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Any carbon pricing coming from the corporate world is likely to be a massive problem. In Massachusetts, the first carbon tax bill proposed was a massive transfer of wealth from house holds to business based on their rebate formulas. Written by a conservative economy consultant shop for a clueless neoliberal state senator, it took significant effort from labor and progressive tax organization for him to see the problem – but he’s still championing carbon tax, but it’s better now, better believe it.
BlakeFelix
I’m not saying that it’s going to be handled well, or that rebates are a good idea, but climate change is a massive problem also. We can’t, IMO, wait for a perfect solution. The solution will likely cause problems, just hopefully problems that are easier to deal with than ecosystem collapse and mass famine.
There’s still the battery problem. One of Tesla’s big innovations was the switch to lithium batteries and they started out by trying to design a battery pack that wouldn’t easily catch on fire. As we now know those efforts were mixed at best. Earllier electrc hybrids like the Prius did not use lithium.
PlutoniumKun
Its a strange problem when the costs are dropping constantly, virtually month by month, and the power outputs of the batteries are going up all the time. The price of lithium has actually being going down, contrary to scare mongering about supplies.
And yes, lithium is flammable. Just like gas and diesel is flammable. IC cars go on fire every day somewhere, its so common it never hits the news. One colleague of mine, who had a fondness for driving old Saabs and Mercedes, had 2 cars burn up over the course of 10 years, both electrical faults.