Sure, but the public demands some God-given right to drive everywhere that is not urbanized or otherwise densified enough to encourage alternative modes of transit like ebikes (bikeshare is in a lot of these locations already, often with government funding e.g. Washington DC's capital bikeshare). There is an unbelievable lack of acknowledgement that the roads infrastructure and city/town layout disaster we have created requires a change in thinking. BEVs are a politically appealing & personally appealing - they are more fun to drive - solution to at least making the driving everywhere issue produce less smog.

You seem to think that everyone in the US yearns to live in a dense urban city, sharing walls and stacked on top of each other like rats.

That simply is not the lifestyle everyone WANTS.

God given right? Well, I believe everyone has the GGR to live however most makes them happy. And for me...it's having a single family dwelling, where I don't share walls with anyone, I have a back yard where I can keep and fire up my wood burning offset smoker, or ceramic grill (lump charcoal)....park my motorcycle...have room for friends to come over and maybe set up for a big crawfish boil, etc.

I'd not be happy in an urban city where I couldn't plant my summer veggie garden and BBQ....and basically HAD to walk everywhere and buy groceries multiple days of the week.

I have no animosity to those that prefer that, but I do believe in CHOICE in the US, and I like the choices I have.

I'm far from being alone in this train of thought.

The public demand argument (it's there, cost is the issue currently)

It's not just cost....it's range anxiety, and the fact that not everyone has a single family home they own with covered parking where they can recharge overnight....and the lack of charging infrastructure in the vast swaths of land between CA and NYC on the extreme coasts.

For a number of reasons, the people that really want EVs....have them, the rest of the country for the most part is "meh"....and not really in the market.

At least not for the present. I don't know of any one in my circle of friends that owns an EV. I only know of one, that had a Prius years back, and told me him and his wife are thinking of getting maybe an EV Jeep in the future, but other than that, I don't know of anyone with interest in going EV just yet.

I haven't seen any in my neighborhood....middle class. I see a few teslas here and there...mostly Uber drivers from what I've observed around town.

This is in the New Orleans area.

While that's true, the economies of scale are lacking.

This may be compounded in that EV sales in the US, in general, over the past year or so, have been down, and new car inventories of EVs are piling up on sales lots as compared to their ICE counterparts.

It seems, to a large extent, the people that actually really WANT an EV, have one....and the rest of the US, for reasons ranging from price, range anxiety to insurance, etc....aren't really in the market for one.

See here .

and

Here ....

I read so many contradicting numbers. Stuff like this [oberlo.com] where Apple apparently has close to 60% of market share in the US, but then reading the article in this post says new activiations are around 33%.

Well, two things may be in play here.

Yes, iPhones may be the most popular phone in the US.

But also, perhaps the phones are made such that people aren't needing to upgrade them as often as they do Androids....hence, "new" activations could be down?

I'm still on iPhone 12 Pro Max and see no reason to upgrade anytime soon....battery is still first rate, camera good enough...I always buy with largest amount of memory available...so, it isn't filling up, etc.

republicans want to gut the EPA. It puts a dent in donor profits. Yes, that woke EPA signed into power by noted left winger Richard Nixon, and only now half a century later is unconstitutional.

The lawsuits against the EPA haven't been to destroy or remove it...BUT, to curtail the overreach by the EPA and other Executive offices have been guilty of in the past couple decades especially.

I forgot the exact cases, but essentially someone bought some land that had areas on the property that during heavy rain times would have a pond...or maybe it was within spitting distance of a small body of water....and the EPA was acting like this was a major body of water needing protections from pollution, etc...and basically disallowed the new property owners from building on the property, etc.

The recent SCOTUS rulings basically slapped the EPA's hand and said "No"...this is beyond the powers that congress gave you and you are essentially making new law.

It's basically efforts to keep the EPA and other govt offices from running roughshod over the common citizen....

I mean, turning everything off before replacements are online is a bit foolish, no....?

Given that most fast food stores are franchises, and that there's ~200k such stores in the USA, I would absolutely NOT put it past a fraction of them being asshole enough to attempt to do this, in order to keep their employees from quitting and seeking greener pastures elsewhere.

Somebody posted that Texas has "at will" employment, IE is "right to work", but that non-competes could be legal there. It read more like an opinion though.

https://www.texasnoncompetelaw...

"Supported by valid consideration (ie. something of value given to the employee)"

To me, that means something like, "they continue to pay you during the non-compete period."
There's also "need" - something like trade secrets. Which a fast food worker wouldn't have.

I think that age changes you. You just happened to have kids, but you are still aging. I am a totally different person than I was in my 30's who was, himself, a totally different person than the 20's version.

Your mind bends and adapts to your situation.

It isn't age that does it....at least not everyone.

I'm pretty much the same in my head as I was in my 20's-40's, etc.

The only difference is...my body is physically slowing and telling me I cannot do what I used to do...can't stay out as late, drink as much etc...

