Day: February 8, 2021💾

📽️ Videos

Can GM, Toyota be as green as their Super Bowl commercials?

Can GM, Toyota be as green as their Super Bowl commercials?

For years, automakers stalled progress on climate change and cleaning up our air. Consumers interested in electric vehicles often struggle to find them on dealer lots, in part because manufacturers don’t make or distribute enough of them.

Automakers spend a tiny fraction of their ad budgets on their plug-in products. When Donald Trump came into office, Toyota, GM, and other major automakers like Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) asked his administration to weaken Obama-era greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for cars — which had been our government’s most ambitious program to reduce planet-warming emissions. Until recently, they also supported the Trump administration’s attack on California’s authority to protect its residents from vehicle pollution, which was the foundation of 14 other states’ authority to do the same. 

Map: Green Mountain National Forest North
SVGZ Graphic: Control of State Government - By Percentage of US Population

As the duck curve grows steeper there is less and less of a market for baseload power. 🦆 ⚛ 🏭

As the duck curve grows steeper there is less and less of a market for baseload power. 🦆 ⚛ 🏭

Coal traditionally had one advantage – cheap power at a constant output. But electricity is virtually worthless or even a waste product in some cases in Germany in the early morning hours due to a surplus of generation. But coal and nuclear keep cranking out the megawatt hours that virtually nobody wants while folks are sleeping.

The future is very cheap renewables. But the profit is all in the head of the duck – that is midload and peaking gas plants, along with batteries, flywheels and pump storage hydroelectric. Or any consumer that can shift their load.