And just like that, Europe and China are hammered with skyrocketing energy costs and power outages. It was a bolt out-of-the-blue.
I don't have any inside information, but I want to remind readers that this kind of thing has happened before.
The Soviet city of Leningrad was under siege by the NAZI army for approximately two years. Many people starved to death.
The death count was exacerbated because the city manager refused to tell Stalin that his stores of food were less than reported earlier.
You see, one advanced in the Soviet system by always surpassing the goals set by the Five Year Plan, especially when you did not actually achieve those goals. The entire system was built on lies. Lies upon lies, upon lies.
Soviet collective farms reported shipping more grain than they had actually produced...a miracle of Soviet planning dontchya know.
Soviet warehouses reported receiving more grain than they received and reported far more shipped than they had actually shipped from the shipping dock. It was the only way to hide the millions of kilos shipped to the Black Market and that went out the employee door to feed chickens at the dacha.
In a similar fashion, cities could not report "shrinkage" or it would look like THEY were skimming (which of course they were).
Given that China's government had its origins in Soviet style communism and nothing is more important in China than maintaining "face", and given that much of Europe is ruled by neo-Communists with a "Green" veneer, is anybody surprised when piles of coal disappear overnight and billions of cubic feet of natural gas and barrels of gasoline seemingly tunnel to a parallel universe?
Maybe there is something nefarious afoot. I am not competent to judge. But I believe that old-fashioned, fear-based, Soviet-style management techniques are entirely sufficient to explain this (and the next ten) surprise shortages.
There's always been a Black Market. Back in the seventies when I was overseas in Germany, there was a black market for American booze and cigarettes. We were issued ration cards for liquor and smokes. I think it was a total of a gallon of booze and 4 cartons of cigarettes plus 10 separate packs of smokes.
ReplyDeleteThose that didn't smoke or drink, bought Marlboros and either Jim Beam or Jack Daniels and saved them for trade on the BM. If caught, it was at minimum, an article 15 with loss of pay and rank.
I imagine Black Marketeers in the old Soviet Union faced a bullet or numerous years in the Gulags, if caught.
That was per month on the ration cards.
ReplyDeleteThose "energy woes" WILL be heading our way and soon. The idiot criminals in power intend to wean ALL of us from our dependence on affordable energy....even if it kills us. Which in reality is the real goal they have in mind.
ReplyDeleteI worked for a company that is one of Toyota's competitors.
DeleteI will give Toyota credit for being the ONLY major company stepping out and saying, "Electric vehicles are a partial solution because the grid is not ready for 100% EVs."
That is from a company that is arguably #2 in EV technology. Toyota is a company that worships the sanctity of honest data.
Everybody else is "Oohing" and "Ahhing" over the emperor's new clothes"
Yeah....Toyota hasn't drank the Kool Aid....yet. Give it time though. Eventually their Corp will be infiltrated by Greenies and they'll join the woke club. Anything and any group that isn't explicitly conservative will eventually become leftist.
DeleteThe reason the automotive companies seem to be going green is that it is the only possible way to meet the fuel efficiency standards over the next decade or so.
DeleteThose standards are not possible with internal combustion engines (as was the plan).
They know better than the EV nonsense but they would like to stay in business.
The automakers only have to build and sell the Electric Vehicles. They don't have to address the 8000# gorilla in the room. The fact that these vehicles have extremely limited range AND take HOURS to recharge is irrelevant. But then every one with the IQ of soap knows that it's impossible to replace the current gas/diesel vehicles with batteries and still have a functional transportation system. Their true goal is NOT to replace the current system but to eliminate it. They DON'T WANT Americans to be able to travel when, where and as far as we wish. The want us STUCK where THEY want us and they KNOW that banning oil power and replacing it with electric which CANNOT do the job will give them what they want. CONTROL....control over everyone. Because that is the ONLY thing the criminals in power care about....CONTROL and POWER.
DeleteThis is a *big* deal. Systematic failure???
ReplyDeleteOf course the grid is the weak link, but, my elderly father 82, just purchased a Tesla model 3. And after me driving it most other cars are boring in comparison. The range on it is 350 miles. All wheel drive. Self driving. 62,500$. For home charging we added a 60amp 240v circuit. I don't think you can do that in homes 30y old with maybe 120amp service. Imagine every single garage adding that load to the grid? Since it's a Tesla you can recharge at super chargers, which are 15x faster than anything else out there.
ReplyDeleteConsider: I am planning a 800mi trip from pueblo to phoenix using only super charging. To drive about 13hrs will require a extra 1.5hrs of charge time according to EV trip planners. The stations cost 25cents per kwh. Will it work? We will see for thanksgiving coming up. Also the car is unbelievably fast. It took about 6 seconds to be going 100mph on I25. I didn't believe the speedo until I twitched the steering to see what would happen. Yup you don't want to do that very much.
Con's: Expensive to purchase, Insurance expensive at about 250$ month for an old man, Pueblo does not have a super charger, you have to completely learn a computerized up your ass vehicle. If you are rich and want to impress people and can plan routes around charge stations this is the car for you. No way can I afford this deal. But it's freaking fun. Tesla now sells a 9.2 second 150mph in 1/4mi 4dr sedan making over 1,000hp Model S Plaid. That is the fastest current production car at over 200mph and 150k$ price tag. When this country adds 1,500 small nuclear power plants then there will be realistic EV's for people like me.