Conservation Solutions Blocked

There are good solutions available to solve energy conservation. We don't do them because vested interests have prevented them, to protect their profits or agencies.

 

Right now most of America's gross domestic product is going to pay the national debt, and most of the trade imbalance is buying oil. If we decrease the amount of oil we use, we decrease our national debt and correct our trade imbalance. 

 

When fracking becomes more common, America will be the largest oil producing nation on earth. Everybody will want our oil, and we will export it because we won't have much choice. Too much of the US debt is owned by hostile foreign nations. They can hurt us by selling our bonds cheap, dumping it is called. That would devaluate our currency, the Dollar. Then it would buy less imported stuff, and our exports would sell for less, too.

The above map shows existing oil and gas fracking territory, with new territory available too, not always shown. The Monterey Shale is west of the pink and red areas in California, or overlaps with it, flowing up the Pacific coast from LA to north of San Francisco. Right through Big Sur and Carmel and Monterey and world famously pretty coastline. It will be ruined by oil drilling. Same with the Gulf of Mexico. Fracking there will extract lots of oil, and leaks will poison the shrimp. Get your shrimp while you can because someday the prawns will be poison.

 

Fracking is going to happen. We need the oil. Gasoline is going to get really expensive. Big cars will cost a fortune to fill the tank. Electric cars are $65K. Claims of cheap ones coming haven't happened yet. Much of the cost is the battery, too.

 

The only small fuel tank cheap vehicle unlikely to be stolen are crappy little scooters and small engine motorcycles. I keep harping on this because it is a rational solution. No magic batteries required. No magic at all. It's light weight so doesn't need much fuel to move you and it up to speed, which is usually not very fast anyway. Faster than you can pedal a bicycle, at least. Real scooters, like a Vespa, cost around $150 in materials and $50 in labor to manufacture, with another $50 to ship to the customer. That's all. The rest of that $3000 is profit to the manufacturer and seller.

 

A scooter is all about simple operation and maintenance. Twist the handle to go faster. Use your body to lean into corners. Squeeze the brake to slow down. Park it beside the bicycles. It's easy.

 

Once someone makes them in the USA, cheap, then more people will buy them. And the upside of dividing California is the slime CARB officials down in LA can't complain about smog in Nevada County so they can't force us to use "clean green scooters" that cost 10x as much as they should. We can have cheap ones. And mechanics to fix them. And parts sold at the local auto parts stores, because that's how they should be. Not a ripoff. Cheap. A $400 scooter made here is an affordable solution to transportation so Moms doing the school run can still afford the gas. Conservation should be affordable, not a penalty, not a personal sacrifice that builds resentment.