A Tesla Unplugged Me 😡

Glen Boise

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Totally agree the strategic oil reserve would only have a temporary and minor impact, especially because it is temporary and the market knows it. However, permanently adding additional domestic oil output capacity would have a significant long run impact. Reducing our domestic oil production capacity will have a big impact also.

Maybe we can agree the president shouldn't have that kind of power.
Just remember that Big Oil companies still have thousands of wells, shut down from the days of reduced demand during the pandemic, which for a few dollars they could easily restart adding to the supply. Something they fail to do. They have thousands of oil leases where they could start drilling on today to add more production to the supply in a year or two. Which they fail to do.

Doing either would undermine their "holy profits". The current "shortage" allowed them to jack up their prices. It gave them record profits during most of 2022. Remember they reported doubling their profits last year. Only reducing their prices after the election, which gave control of the House to friendly, "do nothing" Republicans, and when Democrats started talking of passing "excess profit" laws. The Big Oil monopolist have no incentive to increase production. It would interfere with their profits.

Especially now that it is being reported that those fracked oil wells, which gave us "energy independence", are starting to go dry. Most are expected to go dry during the next decade. Putting us back to being dependent on oil from foreign dictators like the nations of OPEC. Besides, they see the "writing on the wall" that all this "going green" with wind turbines, solar panels and battery electric vehicles spell their doom. Just like they saw when fracked oil and natural gas "dethroned" King Coal.
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I know several people who drive Teslas. One is awesome. One is extremely defensive about owning a Tesla and finds every excuse to attack all other EVs, and one is disinterested in any conversations about EVs in general.

I've never been unplugged, but I have encountered several blocked chargers, always (so far) by Teslas. In one case, I encountered a 4-stall DCFC station where three of the four stalls were blocked by Teslas that hadn't plugged in, presumably so they weren't charged idle fees while they went hiking. A Telsa driver who really needed a charge arrived about five minutes before I finished charging and we commiserated about the jerks driving the Teslas. He blocked one of the idle Teslas in order to charge until I was done and then he took my spot.
 

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Just remember that Big Oil companies still have thousands of wells, shut down from the days of reduced demand during the pandemic, which for a few dollars they could easily restart adding to the supply. Something they fail to do. They have thousands of oil leases where they could start drilling on today to add more production to the supply in a year or two. Which they fail to do.

Doing either would undermine their "holy profits". The current "shortage" allowed them to jack up their prices. It gave them record profits during most of 2022. Remember they reported doubling their profits last year. Only reducing their prices after the election, which gave control of the House to friendly, "do nothing" Republicans, and when Democrats started talking of passing "excess profit" laws. The Big Oil monopolist have no incentive to increase production. It would interfere with their profits.

Especially now that it is being reported that those fracked oil wells, which gave us "energy independence", are starting to go dry. Most are expected to go dry during the next decade. Putting us back to being dependent on oil from foreign dictators like the nations of OPEC. Besides, they see the "writing on the wall" that all this "going green" with wind turbines, solar panels and battery electric vehicles spell their doom. Just like they saw when fracked oil and natural gas "dethroned" King Coal.
I disagree with everything you posted.

But since this is a car forum, I am going to move on and not get into a long and pointless debate about how you hate capitalism.
 

Pushrods&Capacitors

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Totally agree the strategic oil reserve would only have a temporary and minor impact, especially because it is temporary and the market knows it. However, permanently adding additional domestic oil output capacity would have a significant long run impact. Reducing our domestic oil production capacity will have a big impact also.

Maybe we can agree the president shouldn't have that kind of power.
Agreed. But, with oil companies failing to even 100% utilize their current oil fields/refineries any additional opening of capacity is kinda moot.
 

mkhuffman

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Agreed. But, with oil companies failing to even 100% utilize their current oil fields/refineries any additional opening of capacity is kinda moot.
IMO if you increase the amount of land available for oil drilling, you will get more oil. Assuming it is land that has oil under it, of course.

What if the president opens the land to independent oil companies, like those who got into fracking?

And why does everyone hate "big oil"? Oil has made our lives immeasurably better in just about every way, from the phones we use all day to the cars we love to drive. Even the MME wouldn't exist without "big oil".
 
