Quote:
Originally Posted by red-beard
In the past 10 years, the United States has been energy self-sufficient. We are the most efficient in use of energy (lowest carbon footprint)...
BIG snip
For EVs, most of us could get by with 40-80 miles of range and then a small engine for the long trips. You would probably use the engine only about 10% of the time. It reduces cost and makes the car more efficient (lower weight). It just makes sense...
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Well said Red, especially the part about nuclear power and, at least in the interim, hybrid cars.
Not only have we been energy "self-sufficient" (a bit of a misnomer), we have been a net exporter of petroleum for the past 3 years.
But the US share of the technically and economically recoverable oil is a tiny drop compared to the global supply. Most estimates are that the US supply of T&E recoverable oil will last somewhere between 35 and 45 years. Technology and the economy are so fluid it is hard to make a solid estimate. Pumping as fast as they can and selling the surplus on the global market, as the oil companies are doing now, will put that at the lower end. We have a lot of oil shale that is currently too difficult and expensive to mine and extract, but who knows?
The most intractable problem we have with depending on oil is that the big players who set the prices and control the volume do so for political purposes while the US producers are profit motivated capitalists. Just this June OPEC+ cut supply to keep the price up for Russia's benefit. When we take away OPEC+ power to manipulate US gas prices we take away a lot of their global political power.
What does this have to do with hybrid cars? Not much. Hybrid vs Plug in is a short horizon problem. Long term, the less we rely on petroleum for energy the stronger the economy we leave for our great grandchildren will be.