I think replacing two of the three forests picked, with ones in Montana and California, would have the Department of Agriculture worried sick about EV started forest fires. Forests in the northeast can have fires yes, but even in “dry years” are no where near the low humidity levels seen out west. Low temperature are probably comparable, but they drive longer distances in the larger western forests.Originally Posted by LittleLebowski
The three test locations seem cherry picked to me.
It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun ― Mark Twight
(I assume you mean silicon, not silicone)
Silicon is the second most common element in the earth's crust - sand is usually silicon dioxide. What's special about China's silicon?
How did Lockheed buy enough titanium to build SR-71s during the height of the Cold War?
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
IDK. The person who I know was in Russia around 2000. I think the cold war ended when the USSR collapsed.
Japan has a fair amount of it.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
Shell companies set up by some 3 letter agencies. Lots of them supposedly scattered around from what I remember.
Could be done again, but might be a bit more difficult given that everyone around the globe knows how money is hidden and laundered
Nothing, but for lots of reasons China produces most of the solar panels.
China doesn't have a monopoly on quartz, cheap labor, gov't controlled businesses, and lax environment regulations, but they try very hard to export what they can.As noted earlier, China is the largest producer of solar panels worldwide. Based on the latest data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2021 China manufactured 75% of modules, 85% of cells, 97% of wafers, and 79% of polysilicon.
https://news.energysage.com/best-sol...%20polysilicon.
The US can stop importing Chinese products if they want, but the price will substantially increase. Isn't that the same situation with buying something at Walmart or Home Depot.
I have a relative that works for a solar company. They use US sourced products. As a result they grow much slower than companies that don't.
Last edited by Borderland; 08-16-2023 at 08:58 PM.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
China also dominates production of Rare Earth Elements, REEs, that are used in many electronics (TVs, phones, solar panels, EVs, and even military applications). REEs are actually common but not in enough quantity typically to justify building a multimillion dollar mine and processing plant. Some REEs are radioactive and have to have the Midas touch to safely process.
That being said, I cannot see how all the diesel fuel used in heavy machinery to mine and process REEs to create EV batteries, solar panels, etc. all balances out. Fox News had a story within the last week about a guy from Canada who took a road trip with his F-150 Lightning and what a pain in the ass it was to find charging stations along his trip and wait an hour or more to charge to only 90% (apparently the fast charge stations only allow up to 90% charge) and it cost more than the equivalent would hav cost in gas. He ended up renting a gas truck to finish his trip when his Lightning left him stranded. At a minimum EVs need a standardized “quick exchange” option akin to propane exchange. No way in hell I am stopping for 2 hrs in the middle of the night in a shithole city to charge up.
Been watching a lot of videos on the SR-71 lately (been my favorite plane since childhood). The CIA setup several shell companies to buy the titanium from Russia because they wouldn’t sell to the US.
Along those same lines, I believe that ethanol fuel was debunked a long time ago as better for the environment. Considering the amount of diesel fuel that was used to grow the corn, the amount of ethanol to do the same work (MPG) as diesel or even a gasoline engine and the additional prairie that was plowed up to grow that corn it was a net loss to the environment. Another gov't program that's going to be good for everyone.
The next big fed push is to collect everyone's DNA so the fed can determine your race. That could go either way.
Last edited by Borderland; 08-16-2023 at 09:51 PM.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
While not a detailed explanation, the article I linked to, in my "pizza oven" post, says they used shell companies, and intermediaries, in third world countries to buy it. This included a cover story that titanium was being used for commercial pizza ovens.
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"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me." - Isaiah 6:8
Probably wasn't that difficult. They only built 32 of them, plus 13 A-12s and 3 YF-12s (production numbers from wiki, so take that for what it is). That's not really a lot of titanium, but it was an issue in that time, hence the covert procurement. The main landing gear of the U2 (older plane) was also a titanium alloy, so it wasn't an unknown metal to use. I worked for the shop that built replacements as Lockheed was running out of usable gear for the U2. It's a bit eye opening, that one. It took Lockheed a couple of years to get the metallurgy close enough to the originals as the German metallurgist that formulated the originals was long retired and had passed. Skunkworks in Palmdale was one of our better customers, they were definitely the coolest!
According to Wiki:
Titanium was in short supply in the United States, so the Skunk Works team was forced to look elsewhere for the metal. Much of the needed material came from the Soviet Union. Colonel Rich Graham, SR-71 pilot, described the acquisition process:
The airplane is 92% titanium inside and out. Back when they were building the airplane the United States didn't have the ore supplies – an ore called rutile ore. It's a very sandy soil and it's only found in very few parts of the world. The major supplier of the ore was the USSR. Working through Third World countries and bogus operations, they were able to get the rutile ore shipped to the United States to build the SR-71.[41]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird
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