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CurtW

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Supply vs demand says this problem will solve itself. Possibilities: 1) Charging becomes so abundant, nobody will need to unplug. 2) Wireless charging takes over, so nothing to unplug. 3) Someone invents universal solution to prevent unplugging such as clever way to lock any plug to any vehicle. 4) Trump Monkey introduces new product "Charging Chimp"!
 

mdolan92869

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Supply vs demand says this problem will solve itself. Possibilities: 1) Charging becomes so abundant, nobody will need to unplug. 2) Wireless charging takes over, so nothing to unplug. 3) Someone invents universal solution to prevent unplugging such as clever way to lock any plug to any vehicle. 4) Trump Monkey introduces new product "Charging Chimp"!
Oh, Charging Chimp! I want one right now!!!!

Too many people here only got the Battery Fault Barracuda. ;)
 

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The President only affects oil prices on the margins, as I’m sure you’re aware. Like opening the strategic reserve last year barely moved the price needle for oil/gas. It was a symbolic move in all honesty.
What you say about SPR is true, but oil/gas prices are speculative and the administration in power can absolutely affect them.
 

MacherAWD

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And why does everyone hate "big oil"? Oil has made our lives immeasurably better in just about every way, from the phones we use all day to the cars we love to drive. Even the MME wouldn't exist without "big oil".
Cause they are hell bent on destroying the planet in the name of quarterly profits? just kidding, but I will be pissed when Big Oil buys up the rights to the sun, and all of a sudden I am paying them for having my solar panels.
 

Glen Boise

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It is a hypocrisy matched by the Big Oil companies funding groups encouraging those fighting against the construction of solar and wind power facilities replacing the burning of natural gas and coal. The same Big Oil funding deniers of the advantages of buying BEVs. The same Big Oil companies funding those denying climate change created by our burning massive amounts of fossil fuels to meet the needs of our rapidly growing world population. (I challenge anyone denying climate change to go visit the North Pole this Summer. It is easy to do today, if you have enough money. Do a search on the internet for "polar cruises". You will find cruises to the North Pole. A trip that would not have been possible fifty years ago without access to a nuclear submarine.) The same Big Oil companies that gave us plastics in such quantities that we find ground up "micro-plastics" in our bodies.
The same companies who funded those who told us the Saddam Hussein still had "weapons of mass destruction", after the United Nations cleaned them out after the first Gulf War. So we had to invade Iraq again, and replace him with a compliant government that would allow Big Oil to profit from the sale of Iraqi oil. An invasion that cost us several thousand American lives, the lives of our allies and triggered a civil war that killed a half million Iraqis. A war we are still paying for because the promised profits, paying for the war, never were found. In addition, we did not find any more of those WMDs they claimed to exist.
The same Big Oil companies that circumvented our nation's sanctions on Russia, after their illegal the theft of Crimea. Sanctions which denied Big Oil the opportunity to invest in Russian oil production. They curried favor with the Russians by importing 10% of our oil supply from Russia, until forbidden by more recent sanctions from the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. Raising the question of why we are importing any oil after our becoming "energy independent" thanks to fracking?
The same Big Oil companies that act in lock step. When was the last time we saw a "gas war" were one of the oil companies cut prices in hopes of increasing their market share? You can not have "free enterprise competition" if the markets are locked up by monopolies as we see today with the oil markets.
 

mkhuffman

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It is a hypocrisy matched by the Big Oil companies funding groups encouraging those fighting against the construction of solar and wind power facilities replacing the burning of natural gas and coal. The same Big Oil funding deniers of the advantages of buying BEVs. The same Big Oil companies funding those denying climate change created by our burning massive amounts of fossil fuels to meet the needs of our rapidly growing world population. (I challenge anyone denying climate change to go visit the North Pole this Summer. It is easy to do today, if you have enough money. Do a search on the internet for "polar cruises". You will find cruises to the North Pole. A trip that would not have been possible fifty years ago without access to a nuclear submarine.) The same Big Oil companies that gave us plastics in such quantities that we find ground up "micro-plastics" in our bodies.
The same companies who funded those who told us the Saddam Hussein still had "weapons of mass destruction", after the United Nations cleaned them out after the first Gulf War. So we had to invade Iraq again, and replace him with a compliant government that would allow Big Oil to profit from the sale of Iraqi oil. An invasion that cost us several thousand American lives, the lives of our allies and triggered a civil war that killed a half million Iraqis. A war we are still paying for because the promised profits, paying for the war, never were found. In addition, we did not find any more of those WMDs they claimed to exist.
The same Big Oil companies that circumvented our nation's sanctions on Russia, after their illegal the theft of Crimea. Sanctions which denied Big Oil the opportunity to invest in Russian oil production. They curried favor with the Russians by importing 10% of our oil supply from Russia, until forbidden by more recent sanctions from the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. Raising the question of why we are importing any oil after our becoming "energy independent" thanks to fracking?
The same Big Oil companies that act in lock step. When was the last time we saw a "gas war" were one of the oil companies cut prices in hopes of increasing their market share? You can not have "free enterprise competition" if the markets are locked up by monopolies as we see today with the oil markets.
Every single energy producing solution significantly impacts the environment. Massive fields of solar cells destroys vegetation, animal habitats and impacts the climate. Similarly, huge fields of gigantic windmills kills birds and actually slows down the wind, significantly impacting local (and likely world) climate.

