I am skeptical of politicians and climate change enthusiasts who propose we completely eliminate all fossil fuels in – select your time frame – 10, 20 or 30 years.
Reality sets in – California’s high speed railway line is scheduled to take 25 years to construct and costs have grown from $40 billion to $105 billion (so far).
Ripping out and replacing our fossil fuel infrastructure with a new electric or hydrogen infrastructure is vastly larger in scope than this rail line. The reality is that this change over will not occur as quickly as they wish.
Another $5 billion has been added to the cost of California’s ambitious but long delayed high-speed rail line, according to estimates released Tuesday that show it could take $105 billion to finish the route from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Source: Costs climb again for California’s high-speed rail project
Reminder and disclosure – My home is solar PV powered, I replaced attic insulation with R-60 insulation, and added a 220 outlet both in the garage and outdoors for future EV charging. Our home is heated with renewable, locally sourced wood products (UN rates wood-based heating as carbon neutral). I now eat mostly vegetarian. Our “home” (including lifestyle beyond the home) has a carbon footprint 1/8th that of a typical American home. The pandemic and its immense quantity of crappy science papers and models has made me highly skeptical of apocalyptic climate fears. We are wise to seed improved efficiencies and reduce our impacts on the earth – but we need to return to healthy skepticism in order to seek optimal solutions.
