years ago - it is exponentially better. So much so that solar adopters regularly put electricity back in to the grid and get paid by their local utility for doing so. Source: my current job where I am required to  sort of thing.

[Staggerwing]

One of my favorite physics professors had the point of view that oil should be saved for all of the stuff we make out of it instead of burning it.

He's right. Just like the idea of peak oil, there is also a greater likelihood of peak human expansion resource material potential, after which we will no be able to colonize other planets because we will have used too much of the resources needed to do so in just feeding and housing and maintaining an unsustainable human population growth. No more raw materials for technology means no more spaceflight. We will eventually die on this rock.

[airboy]

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/08/saudi-arabia-is-selling-off-its-canadian-assets-as-row-intensifies-re.html

Back on the topic, the Saudi's are ordering their managers to sell all Canadian Assets.  They are also removing all Saudi patients from Canadian Hospitals.

Weirdly, Trump has not tweeted about this, yet.   >:D