So to be consistent, you should also hate "big solar" and "big wind". Anything big enough to power our energy needs is going to have a significant environmental impact, likely worse than oil in many ways.

Really you should just hate first world living, but because if you hate big energy, and work to destroy it, you will destroy our ability to live comfortable lives. Without cheap and abundant energy, the poor will be more poor, and the hungry will be more hungry and everyone suffers.

I am a big oil supporter. They have made our lives so much better. No human created thing is perfect, and certainly the oil industry isn't either. But the benefits of oil are so vast, it is literally incalculable. Everywhere you look you see a product that is made using some sort of petrolatum product. And the energy produced from fossil fuels is so cheap, enabling the poor to be better off, and industries to be more successful. And yet you hate it. Amazing.
 

Glen Boise

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If you are such a big oil supporter, then why did you buy a Mach-E BEV?
Yes, burning fossil fuels allowed us to build the modern world. It is also damaging it. That is why we need to start weaning ourselves off relying on fossil fuels when we have increasingly affordable alternatives, like solar and wind power, that can replace them with less damage to the world. It is not a matter of hate. It is a matter of practicability. It is better to start now than wait until the need slaps us in the face.
Besides, oil is getting harder and harder to find making it more and more expensive to burn. Especially when it has other uses, which alternatives like green power cannot fill, like producing fertilizer. You have seen the articles on how the current Russia-Ukraine war is interrupting the flow of Russia and Ukrainian fertilizer needed by much of the second and third world for their crops. I can rattle on with many more examples were "staying the course" is leading to disaster for us, our children and grandchildren.
 

mkhuffman

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If you are such a big oil supporter, then why did you buy a Mach-E BEV?
0-60 in 3.6 seconds.

It wasn't because I think BEVs are going to change the weather. In fact, I think moving a 5,000 pound object from point A to point B uses a lot of energy and has a significant impact on the environment, no mater how you do it. If I thought my car could change the weather, and I thought I needed my car to change the weather, I would drive a motorcycle.

A motorcycle is the most efficient mode of powered transportation with the smallest impact on the environment. Will you give up your MME for a motorcycle because you think it can stop a naturally occurring warming cycle? So far, you have not. Why not?

I think BEVs are better than ICE vehicles in just about every way. The only way they are not better is refueling on road trips and entry cost. There are too many refueling stops needed, they take too long, and there are not enough refueling locations. And for now, BEVs do cost more than their ICE equivalents. But other than that, they are better. Faster, more fun, less maintenance, and you can refuel at home! it is a better product for many use cases. And I like to be an early adopter. Not a beading edge adopter, but an early adopter. And still, BEVs are best suited for early adopters.

Yes, burning fossil fuels allowed us to build the modern world. It is also damaging it.
Everything we do changes our environment. You say "damaging" it. I say "changing" it. Will the fact that it is changed be a problem? Maybe not. I can tell you that a warmer planet is better than a colder planet. If we slip into another ice age, many will die. If all the ice melts, we will be able to grow lots of food in many new places. Which do you prefer?

Besides, oil is getting harder and harder to find making it more and more expensive to burn. Especially when it has other uses, which alternatives like green power cannot fill, like producing fertilizer. You have seen the articles on how the current Russia-Ukraine war is interrupting the flow of Russia and Ukrainian fertilizer needed by much of the second and third world for their crops. I can rattle on with many more examples were "staying the course" is leading to disaster for us, our children and grandchildren.
With advances in technology, I don't agree that oil is harder to find. It is harder if our small minded politicians limit our ability to look for it. But if they allow companies to explore and extract, they will do that. We have enough oil in North America to never need another drop from the Middle East. Ever. Except your leaders want to stop us from using it. So then we are dependent on them more than ever. Nice.
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