I basically still have the will/want to do such things...but my body says a resounding "NO"....so, I don't.

Age really hasn't changed who I am mentally...except I'm learning to accept things I no longer can physically do.

Having children later increases the risk of defects and complications

And besides....most of us prefer to bang younger chicks rather than older ones....

40's are pretty hard on most womens' looks.

"Economic Hardship" has jack-shit to do with most of the declining birthrate. Women have more money than ever. If being poor hurt the birthrate, the Third World would have ceased to exist centuries ago. Women choosing careers over marriage has far more to do with it. Those that are getting married are doing so much later in life, when their fertility is already declining, and having few children is a consequence of that. Why do you think IVF and egg-freezing are in such demand? Because women that waited until 30 to get married discover, often to their surprise, that their best chances of pregnancy are in the rear window.

Women were told that they could have it all, the best of both worlds: that they could live like men in their twenties, living the single sexual life and moving up their corporate ladder, and after they had their fun, then they could marry the man of their dreams and have their family. All in a neat package. Except nature doesn't work that way. The Biological Clock is a thing, women have a set number of eggs, and by thirty, they start heading downwards in terms of fertility. Late pregnancies have a greater chance of complications and birth defects. The peak year for fertility and healthy birth is, IIRC, age 24 on average for females.

That and the women in their 30's and 40's that you describe, while having their fun, are running up very high body counts....and when they are ready to "settle down"...the men that are in their 30's and 40's, largely are not interested in them...

They are interested more in the younger, more virile good looking women...either to just get laid, or if looking for marriage, to grab younger women before they get that high body count.

It also seems, that women that have high body counts, have difficulty pair boding with a mate as deeply and intimately as those that do not.

I supposed because, in general, the old standard that women almost by nature involve emotion with sex, while men can largely separate the two, and it doesn't seem to "ruin" them later down the line for marriage or pair bonding.

Do you think trans kids would have otherwise been pumping out babies, and that it would be a good thing for more kids to be having babies??!?!?

No, but instead go with the stats, that well over 95% of the kids that are "confused", grow out of it....so, let that happen as it does naturally, rather than give them irreversible drugs and surgeries that will fuck them out of sexual activity or enjoyment for life.

I might now be able to get a voice that speaks clear English I can understand when I dial in for support.

so there's gobs of extra capacity at night when air conditioners and electric ranges and clothes dryers are not running.

Not running the AC at night???

I dunno WTF you live, but here in the New Orleans area...my AC comes on early to mid April and really doesn't hardly shut off till mid November.

Night is when I REALLY crank the temperature down so I can sleep.

Given that I'm not the one who made that argument, it isn't a motte and bailey fallacy. My position remains exactly where it was.

And batteries do indeed make sense today - that's why they're being installed, I mean, the first BESS in the USA was installed in the town I was living in at the time - Fairbanks, AK. And it uses NiCad batteries.

Nope. I restated and rephrased. You're the one that constructed the strawman.
My FIRST POST stated the so called "retreat" position.
1. If battery costs are cut in half again, they'll challenge pumped hydro: Note how this is an IF. I'm not guaranteeing it, I just think that it's a real possibility.
2. Batteries now make sense for part of the solution: Given that they're already being installed, I don't think this should be all that controversial.
3. While past returns are not a guarantee of future returns, we do know that, for example, development for sodium-ion batteries is ongoing, and that's projected to be 10-20% less than lithium-ion, and lithium-ion keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. It probably helps that I didn't mention a timeline for it to happen.

I'm not defending your strawman position for me, but I'm fully willing to defend my actual one.
For example:

I mentioned zero magic about grid storage, batteries, or EVs. Given that you're the one bringing magic into it, I rest my case: You're creating a strawman to argue against.
Or, at least, properly identify my supposed position, using what I actually posted, as well as the backup. Keeping in mind that it should be a major difference, not just shades from attempted rephrasing of stuff.

You can't take a point that was "maybe" in my first post, treat it like I declared it a sure thing, then accuse me of being the one to commit the fallacy. Sure, you can debate on whether or not they'll be able to cut the cost of batteries in half again, but keep in mind that I was just treating it as a "maybe." I think the odds are good for them managing it, but it isn't guaranteed, especially on some sort of short timeline.

Yes, indeed there are. That looks like a hefty lever to me, but it's only rated at 4 liters an hour. Enough to keep you alive, of course, but it also will go through 20 liters to produce that 4.

Can you get 800 PSI on a handheld tool? Yes, you just need a big enough lever. Looking, you can get over 2000 PSI using a manual car jack.

Also, remember my mentioning that you can do lower pressures as long as you're willing to accept lower throughput? You can work a RO system down as low as 60 psi, but at that low of a pressure, your throughput is going to be low for the amount of media needed, and you will have to flush most of the water. When you do RO, you generally get your freshwater flow and a wastewater flow that is saltier than the input. Only a percentage of the water is desalinated. You need higher pressures to do higher percentages, because the more salt, the harder it is.