GM to be all electric by 2035

Exactly

 

Hey, now. Kangaroo is still meat!

 

Let’s not forget the amount of toxic waste produced by other industries dwarfs spent nuclear fuel from US nuclear plants. Remember Love Canal or Times Beach, MO? Dow Chemical and the Dioxin mess in Michigan. Spent nuclear fuel can be safely stored and contained.

 

Ya I saw the test truck.

 

red square, st basil's, lenin's tomb, kremlin, state history museum, the gum building. it's all amazing. the contrast of walking by lenin then crossing the square to the gum and seeing a $10,000 pair of jimmy choo shoes in a window is mind blowing. all of december, the christmas market/fair sets up in the middle of the square. just outside the square, parked in front of the 4 seasons, there is usually a line up of maybachs.

for me, i preferred walking the outer ring neighborhoods and taking the metro. the outdoor markets, neighborhood shops, cathedrals tucked down alleys. i got to see some pretty amazing slices of life.

i would have loved to have gotten out of the city and seen more of the countryside. hope i get to go back.

i would totally go for that.

 

yup. There are only 6 or 7 million spots on earth I'd like to visit... And yes, I'd also go and see chornobyl. That would also be surreal.

 

I want to see Japan some day. Hiroshima and Nagasaki... very surreal.

 

Spent 5 years in Japan. Our base was less than a hour drive south of Hiroshima. Tossed frisbees in Peace Park. There is a museum there. The tour is eye opening to say the least. There is a real display of a sidewalk/steps that was at the entrance of Sumitomo Bank. The sidewalk has a shadow of a human who was sitting there and was instantly vaporized.

 

Yup. It's crazy, and there is nowhere else on earth like it. That's part of why I want to go see it.

 

I wish the folks in Eastern Canada would buy more oil from Alberta and less from the Middle East and Africa.

 

Just need to use the CANDU reactor design, rather than 50 year old Soviet technology.

 

Completely normal phenomenon.

 

"My electric bill normally is 80.00 per month."
ahhh......you haven't found a way to get free electricity? A tap off that plant?

 

Try 67 year old Soviet Tech....Obninsk Nuke Plant

 

Run........fast

 

I was less concerned with the volume of waste and more concerned with the nature of it and how to avoid impacts to ground water or other systems.

I'm not trying to say that other technologies are better or don't have problems, just that there isn't going to be one silver bullet that solves all our problems. The future energy mix is obviously going to be from a variety of sources.

If you already have nuclear power generation, I would say keep it running and do what you can to make it as safe and efficient as possible. But if your power is gas- (or even coal-) fired, why not look into carbon capture and storage, rather than tearing down those plants to build nuclear reactors?

 

Mining has a pretty massive impact on ground water and surface water.

Carbon capture is an interesting point. There is evidence to show that deforestation/urban buildup is contributing to desertification of land masses, which may be driving co2 buildup separate from burning carbon. Taking down a forest to out in corn/soy pastures is really carbon harmful

 

Agreed. At least electricity can be had from multiple sources. Gas, not so much.

 

I used to work for an electric utility at a nuclear power plant, you don’t get your electricity for free?

 

Why should he? I used to work in an oil refinery and didn't get gasoline, diesel, jet, propane or even bunker fuel for free...

 

They should be buying from the middle east and africa as much as possible right now, since it is cheap and those countries need our money so they dont sell it too expensive. Meanwhile this hemisphere can sit on their oil reserves until absolutely necessary, so that the world runs out before we do, then we have the upper hand. Oil is never going to be cheaper than it is now, relatively speaking. This makes sense to me at least.

 

My thinking is more along the lines that Canada actually has laws and standards pertaining to safety, environmental conservation and human rights.

 

Company perks! My dad worked for GM and got a car for free, new car every three months - gas, maintenance, insurance all gratis.

 

And we wonder how the auto unions milked the automakers into bankruptcy.

 

No wonder they went bankrupt...

Our company told us we could sign up for a MasterCard that would give you points for fuel purchases. When pressed for more, they gave everyone 5 cents Canadian per litre (call it 16 cents US per gallon) off a max of 2000 litres (500 gallons).

 

unfortunately, moving ain't gonna happen and solar for the house is a nice pipe dream. if the studio starts taking off, solar may become more of a reality.

and, yes, our 1946 place is seriously inefficient...

 

Some company perks are under the table or shady in some way, but most are just part of an employee's pay package. Instead of paying you $100k a year they pay you $90k and give you $10k in perks. The main reason for that is tax benefits; usually for the employer, but sometimes for the employee also.
I have some sweet benefits - all legit, but both I and the company benefit from it - all good!

 

Yes, perks are nice, but not if they run the company dry. It's not just he perks that did it to the auto industry, but cradle to grave benefits and protecting useless employees were definitely factors.

 

Agreed, there are benefits that are just another way of paying the employee; that would have been paid either way, and then there are the mismanaged ones.... Sometimes a fine line between the two.