Gradually, over time‼️
“we’re going to be shutting [coal] plants down all across America and having wind and solar.”
President Joe Biden
just as we put horses out of the transportation business, the pony express, the telegraph, blacksmiths, as we abandoned kerosene lamps and heating homes with coal or wood, etc., etc. It’s called progress – mostly.
There is no doubt we are and must move to various forms of clean, reliable energy. That includes solar, wind, hydro and, yes small self- monitoring modular nuclear plants.
Not only do we need clean energy, we need reliable energy.
To imply we can do without fossil fuel before we have sufficient, reliable energy sources that meet all of our needs is ridiculous – or in this case political pandering.
To say we aren’t headed away from coal and eventually oil as energy sources, to imply we can continue business as usual is also ridiculous.
To argue over which form of energy is cheaper is short-sighted absurdity.
Some day, some year, some decade there will be no coal mining jobs, no oil industry jobs, no jobs building combustion engines, no jobs repairing combustion engines –
But there will be other jobs in industries yet to be imagined
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Battery electric cars are just a fad. There is no way, I mean no way to replace even 50% of the ICE cars with EVs. The amount of rare earth minerals to make all the needed batteries, does not exist. Our electric grid is having trouble supporting all our current power needs. What is going to happen when millions more plug in at 6 PM, Blackout for sure. Hydrogen fuel and fuel cell technology 20 to 30 years from now will be the only way to get rid of most ICE cars. Also, why are we forcing people to buy EVs, for the profits that can be made now of course. Since transportation only accounts for 17% of CO2 emissions, we should be looking at ways to reduce CO2 in manufacturing and power generation which is 40% of CO2 emissions. Coal can be made into a clear motor fuel that burns cleaner than gasoline, without the need of ethanol a win win, but it may never happen until the last barrel of crude oil is extracted in 2130. I do not believe we will make any big reduction in ICE vehicles for 30 to 50 years. EV sales were just 5% in 2021, that tells me everything I need to know. The current take rate is going to do nothing for our CO2 emissions, when you factor in the CO2 released to mine and produce the EV and the power to charge it. It is a zero sum gain.
LikeLike
I drove my ICE pickup for 30 years and 200,000+ miles. My grandson could probably get another 20 years out of it, before he replaces it with an EV. A gradual transition.
I wonder if virtually all the major, and many startup auto manufacturers, did due diligence before they invested all that money in EVs?*
I would buy one today if I needed a car, but my Camry will probably outlive me, and it’s paid for.
As is, the solar panels on my roof supply more than enough to power the house, should be about enough left to power a car.
“I did my own research.” ICE vehicles are just a fad.
*Rhetorical question.
LikeLike
46 years?
“The world has proven reserves equivalent to 46.6 times its annual consumption levels. This means it has about 47 years of oil left (at current consumption levels and excluding unproven reserves).”
What then? What are we going to make plastic bags and straws out of?
LikeLike
Not a problem for me. I have a whole plastic full of plastic bags. Live within your means, I always say.
If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have saved more bags.
LikeLike
The proven reserves may be 46 but the total could be any number above that. I still remember a geology class when I was in college back in the Stone Age and reserves were said to last until 1985. I can’t remember anything else about the class but that projection has stayed with me all these years.
LikeLike
“Some day, some year, some decade there will be no coal mining jobs, no oil industry jobs, no jobs building combustion engines, no jobs repairing combustion engines.” Maybe, maybe not. However, with all the tax subsidies for wind, solar, etc. and all the potential legal exposure over nuclear, it is not clear that once you adjust for all of those factors, that coal, oil, combustion, etc. will be less efficient.
If it were, we would have no need for tax subsidies and mandates, a la the California EV mandate phased in and completed by 2035.
LikeLike
All the comments are dead on. There will be change in the future but not according to some artificial timetable that a pol pulled out of his nether region. People who have never worked don’t understand what it takes to make new ideas into a reliable working product or system and the long time residents of Washington DC have never done anything except blather.
LikeLike
What everybody forgets about oil is that it is the base stock to make thousands of things in our lives from the plastics needed for the EV batteries and car bodies to pharmaceuticals, fertilizers and circuit boards. On Binden’s first day in office, he killed all future investment into the American fossil fuel industry and one day, we will be dependent on foreign sources of oil or products made from oil. It didn’t work out so well during the 1970s for the US and it is not working so good for Europe today. Oil was one of the causes of WWII.
There is a difference of new technology replacing jobs or products vs declaring things illegal before the technology and the supply of the alternative items are available. We can’t even manufacture enough computer chips and now some governments are mandating no new gasoline cars by 2035. Good luck with that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are absolutely correct!
LikeLike